10 Wrestlers Who Refused To Drop Titles
3. Roman Reigns Didn't Wanted To Lose At WrestleMania 39
Roman Reigns dominated the entire landscape of the WWE throughout his historic 1316-day World title reign(s) and walked over all of his opponents with the help of The Bloodline. When Cody Rhodes reemerged in WWE in 2022 and won the 2023 men's Royal Rumble match, the entire WWE Universe believed he would be the one to dethrone The Tribal Chief at WrestleMania 39.
While Rhodes did go on to dethrone Roman Reigns, it took place a year later at WrestleMania 40 as The American Nightmare couldn't get the job done at WrestleMania 39 as he got overwhelmed with The Bloodline's numbers game.
However, the original plan was to have Rhodes dethrone Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 39, and Vince McMahon and Triple H were on board with the idea. But Reigns reportedly talked the higher-ups out of the decision and had some valid reasons to delay Rhodes' crowning moment for another year.
Roman Reigns convinced McMahon and Triple H that delaying the title change would add more weight to Rhodes' journey and that it would also open the doors for Jey Uso to break out as a singles star and draw large merchandise sales as a top babyface. All parties involved saw the insight in Reigns' arguments, and things turned out the same way The Tribal Chief had envisioned.