Seth Rollins’ major knee injury, which will cause him to miss six to nine months of action, has thrown a wrench in WWE’s immediate plans, and their plans for WrestleMania 32 . It was assumed that Seth Rollins would end up in a match with either Triple H or Brock Lesnar on WWE’s grandest stage, while Roman Reigns, who was scheduled to beat Rollins for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Survivor Series later this month, would be in the main event of WrestleMania 32 , and he would defend his title against the winner of the 2016 Royal Rumble .
According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer , WWE’s plans for Reigns to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Survivor Series are still in place. However, his opponent will obviously not be Seth Rollins.
Meltzer also noted that the plan is still for Reigns to hold the WWE Championship up until, and beyond, WrestleMania 32 . As for his opponent at the event, well, according to Meltzer, it’ll be WWE’s most polarizing figure John Cena, and WWE’s reason for picking Cena as Reigns’ opponent is simple — the WrestleMania crowd will dislike Cena more than they dislike Reigns, therefore, they’ll cheer Reigns, and boo Cena.
“It’s funny because [Roman Reigns vs. John Cena] is the idea [for WrestleMania ]. I don’t know if it’s a guarantee that the fans will boo Roman Reigns more than John Cena at WrestleMania , because Reigns was booed way more than Cena was at the last WrestleMania . I mean, it wasn’t even close.”
Before the idea of Roman Reigns vs. John Cena at WrestleMania came up, there was a possibility that WWE was going to have Brock Lesnar win the Royal Rumble match and challenge Roman Reigns for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship next spring. However, there is a feeling in WWE that Lesnar, much like he was at this past year’s WrestleMania , will get cheered, and Roman Reigns will get booed.
WWE badly wants Roman Reigns to get a positive reaction at WrestleMania because they feel that a positive reaction will help kick-start what WWE hopes to be a massive babyface run, which will last for the next decade.
There is a chance that the WrestleMania crowd could just end up rejecting the Cena vs. Reigns match and just boo both guys. However, WWE isn’t expecting that.
Earlier this week, PW Insider reported that WWE may be planning to do a John Cena vs. Undertaker match at WrestleMania , which has been rumored for quite some time. Of course, the match has never come to fruition, but next year could be the year that it finally does if WWE decides to change their plans, which they often do.
Other potential opponents for Reigns if WWE changes things around are Brock Lesnar, if WWE ends up not having anything bigger for Lesnar, and Triple H, if The Rock ends up not wrestling him at WrestleMania 32.
Earlier tonight on RAW , WWE did shoot an angle between Reigns and Triple H, where “The Game” tried to get Reigns to join The Authority as Seth Rollins’ replacement. Of course, Reigns declined, which could lead to the two of them wrestling each other at some point in the future, possibly at WrestleMania .
WWE was planning on having Rollins wrestle Triple H at some point, however, with Rollins being out until the middle of next year at the least, Reigns may end up wrestling “The Game” at a pay-per-view in the near future if the two of them don’t lock up next spring.
Also on tonight’s RAW , Reigns defeated Big Show to advance to the quarterfinals of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship tournament.
[Image via WWE ]