Roman Reigns never lost his first and only Universal Championship. And seeing that he was only out for a few months, outside of Seth Rollins, Reigns has the truest claim to the big red belt.
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But he may be in no rush to get it back.
While speaking to WFF, Reigns let us know that he’s got his eye on the Universal Championship, but is cool to wait until WrestleMania 36, provided Rollins is still champ.
“I’d like to close the show and I’d like to wrestle Seth Rollins for the Universal Championship. I’d like to get my rematch one year from now,” said Reigns.
Given his red-hot return, Reigns could conceivably enter into WrestleMania 35’s Universal Championship match between Rollins and Brock Lesnar. However, hot-shotting Reigns back into WWE‘s brightest stage could alter the current homeostasis within the company.
Right now, Reigns is beloved by all fans. After leukemia kicked him off WWE’s throne, Reigns is back and finally supported by the fans. Since about 2014, WWE has been grooming Reigns to be their top male star, however, fans got wind of the blueprint and immediately rejected Reigns. It’s no that Reigns was bad, it’s that fans had just endured a decade of dominance by John Cena, and it look like Reigns would resume a similar, monotonous game plan.
No matter what situation WWE put Reigns in fans were reluctant to invest, with some dissidents protesting on any format they could. Every now and then Reigns would break through and win over the fan base, but it was only a matter of time until he’d be booed by half of the building.
While WWE kept lining up opponents for Reigns to beat, it turns out that Reigns only need cancer to actually win over the perpetually fickle WWE fan base. Now that he’s back, it feels like his return to WWE’s throne is imminent.
During the interview with WFF, Reigns was asked about how he felt about being WWE’s “Top Guy” now that Cena is 85% out of the company.
“There’s two ways to look at this. I’ve always looked at myself as the face of WWE, whether John is there or not. I feel that I’m far more attractive and that I have a better-looking face than John,” joked Reigns. “I also think that there’s a lot of faces in WWE. That’s what makes our product and brand so compelling. We’re not the same. We’re a huge melting pot, all from different places across the globe and we’ve all come together off one natural bond and that’s storytelling. The physicality of storytelling within a ring. On that canvas is where we paint our pictures. I think it’s important, not only for the people at the top of WWE, but for every performer to look at themselves as the face of WWE. If everyone looks at themselves as the face of WWE, the WWE can’t go wrong.”
“With a huge name like John Cena no longer being a full-time performer, I think there’s as much, if not more, pressure on me to do my job at a high level. But I also think it’s across the locker room. I guarantee you Seth Rollins feels the exact same way. That pressure to perform and keep our product at a premium,” he said.
