2 Highs and 3 Lows from Roman Reigns' previous WWE SummerSlam appearances
Since making his WWE main-roster debut in November 2012, Roman Reigns has appeared at five SummerSlam events.
In 2013, he featured alongside Seth Rollins at ringside to support Dean Ambrose during his United States Championship kickoff show match against Rob Van Dam, while he went one-on-one with Randy Orton at the 2014 event.
“The Big Dog” reunited with fellow Shield member Ambrose in 2015 to face Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper in a tag match, and then his scheduled encounter with Rusev in 2016 was over before it even began.
His latest SummerSlam appearance came in the main event of the 2017 show when he suffered a pinfall loss against Brock Lesnar in a Fatal 4-Way match for the Universal Championship.
Overall, it’s been a mixed few years for Reigns when it comes to SummerSlam, so we decided to take an in-depth look at where things have gone right and wrong for the four-time WrestleMania headliner at WWE’s “Biggest Party of The Summer”.
#5 Low: Demoted to being a kickoff show sidekick (2013)
Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose made an instant impact following their main-roster call-ups in November 2012, and it didn’t take long before all three members of The Shield had championship gold around their waist.
However, after their triple title triumph in May 2013 at Extreme Rules, Ambrose rarely defended his United States Championship and Reigns & Rollins’ Tag Team Championship reign wasn’t being featured as prominently as expected on WWE programming in the months that followed.
This was best summed up in August 2013 at SummerSlam when, despite being tag champs at the time, Reigns and Rollins weren’t even booked in a match, and they were forced to watch on from ringside as Ambrose faced Rob Van Dam during the pre-show broadcast.
After a hugely impressive match against The Usos at the previous month’s PPV, Money In The Bank, the 2013 SummerSlam event should have been a big night for Reigns. In the end, he was merely a kickoff show sidekick.