"Forced to play second fiddle" – WWE announcer on why current champion is second best to Roman Reigns

Roman Reigns has been the Universal Champion for over 450 days

WWE announcer Corey Graves believes Big E is playing second fiddle to Universal Champion Roman Reigns.

Corey Graves sat down with NXT's Vic Joseph on this week's episode of After the Bell to discuss the latest events in WWE. Graves spoke about the inaugural Day 1 pay-per-view and said the Triple-Threat Match for the WWE Championship could steal the show.

Graves added that Big E will be heading into the new year with a chip on his shoulder. According to Corey, Big E is second best to Roman Reigns in the current landscape of WWE:

"This triple threat at Day 1 is also a big opportunity for Big E to really be the focus. It's unfortunate as the WWE Champion Big E is always going to be forced to play second fiddle to Roman Reigns. For no other reason than Roman Reigns is functioning at such a level that our business hasn't seen in quite some time. Roman is that dude who is incredible, putting in bangers of matches, compelling promos, you've got Paul Heyman, The Bloodline, everything involved in the Universal Championship picture right now. Including Brock Lesnar. It's next level."

Graves also mentioned what the psyche of the WWE Champion Big E should be like heading into Day 1:

"It's of the utmost importance for Big E to take this and go, 'Okay, everyone's talking about Roman Reigns, everone's talking about SmackDown. I'm the WWE Champion. I'm gonna show you.' Yeah, he came up short at Survivor Series, but it was a banger of a match. Big E didn't by any means come off any worse than he went in."

IT'S ON!

At #WWEDay1, @WWEBigE will finally defend the #WWEChampionship against @WWERollins ... AND @FightOwensFight in a Triple Threat Match.

wwe.com/shows/new-one/… https://t.co/ZeMTzvJimR

Roman Reigns will have to deal with Brock Lesnar this week on SmackDown

Only one more sleep until @BrockLesnar returns to #SmackDown! https://t.co/yZNeAbTQsi

Last week, immediately after Sami Zayn won the Black Friday Battle Royal to challenge Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship, WWE correspondent Kayla Braxton announced that Lesnar will be on SmackDown.

When the camera cut backstage, Reigns was irate to learn about Lesnar's return to SmackDown.

While using the quote from this article, please credit the After the Bell podcast and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling.