Opinion: Roman Reigns should not be added to the Universal Championship Match at WrestleMania 35
This has been a busy week in the WWE. We saw Kofi Kingston, the fan favorite, being replaced by Kevin Owens in the WWE Championship match for the Fastlane PPV, Matt Hardy returned to reunite the Hardy Boyz on SmackDown Live, the NXT superstars continued to impress on the main roster and Batista made his return out of nowhere to assault Ric Flair, wonderfully reigniting his rivalry with Triple H. But, it was the announcement of Roman Reigns defeating cancer that caused the fans to cheer their hearts out. Fans even got the chance of witnessing Roman Reigns back in action, when The Big Dog accompanied Seth Rollins and saved Dean Ambrose from Elias, Drew McIntyre, Bobby Lashley and Baron Corbin.
Roman Reigns returning to the ring is not only great news for fans, but also the WWE. During this illness curse which has descended on WWE, the return of their poster boy will surely be considered a blessing in disguise. But, who will fight Roman Reigns on the grandest stage of them all? Roman Reigns is way too big a superstar to take part in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. Given that The Big Dog is an organic babyface at the moment, WWE will not risk him facing another face in Finn Balor for the Intercontinental Title. So, that leaves only two possibilities at this moment. Either Reigns gets added to the Universal Championship match at WrestleMania or he gets a marquee match for the PPV.
Many may argue that Reigns should be added to the Universal Championship match. Why not, as Roman Reigns never lost the Universal Title. Also, Rollins is not actively participating on RAW in recent weeks due to a back injury and Brock Lesnar is not showing up as always.
In this situation, adding Roman to the fray will not only make the match even bigger, given Reigns’ stardom and popularity, but will also enable the WWE to continue hyping the Universal Championship match without Rollins and Lesnar. Also, if Roman does take part in the Universal Championship match, chances are high that the match would main event the PPV. This will allow Reigns to set a new record, that of headlining 5 WrestleManias in a row. With so many positives, Reigns should be directly added to the match, right? Well, in my personal opinion, Roman Reigns should NOT be added to the Universal Title match at WrestleMania 35.
Firstly, Reigns is getting a positive reaction from the crowd currently, a thing which WWE had been trying to achieve since the last 3-4 years. Adding Roman to the match would mean that Roman is surely going to win the title. Even if he doesn’t, the build-up to the match would be about Reigns’ return and his quest for the title he never lost. This is sure to get Seth Rollins out of the spotlight, which may be received by the fans in a bad way.
Also, one needs to look at the Women's revolution. Over the years, the females have made a lot of progress and have earned all they could for their division. They now have their own Battle Royal at WrestleMania, they have main evented PPVs, they have their own PPV and they even have their own Tag Team titles now. The fitting way to continue the revolution forward would be to give the females a chance to steal the show by main eventing a WrestleMania. This year’s rivalry around the RAW women's championship is definitely interesting to say in the least and possess all the ingredients to main event WrestleMania. Having Roman Reigns in the Universal Championship match is only going to rob these deserving women of their WrestleMania main event spot.
One also needs to look at WrestleMania match card. Till now, only two non-title marquee matches have been hinted at, Triple H vs Batista and AJ Styles vs Randy Orton. Both John Cena and Undertaker are reportedly not going to wrestle at this year’s WrestleMania. Reigns is a big superstar in the WWE and doesn’t need a title to make his rivalries feel big. Thus, Roman Reigns needs to fill in that marquee match spot for this year’s Mania. With how things are going on currently, having Reigns team with Braun Strowman to face Drew McIntyre and Baron Corbin would be a decent feud for this year’s Showcase of Immortals. Also, WWE can add Dean Ambrose and Bobby Lashley to the mix to have a nice 6-Man Tag Team match for this year’s flagship event.
With Seth Rollins' recent ascend to the Universal Title picture, women truly coming across as serious contenders for this year's main event slot and lack of marquee matches, having Reigns in a marquee match at this year’s WrestleMania would be ‘best for business’.