On the recent episode of Raw , Roman Reigns won the Intercontinental Championship for the first time, and there are discussions of this leading into his upcoming WrestleMania 34 feud with Brock Lesnar. For Reigns, he joined an elite list of people who have become the “Grand Slam Champion,” winning the WWE Championship, Intercontinental Championship, United States Championship, and Tag Team Championship. He also joins fellow Shield member Dean Ambrose in this feat, and also shares with Ambrose the distinction of completing this achievement within five years to the month of his main roster debut. Reigns tried before to win the championship from Miz on a previous episode of Raw nearly two months ago, but Sheamus and Cesaro prevented him from obtaining it. The two tried to interfere this match as well, but were unsuccessful in him getting the pin on Miz.
While this match was developed on the Raw episode without any prior announcement and seemed sudden, it has been reported that the reason why this happened was due to The Miz leaving the ring for a while to film Marine 6. He will also be joined by Shawn Michaels and Becky Lynch, which may be the reason why she received a longer beating from Sarah Logan, Ruby Riot, and Liv Morgan than Naomi did. In addition to the Miz leaving for the movie, there could also be another reason why Reigns has the Intercontinental Championship.
Roman Reigns’ IC Title Win Leading Into A Feud With Brock Lesnar
In addition to Reigns winning the title due to the Miz leaving for Marine 6, PWInsider also speculated that this title win could be leading into his upcoming WrestleMania 34 feud with Brock Lesnar. The reason behind this is due to the announcement Reigns made during his post-match backstage interview that he could be bringing back the Open Challenge concept. After weeks of doing this challenge and competing on Raw , Reigns could then cut a promo of how he is a loyal member of the WWE roster, while Lesnar only comes on sporadic dates.
From many media reports , it is still a lock that the WrestleMania main event in New Orleans will be Lesnar vs. Reigns for the Universal Championship. However, there are varying ideas of how to get to that match. There have been discussions of Reigns winning the Royal Rumble another time, but WWE has been doing a successful job in shifting the fans’ boos to cheers, so that would be a major setback if the reaction from Philadelphia when he won in 2015 happens again.
[Featured Image by WWE]
