Roman Reigns has accomplished a great deal in his WWE career. Not least of all, he has main evented WrestleMania six times to date, placing him behind only Triple H (a seven-time WrestleMania main eventer) and Hulk Hogan (an eight-time WrestleMania main eventer) for the most appearances in the last match of the show ever.
WrestleMania 39 could mark a unique opportunity for The Head of the Table to move into a tie for the number one spot, by main eventing both night one and night two of the biggest show of the year.
WWE Needs Reigns For Two WrestleMania Scenarios
Assuming he’s healthy to compete, it’s all but a given that Roman Reigns will work at least one WrestleMania main event in 2023. However, WWE finds itself an extraordinary circumstance in which there are two feuds that demand his presence. One is his widely rumored showdown with The Rock that has been the subject of speculation for years at this point.
WrestleMania 39 is the perfect stage for Rock vs. Reigns, for happening in Los Angeles with the backdrop of Dwayne Johnson’s movie stardom, and for some assurance that the pandemic won’t prevent a capacity crowd for both nights of ‘Mania in 2023. On top of that, the window may be narrowing on Rock being physically able to work a full-impact match at this level, besides which Reigns has attained a level of stardom to justify a showdown of this magnitude.
Cody Rhodes also figures into a WrestleMania main event scenario, though. The American Nightmare made a triumphant return at WrestleMania 38 and won a trilogy of matches opposite Seth Rollins. While his pectoral muscle injury threatened to derail his momentum, the gutsy performance he put on at Hell in a Cell only added to the mythos around the man.
Rhodes returning at and winning the Royal Rumble feel all but inevitable, as long his recovery progresses in time. While, in theory, WWE could split the world titles and have Rhodes challenge someone other than Reigns, he’s also about the only full-time WWE Superstar who feels realistic to “pull the sword from the stone” and reign as champion after The Tribal Chief.
Reigns Beating The Rock Is The Perfect Capstone to his Historic Title Reign
As much as The Rock is a legitimate A-List celebrity and ultra-credible in the world of wrestling, it doesn’t make much sense for him to win a world title at this point. He’s fifty years old and entrenched in Hollywood. Rather than Rock beating Roman Reigns, he’d be the perfect man to give his cousin his “lifetime achievement award”—a victory over a full-blown icon to cap his historic title reign.
The ideal scenario could see Reigns beat Rock in a hard-fought match at night one of WrestleMania 39. From there, Reigns would be on a whole new level to move on to his underdog challenger, Cody Rhodes, for night two.
Cody Rhodes Should Be the Man to Beat Roman Reigns
One of the challenges the John Cena vs. The Rock rivalry faced from 2011 to 2013 was The Great One’s limited schedule. The part-time status left Cena holding the bag to cut promos on his own and work a field of other opponents, with the knowledge he was always going to find himself feuding with Rock in the end.
While Roman Reigns has already transitioned to a reduced schedule, it’s reasonable to expect he’ll be around plenty in WrestleMania season, at least cutting promos. For The Rock, he’ll surely make some appearances, but can’t be expected to be present week in and week out.
Enter Cody Rhodes. After winning the Royal Rumble, The American Nightmare can be the man who’s present every week to push his own issue with Reigns. Moreover, while Rhodes doesn’t have Rock’s star power, he can lean into that with his family’s working class ethos—selling that he’s the one who always shows up to work and busts his butt.
Rhodes beating Reigns at night two of WrestleMania 39 could tell a terrific underdog story, besides even protecting The Head of the Table with him having the excuse that he was worn down from working a big match the night before.
WWE’s Future is Wide Open After WrestleMania 39
A part of Roman Reigns being pushed so definitively as the top star in WWE—including two years as Universal Champion and already having WrestleMania main event victories in back-to-back years—is the presumption the company was setting up the intergenerational, intrafamily dream match between him and The Rock. With that match out of the way, and with the historic reign having run its course, WWE will be free to think outside the box with its top title and with Reigns himself.
What will that mean for the company, its top title, and its top star? Part of the fun is that that future is unclear. While there is merit to long-term booking and the credibility of a long-reigning champion, the scenario of Reigns winning one main event and losing the other at WrestleMania 39 opens up all manner of possibilities for where things might head next, making the top of the card less predictable than its been since 2020.
It’s too soon to predict what will happen at WrestleMania 39 with much accuracy, and there is a case to be made that it’s better to spread the ‘Mania main event wealth than concentrating it all on Roman Reigns. That’s especially the case with Becky Lynch vs. Ronda Rousey also rumored for the show. Nonetheless, working these two matches, in back-to-back nights of main events would fit the push WWE has bestowed upon Roman Reigns and offer an epic conclusion to his storied reign atop the company.
