WWE: Ranking All Of Roman Reigns’ WrestleMania Matches
1. vs. Brock Lesnar – WrestleMania 31
Heading into the match, Roman Reigns had been admittedly unproven as a main eventer. The Shield had only broke up in summer 2014. He received a big rub from a win over Randy Orton at SummerSlam, but just under a month later, he’d find himself on the shelf for an injury. He wouldn’t come back until weeks before Royal Rumble, which everyone knew he was going to win despite not proving himself yet.
Because he was so unproven, fans decided to boo the guy out of the building every chance they got. Then, when it came down to the feud between himself and WWE Champion Brock Lesnar, it didn’t help that their feud was cooler than a frozen popsicle stand on a Winter night. If you can’t remember how the feud went down, it was highlighted by a literal tug o’ war over the championship.
All in all, it looked like the main event of WrestleMania 31 was going to be a disaster. In some ways, it was given that WWE’s ideal babyface was getting booed while their top heel who ended The Undertaker’s undefeated streak was getting cheers. And yet, it wasn’t a complete disaster. In fact, the match was pretty darn great.
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At the time, the Brock Lesnar formula laid out in entry #4 felt fresh still. More importantly, uniquely in comparison to other Lesnar squashes, this formula was used as a kind of christening for Roman Reigns. Think Tommy Dreamer vs. Sandman from ECW where Dreamer shed his pretty boy image by taking 10 brutal cane shots to the back. Overnight, the ECW fans fell in love with and respected Dreamer after booing him early on when he was pushed as ECW’s “Guy.”
Lesnar vs. Reigns was crafted with a similar intent. If he was unproven going into the match, he was going to earn his stripes by taking some welts of his own from Lesnar. And boy, did he. Lesnar was demolishing Reigns throughout the match and Reigns was taking it all on the chin. One of the match’s most memorable moments came when Reigns laughed off and smiled with blood pouring out of his mouth following a series of suplexes. Not only was he surviving Lesnar’s onslaught, he was taking it all with a smile and asking for more. Even if you still carried resentment for Reigns, it was hard for him not to grow on you after seeing him withstand so much punishment.
Formula aside, the chemistry between Reigns and Lesnar was actually pretty fluid, particularly in those final five minutes of the match. Reigns gave the comeback of a lifetime. Absolutely knackering The Beast with everything in his arsenal. Reigns may not have slayed him, but he did what few men had done since Lesnar returned in 2012: make The Beast bleed. As the climax neared, it seemed like Reigns was on his way to fulfilling his destiny to become the WWE Champion. That is, until Seth Rollins cashed in his Money in the Bank in one of the most shocking, adrenaline pumping, spine-tingling moments in WrestleMania history.
This might not have been Reigns’s night to win the title, but it was the night he earned a spot in the main event picture. All things considered, this was a fantastic first Mania main event for Roman Reigns.