17 Greatest Roman Reigns WWE PPV Matches

Some WWE Superstars break through the glass ceiling guarding the main event tier organically. Others become major players thanks to being gifted a chosen status by the powers that be. Roman Reigns is a special mix of both.

When Batista won the 2014 Royal Rumble, the runner-up for that contest seemed like a welcome alternative to the fans. The 2015 Royal Rumble became a role reversal for Reigns as the crowd resented his hand-picked victory.

Getting Roman to the top might have been a rocky ordeal but he's produced a fantastic body of work along the way. Beginning with his early days in The Shield, he has been a part of some of the best matches of the past few years.

The following 17 matches count down Reigns' greatest Pay-Per-View matches. A whopping 9 of these were rated 4 stars or better by the Wrestling Observer and only one dips below 3 stars. His rise to the top has been very enjoyable to watch.

Overall match quality was considered as well as Roman's individual effort and how his career was impacted by each match.

Many tag-team and multi-man matches are included on this list but neither of Reigns' two Royal Rumble appearances were included. The line had to be drawn somewhere so the Rumbles weren't considered. Several other lesser matches were omitted as well.

Here are Roman's 17 best Pay-Per-View bouts...

CM Punk was gearing up for a potential WrestleMania match against COO Triple H. His journey found himself in this unfair 3-on-1 match at TLC.

It should be stated that the match itself was enjoyable enough. Roman Reigns was dominant and only stalled momentum when Punk avoided a charge, causing Roman to send himself crashing over the announce table.

It's hard to understand the logic of having three non-comedy wrestlers lose a handicap match like this and WWE probably regretted the call when Punk unceremoniously exited the company for good about a month later.

This would also be the match that CM Punk referenced during his infamous podcast interview with Colt Cabana where he was instructed to make Roman look strong. That comment would do him no favors, creating a swarm of internet memes to follow.