5 Times WWE Tried To Pass The Torch To Roman Reigns

4. Brock Lesnar At WrestleMania 31

roman reigns
WWE.com

Of course, The Rock’s endorsement was only supposed to be the first step in tapping Roman Reigns as the next big megastar in WWE.

Brock Lesnar was nigh invulnerable in 2014, ending the Undertaker’s undefeated WrestleMania streak at WM XXX and defeating John Cena for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in a glorified squash at SummerSlam. He was heading into WrestleMania XXXI as the invincible champ, having defeated two of the biggest names in the company this century.

Yet the build to Mania involved Paul Heyman seemingly spending as much time talking up Reigns’ lineage and pedigree as he did boasting about Lesnar’s penchant for conquering. Paul E. presented Roman as a legitimate threat to Brock, all to build to Reigns winning the title from the unbeatable Lesnar at Mania.

As we all know, that didn’t quite go as planned.

Days before the big show, WWE pulled the plug on this torch-passing moment despite months of buildup, not to mention Lesnar’s dominant run during the past year. All that work was scuttled when it became clear that Roman winning wasn’t going to work.

Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fortunately became a fan in time for WrestleMania III and came back as a fan after a long high school hiatus before WM XIV. Monday nights in the Carlson household are reserved for viewing Raw -- for better or worse.