Roman Reigns has been a staple of WrestleMania for nearly a decade, having main evented WWE’s biggest annual show six times since first being pushed into the main event scene back in 2015. All signs point to him picking up main event No. 7 next month at WrestleMania 38 when he’ll face Brock Lesnar in a Winner Take All match for both his Universal Championship and Lesnar’s WWE Championship. To continue the hype for the match, WWE released a Top 10 ranking over the weekend of Reigns’ best moments from “The Granddaddy of the All.”
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The list spans all of the different eras of Reigns’ WWE career from his time in The Shield to his controversial first main event run to his current era as the “Tribal Chief.” It’s that second era that earned the nod as Reigns’ best moment as WWE named his WWE Championship win over Triple H at WrestleMania 32 at No. 1. That was the main event from the last WrestleMania to take place in AT&T Stadium, which set the record for the largest posted attendance at over 100,000. But fans will likely remember this was still a time period where Reigns was divisive among fans and his bout with “The Game” was heavily criticized for its slow pace at the end of a five-hour event.
Some of Reigns’ more recent moments were scattered throughout the list. His singles match return after battling leukemia at WrestleMania 35 clocked in at No. 9 and instances from his WrestleMania 37 match with Edge and Daniel Bryan came in seventh and third. Do you agree with the rankings? Let us know in the comments below!
WWE confirmed over the weekend that Reigns vs. Lesnar will take place on Night Two of WrestleMania 38, undoubtedly as the show’s main event. Paul Heyman has been arguing for months that a match between his present and former clients is the biggest box office draw WWE can possibly make right now. He has also praised the pair for evolving their characters in recent years.
“I’m indescribably proud of both of them,” Heyman said while on The Masked Man Show last month. “Roman Reigns is a very strategic performer. The Tribal Chief has lived inside of Roman Reigns for a long time but it wasn’t the right time to present this persona because he had to go through all of the trials and tribulations in front of the public first. He needed his face roughed up a little more. He needed to show a little bit of age. The Tribal Chief just couldn’t be the best-looking man in the industry in his late 20s. He had to be a little more seasoned, he had to be a little more grizzled. To speak as the Tribal Chief before he’s the Tribal Chief would not have made sense. He’s very comfortable in this presentation. This is authentically who he is. This is how he sees himself. I like to say that SmackDown is the best reality show on television because you’re getting to see the real Roman Reigns for the first time. He’s not being forced to go out there and smile and tell you how much he just loves to go and sign autographs at 4 in the afternoon for all the little kids that are coming to the show. No, he doesn’t. He doesn’t want to. He doesn’t want to do media appearances that he doesn’t want to do. He does the ones that he chooses to do because they’re the right ones to host the Tribal Chief.”
“In terms of Brock, Brock just never felt like talking. Brock Lesnar does what Brock Lesnar wants to do and Brock Lesnar doesn’t do what Brock Lesnar doesn’t want to do,” he added. “When Brock came back, he had been gone long enough and looked different enough and is really comfortable enough with himself now that he just says, ‘Screw it. This is who I am and they’ll like me for who I am or they won’t. I’m just going to give them the real Brock Lesnar,’ which is a far more smart-ass Brock Lesnar than most people were even prepared to see. But if you watched him in the UFC press conferences, this is Brock Lesnar. This is who he is. So, again, in an age where authenticity is a very big selling point with the audience, it’s just getting both of them to be authentic.”
