As we continue to speculate who Roman Reigns could be facing on the road to WWE WrestleMania 35, we look back at and rank his past Mania matches from worst to best.
After dealing with another battle with leukemia that forced him to relinquish the Universal Championship, Roman Reigns finally returns after five months away from the WWE. Best of all, he returns with his cancer being in remission. For the foreseeable future, Roman Reigns is back in action full time on the ongoing road for WrestleMania. He has already booked his first match back in a WWE ring, which will also see him reunited with his Shield brothers for a Six-Man Tag Team match at Fastlane this Sunday.
We are happy to see The Big Dog back in action and we are excited to see who Reigns could be facing at the Showcase of the Immortals. This will be the first Mania in four years that will not feature the four time World Champion in the main event as all of ‘Mania 35’s big title matches have been booked. It all seems to be up in the air so far regarding potential WrestleMania opponents for Reigns.
While we continue to speculate who The Guy could be facing on wrestling’s biggest stage, we felt compelled to look back at some of Reigns’s matches from Mania’s past. The WrestleMania show highlight reel for Reigns showcases some of The Big Dog’s best career highlights.
We are gonna take a look back at all of Roman Reigns’ matches from WrestleMania and rank them from his “worst” match to his best match.
6. vs. New Age Outlaws & Kane – WrestleMania XXX
Let’s kick things off with the shortest match on the list. For those who may not remember the build to this match, the Mar. 17, 2014 episode of Raw would see The Shield turn babyface for the first time in their careers by attacking Kane to protect Jerry Lawler. The Big Corporate Machine would hire backup in the form of the New Age Outlaws.
The two alliances would square off in a match at the 30th edition of WrestleMania. Well, it wasn’t so much of a match as it was a squash. The match lasted only two minutes and 56 seconds and that whole time, The Shield had the upper hand while their elders got very little offense in.
Granted, it was a fun squash match. It was great to see the young guns establish their dominance by taking some old timers to school. Best of all, the faction innovated their own finishing move by ending the match with a Double Triple Powerbomb.
However, the match gets the last spot just because it is so short. It’s a memorable squash match, yes – and maybe it is a little more enjoyable than most of the matches on this list – but it doesn’t have much replay value on that basis alone. When was the last time you revisited a squash match? Yeah, didn’t think so. Still, nonetheless, it was an excellent way to push The Shield as the leaders of the new school.
5. vs. Undertaker – WrestleMania 33
This match was disappointing for a number of reasons. The main one being that for whatever reason, these two just couldn’t click on this night. They had no chemistry whatsoever and their sparring was often clunky. Which is sad because they’re both tremendous athletes. Roman Reigns was starting to get genuinely great at this point; he had been good for some years, but around this time, he was reaching his prime as a competitor. Meanwhile, The Undertaker was, well, The Undertaker. No matter how old he gets, he’s always going to be The Undertaker.
Unfortunately, we never got the best of either man and neither man was able to bring the best out of each other. Their styles failed to mesh well and led to a sloppy match with some cringeworthy botches; most notably the Tombstone where Roman Reigns failed to lift Taker off his feet. It was more so because Taker’s failed to support his own weight to allow Reigns to lift him up or his hip stopped him from steadying himself, but it wasn’t a good look regardless. Not the finest hour for either man by any stretch of the imagination.
The match seems worse in retrospect considering that for a year, we were all under the impression that this was The Undertaker’s final match. Being that it wasn’t actually his final match, the moment seemed less impactful when looking back. At the time, however, it was a poignant retirement match for a WWE legend.
Interestingly enough, the biggest positives from this match came in its aftermath. While many fans didn’t like Roman Reigns beating Taker, beating Taker gave Reigns a bigger superstar presence. His explosive crowd reaction from the following night proved that. While the match had its benefits coming out of it, the match itself left something to be desired.
4. vs. Brock Lesnar – WrestleMania 34
While this match is higher on the list than most, it is – for me at least – the most disappointing match on the rankings list and my least favorite of them all.
I put it at number #4 because when I put my own personal biases aside, this match isn’t necessarily a bad match. It’s not a great match either – made worse by a crowd who clearly wasn’t feeling either guy in this match – but it’s also the typical Brock Lesnar match. You know, suplex, suplex, suplex, F-5, kickout, suplex, suplex … lather, rinse, repeat. Again, not great, but it’s the match you expect from Brock Lesnar.
