Roman Reigns Captures the Universal Championship at WWE Payback

The Universal Championship No Holds Barred match between “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt, Braun Strowman, and Roman Reigns got off to a crazy start at WWE Payback on Sunday night. Wyatt made his usual drawn out entrance to start things off, and just as he got to the ring, Strowman blindsided him and took him out from behind as the bell rang. The two men wrestled for several minutes with no Roman Reigns in sight, including Wyatt making a quick comeback and hitting a Sister Abigail for a near fall.

They fought to the outside where Wyatt gave Strowman a Uranage through the announce table. Alexa Bliss was shown backstage watching Wyatt on ofense, twirling her hair, without the announcers even commenting on it. FIend then took out the large mallet from under the ring, but Strowman launched an announcer’s chair at him to take him out.

Strowman hit a big clothesline and took the mallet into his hands but Fiend fought back. He picked up the mallet and drove it into Strowman’s chest on the outside and screamed in delight afterward. He drove Strowman into the ring steps and twisted his head in a snapping motion.

They fought up the entrance ramp, where Strowman drove Fiend off the top of the ramp through a nearby table. They worked back to the ring, where Strowman went up to the top rope. Fiend crotched him on the turnbuckle and climbed up top with him. He hit a superplex on Strowman, causing the ring to breakdown.

At that point, Roman Reigns’ theme (the same Shield theme) came on as he made his entrance with a steel chair and Paul Heyman. He signed the contract for the match that Heyman held out as he marched to the ring. Reigns went to cover Fiend, but there was no ref. A new ref ran out, but both Strowman and Fiend kicked out of pinfall attempts.

Reigns smashed the chair into Strowman several times and covered, but Braun still kicked out. He went to hit Fiend with the chair but Fiend locked in the Claw briefly. Roman then hit him with a low blow to break. Reigns then speared Strowman and covered to get the pinfall and win the Universal Championship.

After the match, Paul Heyman held Reigns’ hand up at the top of the ramp as he posed with the title belt.