WWE News: Original Plans For Roman Reigns At ‘WrestleMania 32’ Revealed
After former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins blew out his knee prior to the Survivor Series pay-per-view, WWE’s WrestleMania plans, which were set in stone up to that point, had to be changed. After all, Rollins was going to be a big part of those plans and was likely going to wrestle Triple H.
Due to Rollins and many others getting hurt, WWE had to completely scrap its original WrestleMania plans and start from scratch.
Prior to Rollins’ injury, the plan was for Roman Reigns to win the WWE World Title at Survivor Series and carry it up until and beyond WrestleMania 32. Well, Reigns did win the title at Survivor Series, but he fell victim to the Money in the Bank contract holder, as Sheamus cashed in and walked out of the event as the new WWE Champion.
This past Monday on RAW, just a few weeks after losing the title he held for just five minutes and 15 seconds, Roman Reigns regained the WWE Title. It’s expected that he’ll hold onto it at least until WrestleMania 32 and probably beyond that event.
As of right now, there’s no obvious opponent for Reigns at WrestleMania 32. Guys like Brock Lesnar, The Undertaker, Triple H, and John Cena have been named as possible opponents for the new WWE World Champ, and before the Rollins injury that forced the WrestleMania shakeup, John Cena was going to be Reigns’ opponent at WWE’s spring spectacular.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer went into great detail about what WWE’s original plans were for Roman Reigns at AT&T Stadium next spring in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, saying that WWE had been planning to make Reigns the company’s top guy by next year’s WrestleMania 32 as far back as early 2014. However, much like how Rollins’ injury shook up the plans for next spring, the fans shook up WWE’s plan to make Reigns the top guy at the beginning of this year.
Basically, the idea behind Brock Lesnar ending The Undertaker’s WrestleMania streak was to make an unstoppable beast that Roman Reigns would, in fact, stop at the very next year’s WrestleMania. However, due to the fans unwillingness to embrace Reigns as a top guy, plans changed.
Originally, if things would have gone WWE’s way and the fans would have embraced Reigns as the new face of the company back at WrestleMania 31, the plan was for Reigns to go one-on-one with John Cena, who has been the face of WWE for more than a decade at WrestleMania 32.
When Reigns was crowned the new WWE World Heavyweight Champion on this past Monday’s RAW, the fans, who began booing him earlier this year, cheered him like crazy. So now, Reigns is exactly where WWE was hoping he would be at the beginning of this year.
As for Reigns facing John Cena at WrestleMania 32, that’s still a possibility. Meltzer noted that Reigns’ opponent will either be Cena or Triple H.
If Reigns faces Triple H, that would almost certainly mean that “The Game” would have to win the Royal Rumble unless WWE is actually planning to have Reigns drop the title before WrestleMania 32.
Earlier this week, the advertisements for the Royal Rumble began running, and John Cena was heavily featured in them, which suggests that Cena will, for the third time in his career, win the Royal Rumble. That would mean he’ll be the man to face Reigns at WrestleMania 32.
You also can’t rule out Brock Lesnar as a possible opponent for Reigns, as there have been multiple reports that Lesnar is the favorite to win the 30-man Rumble match. It appears that WWE is considering having Reigns face one of three guys at WrestleMania, with John Cena being the most likely of the three to face the new WWE Champion.
[Image via WWE]
