WWE News: Roman Reigns suspension had major rippling effects to WWE's plans
Roman Reigns finally had his coronation at Wrestlemania 32, something that Vince McMahon clearly wanted to have. Despite massive fan rejection, he proceeded to go ahead with the storyline anyway. This was also done to give Reigns a long title run which he hadn’t had up till that point, despite having one two world championship reigns prior to that.
However, the Wellness Policy violation of Reigns happened, and then the creative plans were forced to change drastically. For one, as we wrote earlier, Reigns was definitely meant to hold the title for much longer. That would mean that the WWE World Championship would have stayed on Raw, where Reigns and Rollins would be feuding for it going into the summer, while the WWE Universal Championship would be introduced as the Smackdown exclusive title. It is being said that the plan was for AJ Styles and John Cena to compete for the WWE Universal Championship, with AJ Styles being the inaugural winner.
As for Finn Balor, the original plan was for him to feud with Chris Jericho. Chris Jericho himself on his Talk Is Jericho podcast with Finn Balor said that he requested Vince McMahon to work with him when he was called up. However, after the whole shift in plans, Vince McMahon decided to push Balor right into the main title picture.
Balor himself was victim to a very unfortunate shoulder injury that he obtained in his match with Seth Rollins, when he was bucklebombed onto a barricade, thus dislocating his shoulder. It is worth noting that Balor popped his shoulder right back in and proceeded to finish the match, where as we all know, he was victorious. The injury forced Balor to vacate the WWE Universal Championship less than 24 hours after winning it.
This injury of Balor forced another major creative change. The original plan was for Balor to face Kevin Owens at Clash Of Champions, and for him to face Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens in a triple threat match at Hell In A Cell. Now, WWE have changed that, and the new WWE Universal Champion will be crowned next week on Raw in a Fatal-Four-Way match between Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Big Cass and Kevin Owens. As of this moment, it is being said that Seth Rollins is the favourite to walk out as champion.