Ranking EVERY Roman Reigns WWE WrestleMania Main Event From Worst To Best
The most prolific WWE 'Mania headliner in history has had some great and...not-so-great matches.
Calling Roman Reigns 'The Samoan Undertaker' would not be much of a stretch these days.
The 'Tribal Chief' shows up around this time every year, well rested following his latest months-long vacation from WWE, and he immediately commands a top spot on the WrestleMania card. Even during his reign as WWE's apparent forever champ, Reigns’ appearances were seemingly limited to major PLEs and a couple hype-jobs on television.
Despite that limited presence, Roman is poised to headline his sixth consecutive WrestleMania next month in Las Vegas - a record - and compete in his 11th 'Mania main event, which is also a record.
Today, Reigns’ WrestleMania matches are considered appointment viewing and are among some of the biggest bouts in recent years, but that wasn’t always the case for the 'OTC'.
Roman has long been a pet project of WWE higher-ups, receiving stop-start pushes at the top of the card for years before everything finally clicked in mid-2020. Before that, Reigns was the over-pushed, underappreciated superstar fans loved to hate (something that was true even while WWE told them that the 'Big Dog' was a hero for the ages).
With 10 'Mania main events under Roman’s flak jacket, this is as good of a time as any to look back at his previous turns in the bright spotlight and compare how each main event stacks up against one another. Unsurprisingly, it took a while for Reigns to click as a true top guy and bankable WrestleMania main-eventer, but that’s the fun of this list.
Let’s get to it!
10. WrestleMania 34 (Roman vs. Brock Lesnar)
Believe it or not, competition was stiff for the bottom spot on this list. Whilst it won’t surprise longtime fans, newer WWE followers might be shocked to learn that Roman Reigns’ earlier years as a main-event talent were…not that well received.
However, we’ve got to give this spot to WrestleMania 34, which saw Brock Lesnar walk in (and out) as the Universal Champion against Reigns. Want to know how bad it was? Let’s play a game: Count the number of different wrestling moves and how many times they were used in the Lesnar vs. Reigns match.
F-5: 6. Spear: 4. German suplex: 6. Superman Punch: 3. Belly-to-belly overhead suplex: 2.
That seriously would cover 95% of the offensive moves in this slow, plodding, dull match.
What really needs to be pointed out is that WWE spent a year building Brock up as this indestructible force where the F-5 was a true kill shot. This was an era where a single F-5 put everyone down for the count. Roman kicked out of 5 of them, and to nearly no crowd reaction. Well, that’s not true. They booed and chanted: “This is awful!”
What’s worse is that they built Brock up as a villain for Roman to slay, the fans turned on it, and then Reigns lost. Just a horrendous main event that realistically should have sunk Roman as a top guy.