WWE News: Roman Reigns Preparing To Lose Huge Match At ‘WWE Payback’
At WrestleMania 33, Roman Reigns beat the Undertaker in a match that will be considered one of the biggest wins in WWE history, but he’s expected to take a shocking loss very soon. After beating the Undertaker on the grandest stage of them all, the WWE Universe hasn’t responded positively to Roman Reigns being the one to end the legendary career of The Deadman, and the backlash has been very negative.
The WWE Universe had a few months to prepare for the result they knew was coming, but it didn’t make a difference once it was real. Roman Reigns has taken the victory, the glory, and the backlash from the WWE Universe in stride, because it’s really his only option. He’s declared WWE to be “his yard,” which he earned after defeating The Deadman at WrestleMania. It’s just a bitter pill for many people to take.
As of this writing, it’s been reported that WWE officials have penciled in Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 34 in New Orleans next year. The long term plan is for them to have their rematch from a few years ago at the biggest event of the year once again. However, Roman Reigns will walk out the WWE Universal Champion next time, and he may be “retiring” Brock Lesnar as well, as his deal with WWE expires next year.
There is no doubt that after defeating the Undertaker in Orlando, Roman Reigns is the biggest wrestler on Earth right now and the momentum boost from the match is massive. The response from the fans should be expected, but they’ll be happy about what WWE officials have planned for him heading into WWE Payback later this month, as he’s expected to follow the biggest win of his career with a huge loss at the PPV.
It’s being reported that creative plans for Roman Reigns heading into WWE Payback are to resume the feud with Braun Strowman, which will lead to a No. 1 contender match between them at the PPV. WWE officials will have an interesting choice to make because another loss to Reigns could be hurtful for Strowman, but is it smart for WWE to have Roman lose less than a month after beating the Undertaker at WrestleMania 33?
Apparently, WWE has decided on the latter because it has been reported that Lesnar vs. Strowman is the direction the powers that be want to go for the WWE Universal Title picture. Strowman going over Reigns is a really interesting booking decision to make less than a month after Roman’s win over Undertaker, but the powers that be are trying to delay Lesnar vs. Reigns and push Strowman, so that result makes a lot of sense.
There is some speculation that WWE may spare Roman Reigns from having to take the loss directly. The idea is to bring Finn Balor and Kevin Owens into the match at WWE Payback and have Braun Strowman pin one of them instead of Reigns. In that scenario, it would most likely be Owens that takes the loss, but it wouldn’t force Reigns to take the loss and Strowman could still challenge Brock Lesnar for the WWE Universal Title.
WWE officials are going to have a hard time keeping the momentum from WrestleMania going for Roman Reigns all the way to New Orleans next year. He will still be extremely over, but the WWE Universe may not be as passionately against him in a few months or even weeks. It will be challenging to keep his run hot for the next several months if he’s going to be losing big matches to put over other rising stars in the company.
[Featured Image by WWE]