What I didn’t like is that WrestleMania ended with a win for mega-heel Lesnar. Even if you didn’t want Reigns to win, WWE had been building towards Reigns beating Lesnar in the main event of WrestleMania for the better part of three years. After all of that build-up, Reigns loses and WrestleMania goes off the air on an absolutely dour note. People hated Reigns, but surely they hated a part timer retaining the World Title again even more. With a finish like this, nobody wins.
One thing that does put this match a smidge over other matches on this list is the image of Roman Reigns screaming in Brock’s face while a bevy of blood poured down his face. Granted, I hate that Reigns had to be busted open the hard way for no reason if he wasn’t even going to win, but that image has been permanently burned into the back of my skull. WrestleMania is made for memorable moments and images like that and as far as wrestling is concerned, that was one of the most unforgettable sights that I’ve ever seen.
Now, if only Reigns actually won. Sigh.
3. vs. Triple H – WrestleMania 32
After WWE failed to give Roman Reigns his moment in the sun in WrestleMania 31’s main event, they wanted to try again the following year. They needed a foolproof antagonist guaranteed to give The Big Dog the cheers he needed to claim his spot as top guy. Enter Triple H.
Well, Triple H wasn’t as “foolproof” as they might’ve hoped, given that people love The Game – to be fair, it’s hard to boo Trips when he sheds his suit to be a bonafide badass – but the story they had heading into Mania was captivating and well told. It was a nice spin on the usual Authority angle. Rather than just giving us the typical renegade superstar beating up his boss every week, this boss hits back. Hard. A boss who can believably and willingly beat the unholy hell out of his employee was a refreshing take on the classic McMahon/Austin angle.
To top it all off, the match itself was solid and quite good on a technical basis. It may not have been great – at least in comparison to other famous ‘Mania main events – but it wasn’t a bad match by any stretch of the imagination. It certainly didn’t deserve to be crapped on by the crowd like it was. Simply because crowds were always anti-Reigns at the time, they actively resisted the match before the bell even rang. Even when the match received its biggest – and only – pop when Roman speared Stephanie McMahon, they went right back to booing Roman immediately after because. Just because.
It’s a shame, really, because Triple H and Roman Reigns did everything they could to tear the house down that night. They had good chemistry, they pulled off some memorable spots (my favorite being Trips reversing Roman Reigns’s Superman Punch in mid-air into an Armbar) as well as some jaw dropping ones (namely a neckbreakaer off of the announce table and a Spear through the barricade). The fans may have crapped on them for no reason, but on a better day, their work would’ve been appreciated.
Also, bonus points go out to this match for the sight of Roman’s dad jumping for the joy to see his son win the big one on the big stage. I’m still upset that WWE didn’t have a camera on that man at all times.
2. vs. Sheamus, Randy Orton and Big Show – WrestleMania 29
This was the first WrestleMania for not only Roman Reigns, but for Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins as well. For their Mania debut, The Shield faced arguably their biggest challenge yet in the form of three future Hall of Famers on the biggest stage they ever wrestled on up until that point. As was the case with many early Shield contests, it was the new guard challenging the old guard for their spots. For what it was, the match was a fun one.
The match actually had a rather interesting story to it. While The Shield were a cohesive unit, their opponents were reluctant partners. Sheamus and Randy Orton had spent the past previous months – the last year, in fact – feuding with Big Show and reluctantly banded together to put an end to The Shield. However, due to their previous history, they especially didn’t trust Big Show, so they stuck to tagging each other and keeping Show out of the mix. This frustrated the big man to no end. For the whole match, he was fuming on the apron. He’d end up KOing both his partners after the match
Beyond the story, the match was action packed and filled with exciting, thrilling spots left and right. The match ended in suitably thrilling fashion. After all hell broke loose with bodies flying everywhere, Rollins would springboard off the ropes only for Orton to hit an RKO outta nowhere. Unlucky for Orton, Rollins wasn’t the legal man. The Viper turned around right into a Spear from Reigns to give the three man band their first Mania victory. It all made for a terrific Mania opener.
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.
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.