Is it possible that WWE has decided to not go the same path as last year of Royal Rumble to WrestleMania with Roman Reigns? It was a widely accepted assumption that Vince McMahon was hellbent on re-pushing Reigns to the top of the mountain next year after pulling the plug on a world title victory at WrestleMania XXXI in March. But it looks like WWE might have rethought that plan a little when Roman won a fatal fourway match to become number one contender for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Survivor Series. Reigns has been close to the title numerous times, with Seth Rollins upsetting him at Mania and Bray Wyatt thwarting him a couple times this summer. Reigns can ill afford to have a title match and fail to capture gold again, lest he fall into Lex Luger territory. Also, WWE could be figuring that Reigns has won his feud with Wyatt (at Hell in a Cell) and dragging things out until the Royal Rumble and running the risk of another huge fan backlash just isnt worth it for the WrestleMania moment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8tCVUphnIU Thats why it makes sense in many ways to have Reigns finally win the title at Survivor Series. Backlash will be minimized by not having a three-month build, there doesnt have to be an intermediary feud between now and the Rumble, and honestly, its not like ratings are going to get much worse with him as champ. WWE might as well pull the trigger and see what happens.
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 fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
