SK's take on why Roman Reigns may not win the Universal title at WrestleMania 34
Ever since WWE WrestleMania 33, it has been rumoured that Roman Reigns will defeat Brock Lesnar in the main event of WrestleMania 34 to win his first Universal Championship.
“The Beast” has conquered everyone in his path since defeating Goldberg for the title last April, including Samoa Joe and Braun Strowman, but he hasn’t gone one-on-one with Reigns since they headlined WrestleMania 31 in 2015.
It looked like that meeting three years ago would be the moment to crown “The Big Dog” as WWE’s next big star. However, just as it looked like he was going to win, Seth Rollins cashed in his Money In The Bank contract to steal the spotlight from his fellow Shield member.
Fast forward to now and it seems inevitable that the 2015 ending-that-never-was will take place in New Orleans in 2018… or will it?
Let’s assume that Lesnar retains his championship against Kane and Strowman at the Royal Rumble. While the two challengers, especially the latter, have been built up as legitimate contenders to win, it’s been the worst-kept secret in WWE over the last year that the former MMA star will keep the title until WrestleMania.
Beyond that, Lesnar is not expected to stick around in WWE for much longer. His contract expires in 2018, with a potential return to UFC on the cards, and many people are anticipating that his final match inside a squared circle will take place at this year’s “Show of Shows”.
However, the biggest hint yet that “The Beast” could retain his title and continue competing in WWE for a little while after WrestleMania came from Dana White, the UFC president, in 2017.
White stated that Lesnar’s contract with WWE runs out in August 2018, which suggests that his final match with the company could be at SummerSlam – an event the Universal champion has become synonymous with – rather than WrestleMania.
If that is the case and Lesnar remains a WWE performer for another four months after 'Mania, that opens up a very real possibility that he retains his title against Reigns in April and drops the title at a later date.
The thought of Reigns failing to win the title is less about him and more about Lesnar, who is the longest-reigning Universal champion in the title’s short history and is only five months away from breaking CM Punk’s modern-day record reign with a major title.
Punk’s reign with the WWE Championship, from November 2011 to January 2013, lasted 434 days – a modern-day record that will be surpassed by Lesnar if he keeps hold of the Universal Championship until 11 June 2018.
Call us cynical but, WWE being WWE, you can never put it past them to take a record like that away from Punk, just like they did with AJ Lee when her Divas Championship record was broken within 18 months of her setting it.
Of course, the most obvious reasons why Reigns, WWE’s most polarizing character, might not win the Universal title are simple: it's too predictable and fans won't like it.
“The Big Dog” has main-evented WrestleMania three years in a row and the last two shows have closed with him walking out victorious – first against Triple H at WrestleMania 32, then against The Undertaker at WrestleMania 33.
In addition to those victories, he picked up a huge statement win against John Cena at No Mercy in September 2017, while he finally defeated Samoa Joe clean in a one-on-one match on Raw recently.
The majority of fans are tired of Reigns winning almost every high-profile singles match he enters and, much like Cena, everyone has come to expect him to walk out of WrestleMania each year as the victor.
Fans were shocked when he failed to defeat Lesnar for the World Heavyweight Championship in 2015, and we’d be wrong to rule out the possibility of another major shock happening again when the two inevitably meet on the grand stage in 2018.
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