Roman Reigns is now the undisputed WWE Universal Champion.
The Head of the Table defeated Brock Lesnar in the main event of Wrestlemania Sunday to secure both top belts earlier this month.
He has been the best heel in WWE and arguably the entire industry for the last two years. He deserves his coronation as truly the top guy in the company.
Reigns becomes the first man to unify the two top titles since Lesnar did it in 2015 in a somewhat predictable affair.
The Bloodline now holds three titles, including Reigns’ WWE Universal title and The Usos’ Smackdown tag team titles.
That could soon become four as The Usos chase Raw tag champs RK-Bro (Riddle and Randy Orton) in order to unify the tag division too.
However, it has got to a point now where the positioning of Reigns could become a problem.
Since winning the Universal Title in August 2020, we’ve been told and shown that Reigns is unbeatable.
It’s a similar scenario to that of 2017 where Lesnar was the man who steamrolled the roster.
However, he wasn’t on TV all the time, causing the fans to sour on the reign.
The Tribal Chief has been on WWE television week in, week out since he returned after the pandemic settled.
His heel turn quickly reignited his run, appeasing fans who knew he should’ve been made a bad guy years prior.
Reigns is now getting cheered by some, he has just been that good over a prolonged period of time.
However, WWE have failed to build anyone and there isn’t a realistic opponent for Reigns at the moment.
The only man who, on paper, could conceivably take the belts off him is Lesnar but that rivalry is done.
It’s also one fans have seen multiple times at the top of the card.
WWE face a challenge to build someone up to challenge the Tribal Chief and make it somewhat realistic that they could beat him.
Truthfully, Reigns is unlikely to drop the belts until Summerslam at the very earliest. Even then, that is unlikely.
It wouldn’t surprise anyone to see Reigns hold the titles until next year’s Wrestlemania.
That’s a long time and WWE needs people to step up to Reigns’ level, as hard as that may be.
THE REBUILD
They certainly have wrestlers who can. The likes of Drew McIntyre and Bobby Lashley have done it in the past.
However, it looks as though former Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura will be Reigns’ next opponent.
The “king of strong style” has languished in the mid-card since his underwhelming feud against then WWE Champion AJ Styles back in 2018.
Fans were obviously excited about that rivalry considering the pairs’ world-class outings in Japan a few years prior.
However, the feud basically revolved around the two trying to kick each other’s genitals in every conceivable fashion.
This halted Nakamura’s momentum to almost zero but he has recovered as of late.
Benefitting from a charismatic manager in Rick Boogs, Nakamura will likely take on Reigns at the next pay-per-view; Wrestlemania Backlash.
Whilst it’ll be a good match considering how good Reigns and Nakamura are, the likelihood of the Japanese star winning is next to nothing.
THE HOMECOMING
Since Wrestlemania, WWE confirmed that they’ll be holding a big show in Cardiff in September. It’s the first stadium show the UK has had since Summerslam 1992.
This has led many fans to believe Drew McIntyre, who hails from Ayr, Scotland, may well be the man to take at least one of the belts off Roman.
With already 120,000+ fans registered in the pre-sale for the event, it would make sense to give British wrestling fans that moment they so desperately crave.
McIntyre arguably deserves the moment himself as well.
He won the 2020 Royal Rumble and would go onto face Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship in the main event of Wrestlemania 36.
That was meant to be his crowning moment in front of a huge amount of people.
However, the pandemic took hold shortly before and instead he won the big one in front of no one bar the commentators.
He’d have a second run with the title between November 2020 and February 2021 but the lack of fans still ensured there was no real gravitas to his reign.
The scenario of Drew McIntyre winning in Cardiff is more likely than Nakamura winning at a pay-per-view of much less significance.
However, you’d still put money on Reigns retaining.
There is time to build Drew back up to the levels he found back in 2020.
Although, with live crowds now being the norm once again, there’s no guarantee the US fans would accept him as champion again.
THE PRODIGAL SON
Moving on from the Scot, Cody Rhodes rejoined the company at Wrestlemania, defeating Seth Rollins after six years away.
In that time he formed AEW (All Elite Wrestling), WWE’s main competitor at the moment.
The booking of the late, great Dusty Rhodes’ son in his first stint in the company was questionable at best.
He’d have success on his own with the “Dashing” Cody Rhodes gimmick fitting his natural narcissistic nature.
However, when he was asked to don a full latex suit, paint his face and become Stardust in 2014, the wheels started to fall off.
Many thought there was zero chance Rhodes would ever return to Vince McMahon’s enterprise.
However, when he and his wife Brandi decided to leave AEW in February, there was only one real destination.
The match against Rollins was superb, so good in fact that the pair are going at it again at Wrestlemania Backlash next month.
There’s also little chance Rhodes would have resigned with the company had a world title win, or at least a feud with the champion, not been guaranteed prior.
As soon as “Kingdom” by Downstait hit at Wrestlemania, it was clear for everyone to see that the crowd viewed Rhodes as a returning top star.
However, his run with the WWE Universal title will likely come after Reigns drops the belts with his feud against Rollins looking to go for some while yet.
THE BLOODLINE
Rhodes will likely win the top belt, something his dad never did in the 70’s/80’s, but there’s a man who may just come before him.
That man is The Rock.
Wrestlemania 39 literally has “Hollywood” in the logo, so who better to take the belts off Reigns than the champion-turned-actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson?
It could be argued this is a cop-out from WWE and the spot should go to a more active, current star like McIntyre or Rhodes.
However, it can’t be denied that Reigns v Rock is money and would no doubt main event next year’s showpiece occasion.
It has been in the pipeline for some time now with Rock rumoured to return, just as he did in the early 2010’s.
However, his return this time around would be the ultimate test of Roman Reigns’ character and in-ring skill.
The Rock is one of the best talkers to lace up a pair of boots and wasn’t too bad in the ring either. The man got a standing elbow drop over as one of the best finishers of all time.
It’s the easiest solution from WWE’s perspective as well, the story is already written and they certainly don’t need to spend time on getting The Rock up to Reigns’ level.
The story revolves around family. The Rock’s maternal grandfather, Peter Maivia is considered to be the blood brother of Amuituanai Anoa’i, Reign’s grandfather.
This means Rock and Reigns are cousins though not by blood.
The world of wrestling cares not for these things and will surely pull the trigger on the family-related storyline when it comes to it.
After all, Reigns has dominated the company alongside his cousins The Uso’s for the best part of two years.
Nevertheless, WWE fans will have to wait a little while long to see who will actually defeat Reigns with Wrestlemania 39 and The Rock being more than likely.
[Featured image thanks to: Dominique A. Pineiro – creative commons licence]
