JCD returns to PWP Nation with his original ideas on what is next for the new WWE World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns.
After a long, tumultuous year, Roman Reigns has finally won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship on the December 14, 2015 edition of Monday Night Raw in a battle with Sheamus. The odds were stacked heavily in Sheamus’ favor as Mr. McMahon sat at ringside to help ensure that Sheamus was victorious. His presence helped distract the referee, which allowed Alberto Del Rio & Rusev to charge the ring in an attempt to take out Roman. Reigns thwarted their attempt, hit Sheamus with a spear & the rest is history.
Shockingly enough, even the notorious Philadelphia audience got behind Reigns and cheered his victory. Reigns came out of TLC the hottest he has ever been and WWE struck while the iron was hot.
Now that Roman Reigns is the new WWE World Heavyweight Champion, the obvious question is: what’s next? Here is how I would book the beginning of Roman Reigns’ title run:
Obviously, the first order of business is the rematch with Sheamus. There are 3 possible dates in my mind for when this match should happen, either on the LIVE Smackdown, the first Raw of 2016 or the first Smackdown on USA. This rematch should not go further than that because you need to build to his Royal Rumble title defense. Regardless of where or when the match would take place, Roman needs to retain the championship.
At the Royal Rumble, Reigns should defend against Triple H. After the beatdown that Roman put on The Game at TLC, there’s no question that this match has to happen. Add in the superman punch to Vince McMahon on Raw, and Triple H has all the motive for revenge he needs. Let’s face facts: when does Triple H NOT look for, and often times achieve, revenge on his adversaries? It’s pretty shocking that they haven’t had this one-on-one confrontation until this point. The match would help solidify Roman Reigns as the top guy & definitive WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Much to the dismay of The Authority, Roman would have to win here as well.
WWE Fast Lane is a bit of a mystery. There are a few ways you WWE could go with Roman. They could either go with some kind of tag match, or you could go with a random Reigns title defense against a pushed mid-card heel (Kevin Owens, Bray Wyatt, Del Rio) just to fill the card.
This all leads up to Roman heading into WrestleMania 32 as WWE World Heavyweight Champion. We can’t speculate just yet where they’re headed as far as a championship match is concerned, but we should have a great idea the closer we get to The Royal Rumble.
The most important thing that WWE can do is NOT strip him of the title and give it back to Sheamus. This would kill any momentum Reigns has built up. Stick to the decision and keep the belt on Roman.
The moral of the story is: let Roman be Roman. Don’t try to make him into the next Daniel Bryan because they’re two entirely different wrestlers. It took WWE longer than they expected for the WWE Universe to truly appreciate Roman Reigns…and now is not the time to screw it up.
Thoughts?