WWE Superstar Roman Reigns will be facing Kevin Owens at WWE Royal Rumble in January for the WWE Universal Championship, and many believe Reigns could end up winning the title at the event. The WWE United States Champion did attempt to beat Kevin Owens for his title at WWE Roadblock: End of the Line, but failed to do so due to Chris Jericho interfering.
WWE RAW General Manager Mick Foley felt this was a terrible issue for the WWE and the Universal Title because Jericho cost Reigns the title. Therefore he made the decision to give Reigns a rematch at the WWE Royal Rumble PPV. In addition to the match happening, Foley is making sure Jericho cannot interfere because he will be put in a shark cage above the ring.
This will not only give Roman Reigns a fair rematch, but it will also push KO to defeat Reigns without interference from Chris Jericho. He has won most of the time due to help from the outside, so without such help he will need to find another way to win. Many believe that due to the fact Jericho cannot be of help to Owens, he will end up losing the title. Speculation on this ran pretty high when news sites began reporting on WWE plans for WrestleMania 33 .
Cageside Seats reports that WWE has no plans to put Roman Reigns in the Royal Rumble match, which added further speculation about him possibly taking the WWE Universal Title at the Royal Rumble . Plans for WrestleMania seem to indicate as of now that Braun Strowman could challenge Reigns for the title, which is a complete 180 from various plans rumored.
Former plans had Kevin Owens take on a returning Finn Balor at WrestleMania , while Roman Reigns would still face Strowman, but for the WWE United States Championship and not the Universal. It is not a crazy belief that Reigns would be the Universal Champion heading into WrestleMania . WWE Chairman Vince McMahon is quite high on Reigns and having him go into the biggest event of the year as a top champion is something he would want.
Plans for Kevin Owens shifted with the new rumored card to having Kevin Owens take on Chris Jericho, which has been building up for months. Originally WWE planned to end the duo relatively quick, but due to how great they have been together the decision was made to continue using them. In fact, Chris Jericho was supposed to leave due to his singing group Fozzy having an upcoming tour. On top of that, Jericho was not set to be included in WrestleMania at all at one point.
Now he is certainly included and involved in what seems to be a great idea for a match. The question is, where does Finn Balor now fit into all of this? Also, why is the United States Title yet to be removed from Roman Reigns’ possession? Heading in with two titles would be bad form and something that would infuriate many fans. WWE would be smart in some ways to do this if they had big plans for Braun Strowman because it is likely that he would have the fans on his side.
If WWE does have plans to take Roman Reigns into WrestleMania 33 with the WWE Universal Championship, it is quite possible that he drops the United States Championship before he wins the Universal Title. This way we can remove one title from his possession so that he won’t tie up two different divisions on the WWE RAW roster. It would be easy to put Roman in a match for the United States Title and an interference from Kevin Owens or Chris Jericho could cost him the gold.
Either way they do it, this would be the best option for Roman Reigns and the United States Championship. Of course, if the plans for Kevin Owens to walk into WrestleMania as Universal Champion are still a go, then it would make sense for Reigns to remain U.S. Champion until he faces Strowman at WrestleMania as previously expected. We will have to see what happens on both WWE RAW and the Royal Rumble to truly know if any WrestleMania plans are a go at this point.
[Featured Image by WWE]