KEY POINTS
- Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins will clash over the WWE Universal Championship at the Royal Rumble
- Dave Meltzer reports that Reigns will drop the title at the event in order to chase Brock Lesnar's WWE Championship at WrestleMania
- This allows Reigns to have a fresh story arc while establishing himself as a top talent within WWE
WWE has announced that Seth Rollins will challenge Universal Champion Roman Reigns at the Royal Rumble on January 29, setting into motion a plan that was originally supposed to happen at the Day 1 event.
Prominent wrestling insider Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio reported that Brock Lesnar was originally supposed to take the belt from Reigns at Day 1, but the match was postponed due to latter testing positive for COVID-19.
“The plan for Day 1 was that Seth [Rollins] was going to be the WWE Champion coming off of the show and [Brock] Lesnar was going to be the Universal Champion coming off of the show,” Meltzer disclosed.
“So, [Brock] Lesnar is now the WWE Champion. Seth [Rollins] was going to defend the title on one of the WrestleMania nights and then [Brock] Lesnar and Roman [Reigns] were going to be for the other title on the other WrestleMania night.”
To pivot from Reigns’ situation, WWE added Lesnar as a fifth entrant into the scheduled fatal four-way between then WWE Champion Big E, Rollins, Kevin Owens and Bobby Lashley, a match which Lesnar surprisingly won.
With the company deciding to have Rollins and Reigns at the Royal Rumble, Meltzer’s report may have some truth to it by the end of the event, with "The Architect" as Universal Champion on Raw and "The Tribal Chief" going after Lesnar on SmackDown again.
Lesnar is expected to keep his title after the Royal Rumble after facing Bobby Lashley in what has been a well-booked feud between the two who have never had a match together thus far.
Having Reigns lose his title to Rollins puts him in an interesting situation as the one who is going after the top titles, a storyline which he has not been in since winning the title at Payback 2020.
The immediate fallout could have Reigns lashing out backstage on his Bloodline stablemates and real-life cousins Jimmy and Jey Uso on the next episode of SmackDown for not helping him keep the Universal Title.
Lesnar, carrying the WWE Championship, could come in and mock Reigns for losing the title in the backend of the segment.
This would perfectly set up Reigns’ chase for Lesnar and the WWE Championship leading into WrestleMania as a lone wolf who is off to prove why he deserves to hold the title forever, even if he has no support from anyone else.
Reigns’ character has carried WWE throughout much of the Thunderdome era, captivating pro wrestling fans for the better part of two years, but giving him this soft reboot will give viewers new reasons to stay tuned to what "The Big Dog" will do next.
