On this past Monday’s Raw , Roman Reigns was attacked backstage by Braun Strowman. The segment was widely regarded as the best part of this past Monday’s show, however, if you’re thinking that Reigns is going to miss any television time, then you’re about to receive some bad news.
As of right now, Reigns is scheduled to face Braun Strowman at this month’s WWE Payback show on April 30. So he will be on Raw for the next two weeks so WWE can properly build to the match.
Reigns appeared at the Raw live events over the weekend, where he ended up spearing Strowman through a table. But, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter , Reigns, in storyline, isn’t cleared to wrestle, so he won’t do any matches prior to Payback .
“WWE is handling Roman Reigns’ storyline injuries after the angle with Braun Strowman by having him appear on the Raw house shows this weekend but not wrestling in matches. They announced that he wasn’t cleared to compete on the show in Providence last night, then had him come out to brawl with Strowman. Reigns was taped up and came out on top in the brawl by spearing Strowman through a table.”
Following the backstage assault on Monday’s Raw , WWE’s website posted an update on Reigns which said that he had suffered a few cracked ribs and a separated shoulder, and his shoulder was heavily taped when he came out to confront Strowman at the live events over the weekend. So, expect that to be the case when we see him this coming Monday night, and possibly next Monday night as well.
Strowman is scheduled to challenge Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship at some point in the near future, so his match with Reigns will probably have some kind of non-finish. There’s also a chance that’ll end up being a stretcher match, where neither Reigns or Strowman will have to be pinned.
Even though the backlash against Reigns seems to be stronger than ever, WWE is still planning on having him challenge Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship in the main event of next year’s WrestleMania . Apparently, Vince McMahon isn’t concerned about how the crowd reacts to Reigns anymore, as long as they’re making noise. Some fans are hoping for a heel turn before next year’s show in New Orleans, but unless the crowd stops reacting to Reigns completely, that won’t happen.
If the plan is to do Reigns vs. Lesnar at next year’s WrestleMania , that probably means that Reigns won’t get a shot at the title until then, as WWE is planning on having Lesnar hold the red brand’s main title until next spring.
For now though, just expect Reigns to feud with Braun Strowman. It’ll be interesting to see how WWE books that match, as they don’t really want either man to lose, or at least lose clean.
Roman Reigns is being advertised to appear in some capacity on this Monday’s Raw . Again, WWE is going with the idea that he’s injured and that he’s not cleared to compete, so he probably won’t have a match until Payback . However, that doesn’t mean that he won’t do anything physical on Monday because as previously mentioned, he’s been doing physical stuff all weekend long. So, there’s at least a chance that he’ll spear Braun Strowman through a table on Monday.
As for who Reigns will be in the ring with after Payback , well, that’s tough to predict. All of Raw’s top heels are currently involved in ongoing storylines, so he could just keep working with Braun Strowman following their pay-per-view match.
[Featured Image by WWE]
