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Roman Reigns defeated Kevin Owens in the co-main event of TLC 2020 to retain the Universal Championship. As expected, it happened with a lot of interference, and The Tribal Chief once again stood tall, meaning that he will walk into 2021 as the reigning, defending Universal Champion.
Although Kevin Owens put up a valiant effort, it wasn't enough to capture his second Universal Championship. After falling short, the big question is what's next for Kevin Owens and Roman Reigns?
Here are a few reasons why Roman Reigns ended up retaining the Universal Championship at TLC 2020.
#5 Revenge for Roman Reigns losing the 2016-17 feud
It's been close to four years now, so many have forgotten that Roman Reigns and Kevin Owens have already had a Universal Championship feud. The roles then, of course, were reversed.
Roman Reigns was still being pushed as a forced babyface that fans rejected, while Kevin Owens (alongside Chris Jericho) was considered the best part about RAW as the Universal Champion.
They had two consecutive PPV matches, one at Roadblock: End of the Line and at Royal Rumble 2017. On the second occasion, Roman Reigns seemed poised to win, but Braun Strowman, with who he was also feuding, interfered and helped Kevin Owens secure a narrow victory.
Kevin Owens won that feud as well, and they haven't revisited it the way they did before. With the roles entirely reversed, the dynamic became more interesting, and the overall feud appeared to be as well - at least on Roman Reigns' side.
WWE usually keeps track of things like Roman Reigns losing a feud, and ultimately, he always gets the victory back. In this case, that seems perfectly fine. It made a lot more sense for Roman Reigns to get that win back anyway.
#4 Too early to take the Universal title off Roman Reigns
Roman Reigns essentially came in and saved SmackDown. Braun Strowman is a worthy Universal Champion, and so is The Fiend. But sometimes, two Superstars just don't have that connection no matter how much history they have together.
Throughout Braun Strowman's Universal Championship reign on SmackDown, his primary feud was against Bray Wyatt. He had a forgettable handicap title match against The Miz and John Morrison in between, but that didn't amount to much.
Ultimately, he dropped the title to 'The Fiend', who enjoyed a week-long second Universal Championship reign. Roman Reigns barged in, took the title that he never lost, and has dominated SmackDown since.
It's clear that Roman Reigns should be set for a lengthy title reign - until WrestleMania 37 at the very least. When looking at the roster, there aren't many better options to hold the title heading into WrestleMania 37.
WWE would always love having Roman Reigns walk into WrestleMania as the world title challenger, but the circumstances are different now. It's too early for a Universal title change.
#3 Kevin Owens has a role in WWE, and that entails putting over Roman Reigns
The truth is that not every WWE Superstar can reach the level of Roman Reigns. And not every Superstar is going to be frequent in the main event scene. For most Superstars, there's a clear role, and Kevin Owens is one of them.
It isn't a bad role by any means, but it appears to be a fixed one. Kevin Owens hasn't reached the same heights he did from late 2016 to early 2017 when he was the Universal Champion, but he has been a World Championship contender and has won some important non-title feuds as well.
In this case, Kevin Owens' role is to be a challenger to Roman Reigns and one that he can get through. The circumstances are different from when he last had a feud with Roman Reigns, and his role has changed as well.
However, Kevin Owens seems to have accepted his place and is thriving, win, or lose. He has never been in a bad position where he was outright buried, even when Goldberg took a little over 20 seconds to take the Universal title from him.
#2 To continue to establish Roman Reigns as the biggest heel in WWE
Roman Reigns turned heel in 2020 after over five years of fans clamoring for the gimmick change. It should be noted that between late 2018 and early 2020, there wasn't as big a demand for his heel turn.
Roman Reigns gained a lot of popularity as a babyface post-leukemia, but WWE took the opportunity and turned him heel in the best possible time - without a crowd. By now, the crowds would have already started to cheer Roman Reigns.
But right now, WWE's objective is to get as much heat on Roman Reigns as possible, and they've done a good job of that, even via Jey Uso and Paul Heyman.
The idea appears to be to establish Roman Reigns as WWE's biggest heel. If he isn't in that spot already, he certainly is now. The entire build to TLC saw Roman Reigns beat down Kevin Owens, or order a beatdown in the hands of Jey Uso.
This further served to establish him in that role, and it's hard to say that WWE didn't succeed.
#1 Kevin Owens remains in the title picture despite Roman Reigns' victory
Kevin Owens put on one of the best performances of the year at TLC 2020 when he took on Roman Reigns. When Drew McIntyre and AJ Styles opened the show, we assumed that this would be the main event, but it wasn't.
It was the co-main event, and Roman Reigns and Kevin Owens went to war in a match that was arguably better than the Royal Rumble 2017 encounter. Kevin Owens was presented as the biggest babyface in WWE, and he certainly wrestled that way.
Given that the TLC match has no disqualification, it came as no surprise that Jey Uso got heavily involved. It was a brutal, and physical match-up as expected, and Kevin Owens proved his resiliency despite all the damage he took.
Ultimately, Kevin Owens wasn't going to win anyway, but the way it played out, we fully expect him to remain in Universal title contention post-TLC. Perhaps he could be a Royal Rumble opponent. But watching in support of Kevin Owens, it was frustrating to see him stopped at multiple opportunities to grab the Universal title.
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