Backstage WWE News On Original Plans For Roman Reigns' Latest Title Run

The WWE's High Chief has held onto his title a lot longer than originally intended.

Nov 18, 2020 November 18th, 2020

There’s no doubt that Roman Reigns is absolutely killing it right now as the WWE Universal Champion, but the original plan for the High Chief and his gold was reportedly very different.

As per Wrestling Observer Radio, the initial plan was for Roman to have a short run with the Universal Championship before dropping it to someone else – with one suggestion being that the “someone else” in question could well have been Daniel Bryan.

Instead, those plans were changed and Reigns is now three months into his latest run as Universal Champion, with an immediate challenger to his title not yet known. Up next for the Big Dog, of course, is a Champion vs. Champion contest against Drew McIntyre at this weekend’s Survivor Series PPV.

Previously, Jey Uso – at the behest of Roman Reigns – put Daniel Bryan out of action a couple of weeks ago, which means that D-Bry will likely having Jey and his Universal Championship-holding cousin in his sights whenever he makes his return to SmackDown.

Right now, it’s not known when Bryan will be back in action, and so it could well be that Reigns finds himself squaring off with someone like Kevin Owens in the aftermath of Survivor Series. Either way, this latest report indicates that Roman has kept on to the Universal Championship a lot longer than was originally intended.

Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.

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