According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, there are no plans set in stone for Roman Reigns at Wrestlemania 33. However, he noted that it will not be a coronation match like Wrestlemania 32.
Meltzer noted that there has been a “big surprise” idea pitched for Reigns, but it is very unlikely to happen. It was also noted that Reigns may walk into Wrestlemania 33 as the Universal Champion, which means that he would win it from Kevin Owens at Royal Rumble.
One of the rumoured matches of late for Roman Reigns at Wrestlemania 33 is against Braun Strowman. Bryan Alvarez, also of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter said that Strowman is one of the favourites to win the Royal Rumble match.
If all that were to play out, Strowman would challenge Roman for the Universal Championship. Alvarez said that the reason there were so many Roman Reigns vs. Big Show matches last year was because of the belief that beating a giant would help get Roman over.
This led him to conclude that the purpose of a Strowman-Reigns match would be for Roman to beat Strowman to try to get more over.
However, the story of the past two years has shown that the audience will cheer any opponent Reigns goes up against, whether it is Brock Lesnar or Triple H. The first time they attempted Reigns’ Wrestlemania push, he was rejected and they had to change plans and have Seth Rollins cash in the Money In The Bank to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at the main event.
The second time around, the WWE Universe continued to reject Reigns and cheered for the more popular Dean Ambrose. However, this time around, WWE decided to pull through with the storyline and end the long-standing Authority angle.
This resulted in Reigns standing tall at Wrestlemania 32 to a sea of boos, which were considerably toned down on television.
Reigns is now a three-time World Champion, but his title reigns haven’t been long, with the longest reign being at 77 days. He would have had a longer reign after WrestleMania, but he got suspended for 30 days, resulting in him dropping the title to Seth Rollins.
It could be argued that letting Strowman defeat Reigns for the title at Wrestlemania would benefit Strowman far more in the long run than Reigns.
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