Caden Moran discusses why Roman Reigns winning the WWE Universal Championship at Roadblock will both help and hurt WWE
Roman Reigns has been a very controversial figure in the WWE since the split of The Shield. The reason for that is due to the fact that he is constantly in the main event scene when a fair majority of the fans do not want him anywhere near it.
In my opinion, Roman doesn’t deserve the hate he gets because he is a solid worker and puts on great matches, but at the same time, I do understand the fans hatred of him being in the main event picture constantly, especially in the past month.
Roman Reigns is the current United States Champion but it seems as if that title is just a trophy on his shoulder as he is next in line for the WWE Universal Championship against Kevin Owens at WWE Roadblock: End Of The Line. The closer the match gets, the more I am convinced that Reigns will walk out the champion.
If he does claim the red strap from Kevin Owens, it will lead to both a positive & negative backlash.
Is positive backlash a thing? Not necessarily.
If Roman walks out of Roadblock as the new Universal Champion, there will be at least one positive out of it. As much as we all love Kevin Owens, he has not done a good job at elevating the WWE Universal Championship. Don’t get me wrong; the blame is not all on him. There is blame to go around for Chris Jericho, Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns. Owens’ title run has been overshadowed by “The List of Jericho” & this list has made most of us not care about him or the championship.
WWE needs to do a better job at making the Universal title look like a title we actually care about. It’s less than a year old! What better way to do that then put it on the most hated man in the WWE in Roman Reigns?
That sounds like a bad idea, I know, but look at it from a bigger perspective. Roman Reigns is always guaranteed a reaction whether it be boos or cheers (mostly boos) and with hI’m being the top guy once again, WWE has a huge opportunity to take that nuclear heat and turn it into something special. The first thing that comes to mind is the inevitable heel turn that will come for Reigns, if WWE has the courage.
They can create a megastar in the leader of the Roman Empire. Roman has the power of bringing relevance to the WWE Universal Championship and even with the fans neglect of “The Guy”, they will still tune in every week in hopes of seeing him look like a fool.
However, that is just an assumption.
What if he doesn’t turn heel and WWE decides to still portray Reigns as a heroic and strong babyface? The potential of negative backlash is insanely high if Reigns walks out champion. WWE can’t afford to risk that.
Having Roman in the main event scene once again is a slap in the face of all the other hard working and talented guys who actually have a strong fan base who don’t receive these opportunists time after time such as Sami Zayn, Cesaro, Rusev, etc.
But the thing that makes Reigns being in the main event the most unfair is the fact that he already has a championship around his shoulder: The United States Championship. When Reigns was the next challenger to Rusev and the red, white and blue belt, many felt he was finally being brought down from the main event to the mid-card. But that wasn’t the case.
Roman has only defended the United States Championship twice. Once against Chris Jericho & then against Rusev in a ridiculous Hell in a Cell match that made Roman look as strong as the Hulk. I won’t lie, I was ecstatic when Roman defeated Rusev at Clash Of Champions but looking back at it now, the WWE completely screwed Rusev over.
Reigns has been presented as the top guy on RAW instead of Kevin Owens and even with the mid-card title around him, he still has managed his way into the main event and that is what is truly unfair.
If he walks out with both championships at Roadblock, WWE will struggle to keep fans invested.
And that is what will hurt the WWE more than it will help.
So listen to me when I say do not, I repeat, DO NOT have Roman Reigns walk out of Roadblock as the new WWE Universal Champion.