Who Will Replace Roman Reigns in the WWE Universal Championship Match at WrestleMania 36?

News broke on Thursday night that Roman Reigns has voluntarily opted out of his upcoming WWE [...]

By Connor Casey

News broke on Thursday night that Roman Reigns has voluntarily opted out of his upcoming WWE Universal Championship match with Goldberg at WrestleMania 36 due to concern over his autoimmune system (which was affected by his battle with leukemia) amid the coronavirus pandemic. As of this writing WWE has not announced who Reigns' replacement will be, though all of WrestleMania's taping should be finished by Thursday night due to a stay-at-home order for Orange County (Florida) beginning at midnight.

Given how much of the card has already been booked, there aren't a lot of options for who could step up in Reigns' place. But here's a list of seven potential contenders.

Let us know who you think should be his replacement in the list below!

Braun Strowman

Braun-Strowman-WWE
(Photo: WWE.com)

"The Monster Among Men" doesn't have a WrestleMania match as of this writing, and fans have been chomping at the bit to see him finally capture a world championship. Beating Goldberg would make Strowman a bona fide main eventer and give a fresh face to SmackDown's main event picture.

Also keep in mind that @WrestleVotes confirmed they have the results for WrestleMania 36's tapings and tweeted this gif shortly after the Reigns news broke:

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Bray Wyatt

Bray-Wyatt-Universal-Championship
(Photo: WWE)

Wyatt's shocking loss against Goldberg at Super ShowDown and complete lack of follow-up the following night utterly enraged fans. And while Wyatt already has his hands full with a match with John Cena (which will reportedly take place away from the Performance Center), there's nothing that says The Fiend can't pull double duty at the show and win back his title.

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Kofi Kingston

Kofi-Kingston-WWE-Champion
(Photo: WWE.com)

While he'll probably wind up competing for the SmackDown tag titles at Mania, it would be great to see Kingston get another shot at a world championship after his six-month WWE Championship reign ended on such a sour note.

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Dolph Ziggler

Dolph-Ziggler-Shawn-Michaels
(Photo: WWE.com)

Why? Because Goldberg would squash him again, that's why!

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Brock Lesnar

Brock-Lesnar-Paul-Heyman-WWE-Raw
(Photo: WWE)

A lot of fans would hate it, but I wouldn't put it past WWE to book McIntyre to beat Lesnar on the first night, only for "The Beast" to turn around and win back another world championship the next night. The company loves putting the title back on Lesnar whenever there's an emergency, and this feels similar to when he won it back right after Reigns announced his cancer diagnosis.

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Keith Lee

Keith-Lee-Finn-Balor
(Photo: WWE)

For he is limitless!

Lee is plenty busy down in NXT but so many people already have him circled as a future WWE main eventer. If there are no other options on the table, strapping the rocket onto him right now isn't the worst idea in the world.

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Otis

Mandy-Rose-Otis-Elimination-Chamber
(Photo: WWE)

What better way to get back at Mandy Rose for breaking his heart (and at Dolph Ziggler for stealing his woman) than by winning the world championship?

Yeah, this one probably won't happen. But admit it — it would be fun!

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