WWE Hot Take: Roman Reigns Should Relinquish The Universal Title

Roman Reigns has unquestionably been the epitome of greatness within the confines of the WWE. Unlike his egregious babyface run in 2014-2018, Reigns has truly found his element in this heel run as the Tribal Chief. Under Paul Heyman’s tutelage and mental gymnastics, Reigns’ storytelling is exemplary and his in-ring psychology is off the charts because of it. However, there is one major problem: Nobody is on his level right now. The following will expound on why Roman Reigns should relinquish the universal title after WrestleMania 38.

WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns should relinquish the Universal Championship after WrestleMania 38. Here’s why that should be the case.

There is not one full-time babyface ready to topple The Tribal Chief. Drew McIntyre? Nope. Big E? Nope. Shinsuke Nakamura? Nope. Finn Balor? Nope. AJ Styles? Nope. The list goes on and on. There is nobody left. Now, because WWE is eminently inept at booking top babyfaces, this company usually relies on some established babyface part-timer, such as The Rock, Brock Lesnar, John Cena, or Goldberg, to dethrone the top heel in the company.

This company implemented this inane booking strategy with CM Punk vs. The Rock at Royal Rumble 2013 and with Kevin Owens vs. Goldberg at FastLane 2017. Those are only 2 examples of many, and it’s unacceptable booking that truly speaks to the pernicious future of this company. The same cannot be done to Roman Reigns, who has been the only consistently booked character and megastar on WWE television for the past year and a half.

Henceforth, instead of booking a full-time babyface (e.g. Drew McIntyre) to dethrone Roman Reigns when he isn’t ready and instead of booking an established part time babyface (e.g. Brock Lesnar) to dethrone Reigns when he does not even need the title, the best-case scenario would be to book Reigns to relinquish the Universal Title after he inevitably defeats and probably stacks McIntyre and Lesnar at WrestleMania 38.

At that point, Reigns can end his full-time career undefeated as the Tribal Chief and go part-time as a big Hollywood star who only returns to WWE for big matches, like John Cena and The Rock do. By relinquishing the title, Reigns will be protected as the greatest universal champion of all time whilst allowing the main event scene to have a fresh start with a tournament that will crown a new Universal Champion after WrestleMania 38.

This booking methodology would be an effective way to protect Reigns from the inevitable vices of overexposure, provide more opportunities for the other hard-working superstars on the roster who need to be elevated, and keep things fresh in the main event scene for the WWE fans who already perceive Reigns’ title run as staler than a moldy bread. If you would like more of these WWE Hot Takes, stick with Daily DDT. You don’t want to miss them.