WWE News: Roman Reigns Not Expected To Win WWE Universal Championship At ‘WWE Roadblock’
WWE United States Champion Roman Reigns is set to take on WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens at WWE Roadblock: End of the Line next week, but he may not be successful in his attempt for the title according to plans already in play for both men. That is correct, while WWE wants Reigns to be involved in the title picture for a short time, he is most likely not going to be involved in it very long.
According to recent reports, many were under the assumption that WWE wanted to make Roman Reigns a dual champion heading into WrestleMania 33. However, plans for both Kevin Owens and Roman Reigns go completely against that. The Wrestling Observer reports that Roman Reigns will take on Braun Strowman, with the WWE United States Title most likely on the line, at WrestleMania.
The plan is to put Braun in a program with the recently returning Big Show and then have Strowman move to Reigns near Mania time. Meanwhile, The Observer among other places have reported that there are plans to have Kevin Owens take on Finn Balor for the WWE Universal Title at WrestleMania. The rumor is still that Balor will show up at The Royal Rumble PPV and take part in the Rumble match, which he would end up winning. Of course, no one knows how true the last part is at this point.
There is proof that Balor will take part in WrestleMania 33, as he is on the poster of the show right now. The plan for those two has been in play pretty much since Kevin Owens won the title. Finn Balor was not supposed to drop the title for quite a while as they wanted the first champ to make it a big deal. Sadly Balor’s injury took him out of action and thus KO was named champion.
All of this being said, Roman Reigns and Kevin Owens have different directions come WrestleMania. Therefore it would make absolutely no sense, if these plans are still in play, for Reigns to capture the Universal Title. Even for a month, it would be moronic for him to hold it. The bigger deal with be for Finn Balor to return and capture the title he never rightfully lost, the one he won to become the first ever WWE Universal Champion.
The storyline has already be laid out for it as we speak. Triple H took the side of Owens, but would have backed Balor instead like he did for years at WWE NXT where he made him THE GUY for NXT. They even set things up perfectly for Balor to reunite with his Bullet Club buddies in Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson. If it seems like The Club guys have been lost since the draft, they have been. Plans for them fell through due to the Finn injury, and now they’re just being thrown into stuff.
Meanwhile, WWE added Chris Jericho to Kevin Owens’ inner circle to help him out when Triple H could not be around helping. All of this was set to lead to Seth Rollins taking on Triple H at WrestleMania while Owens was busy with Balor and Jericho was on his way out. Due to how well he has done, Jericho has managed to stick around, and there is hope he will be part of WrestleMania now.
Regardless, Roman Reigns winning at WWE Roadblock is quite useless due to all of these scenarios. Why take it off of Owens only to give it right back to him? Also, fans are not big on seeing Reigns involved in the World Title picture. They are barely okay with him having the WWE US Title. Many fans would be ticked if they saw Reigns holding both the US and Universal Titles.
Due to the hate that surrounds Roman Reigns, there is a thought that WWE will at least try to humanize him in 2017 and not make him a mini-John Cena. If they had him become a dual champion, it would not sit well with many fans who seem to be more against Reigns than with him right now. Reigns must continue to delver in the mid-card scene, and perhaps even a heel turn would one day make fans feel they can be on his side. Until character changes, nothing like this will occur. Despite all of this, simple plans upcoming keep him out of the cards for a title win right now. Don’t expect that to last next year, though.
[Featured Image via WWE]
