Roman Reigns Names His Favorite WWE Universal Championship Defenses (So Far)

Roman Reigns' current run as WWE Universal Champion recently eclipsed 400 consecutive days and his title match with Brock Lesnar at Crown Jewel will be his 17th title defense. "The Tribal Chief" spoke with Bleacher Report earlier this week and was asked to name his favorite title defenses, which included his two pay-per-view bouts with Jey Uso, his WrestleMania 37 match with Edge and Daniel Bryan and his one-on-one encounter with "The Rated-R Superstar" at Money in the Bank.

"I think to me, personally, I think the most special was the stuff I did with my cousin Jey," Reigns said. "I felt more connected to those two matches and that storyline than I've ever felt to anything else, and a lot of those promos and stuff like that and the emotion you could see in it were real. I think we were able to tap into baggage that we've had that we may have never spoke about or thought was an issue like common ground, but it was something we were able to dive into."

Regarding his WrestleMania bout, Reigns noted, "When you hear Paul Heyman go in on it and laying down the history of it being the dominant finish in WrestleMania main event history, nobody's ever stacked two guys in the main event of WrestleMania, and I did that. For me to be able to say I did that is crazy, but I think that's just recognition and an accolade alone."

He then turned his attention to his rematch with Edge — "One that's super special to me as well, outside of the stuff I did with my family because it was so strong with Jey, was the match I had with Edge at Money in the Bank. I believe that was in Fort Worth, the first pay-per-view back. I haven't watched that match back, so I can't really detail the energy and if it was as loud as it was in the arena, but in the arena, that crowd was live. The timing and the pacing, I've seen some critique it and call it a little slow, but that's what the heavyweights in main events do. I'm not going to go out there and sprint around and do flips for no reason. We were following the actual Money in the Bank ladder match, which is just a spot-fest and crazy stunt fest in its own right. To go in there with Edge--everyone knows what he's done for this business, the experience and the passion that he brings, to go out there and experience that reaction and that story that was being told out there together, it was phenomenal."