What’s the story?
Roman Reigns’ future till Wrestlemania 34 in 2018 has already been chalked out by the WWE. According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, ‘The Big Dog’, who has been scheduled for a high-profile matchup against the legendary Undertaker, will be involved in a feud with Brock Lesnar in the months following ‘Mania.
In fact, the WWE plans to build the Reigns-Lesnar feud all the way up to Wrestlemania in New Orleans, Louisiana; a storyline that will involve him and The Beast Incarnate battle it out for the WWE Universal Championship.
Furthermore, after being scheduled to face The Undertaker at Mania next month, WWE Creative are said to be building Reigns up, what with wins over Taker and Lesnar in the two upcoming Wrestlemanias, as the face of the company in order to replace John Cena.
In case you didn’t know...
After breaking through into the mainstream in November of 2012 alongside his ‘Shield’ brothers Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns rose to prominence as a singles competitor in 2014, which was followed by a run that’s seen him headline Wrestlemania as well as win the WWE world title three times.
However, the main-event push afforded to him by the WWE has not been well-received by a vast majority of pro-wrestling fans.
The heart of the matter
With the upcoming 2018 Wrestlemania season being the last year of Brock Lesnar’s three-year WWE contract, the company has planned out a big-time schedule for the Beast, which still won’t have him working as a full-time performer, but definitely includes more appearances at WWE’s live shows.
Furthermore, WWE wants Reigns to replace John Cena as the global face of the WWE organization in the next year-and-a-half with Lesnar putting over Reigns at next year’s ‘Mania. The future Reigns-Lesnar storyline has been chalked up in order to allow WWE to re-build Roman Reigns as the face of the company against the monster-heel in Lesnar that’ll culminate in Reigns’ coronation as WWE Universal champion in 2018.
What’s next?
Reigns is set to face The Undertaker in a marquee matchup on April 2nd at Wrestlemania 33 in a match that could be a passing-of-the-torch moment with the legendary Deadman putting over his opponent on the grandest stage of them all, if rumours are to be believed.
Author’s take
Mind you, WWE tried to force Reigns’ coronation on us a couple of years back as well. Anyway, regardless of how much the WWE tries to force-feed us babyface Reigns, the truth is that WWE Creative messed up his initial push by rushing him to the top.
And say what you want about public memory being short, but the thunderous boos that fans from virtually every city ‘Reign’ down on Mr Reigns aren’t dying down anytime soon. And instead of using pushing Roman as Cena 2.0, WWE should hear out the fans and turn The Big Dog heel.
The world’s premier pro-wrestling promotion is missing out on a golden opportunity by not affording him a heel turn, which several fans and pundits alike feel would quite literally save the ex-Shield powerhouse’s WWE career from going down the drain.
Here’s hoping HHH and co. finally listen to the WWE Universe and Let ‘The Guy’ become ‘The Bad Guy’.
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