The Day The WWE Universal Title Died
It mattered not that Roman Reigns finally beat Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam 2018, nor that 'The Beast' still had bangers in him during another period with the title following Roman's abdication due to the return of his leukaemia. The "give it back to a big lad and f*ck it all off" philosophy was set in stone, carrying all the way back from 2017 and through to 2020 and The Fiend's loss to Goldberg just so he could drop it to Reigns at WrestleMania.
Proof of that came in the form of his late replacement Braun Strowman, years after somehow being big still wasn't as good as being Brock. Bray Wyatt took it back from 'The Monster Among Men' at SummerSlam, but only so he could lose it to the latest big lad in the returning heel Roman. Nothing fundamentally wrong in that, but it follows the pattern set by Owens losing to Goldberg, Fiend losing to Goldberg and everybody losing to Lesnar.
Clash Of Champions 2020 was a curse-lifting restorative resuscitation job on the Universal Championship, but Roman Reigns will have to do this once a month every month for about a year to put his prize back on the pedestal it needs. He's the hope, the chance, the big bad b*stard that also works and kicks f*cking *ss doing it.
If he can't do it - or worse, they reduce him to Lesnar feed all over again thanks to his association with Paul Heyman - you might as well paraphrase an old Big Boss Man promo to eulogise it. Or worse, get Heyman to turn on Reigns to hand it back to his favourite client. Picture the scene - it's 2022, and The Beast's advocate takes the altar set up for the first full arena crowd since March 2020. He introduces himself and, to the sight of a chuckling Lesnar says; "Roman, you've been brave, been strong, got SmackDown back on track. But the blue b*stard's DEAD and it ain't never comin' back!'
Heavy is the head that wears the lei, and it's a good job that handsome dome belongs to Roman Reigns. For this reign and this belt, the years of posthumous compromise are over - it's now a case of death or glory.