Joe Anoa’i (Roman Reigns) has issued a statement regarding recent allegations made against him by Miami gym owner, Richard Rodriguez.
Rodriguez was arrested last February as part of a $10 million steroid distribution ring. Under the name Wellness Fitness Nutrition, Rodriguez is alleged to have distributed steroids to several celebrity clients, one of whom he claims is Roman Reigns. Rodriguez made the allegations last week in a YouTube post.
Roman Reigns’ Statement
Reigns issued the following statement to ESPN yesterday on the matter:
“I have never heard of Richard Rodriguez or Wellness Fitness Nutrition. I learned from the mistake I made nearly two years ago and paid the penalty for it. Since then, I’ve passed 11 tests as part of WWE’s independent drug testing program.”
Reigns had been suspended for 30 days in June of 2016 for failing a Wellness Policy drug test.
A gym in Miami was raided by the DEA last February, and the owner, Richard Rodriguez, was arrested and accused of running a steroid distribution ring. In a new interview over the phone from jail with filmmaker Jon Bravo, Rodriguez named Roman Reigns as one of his celebrity customers.
In the interview, Rodriguez claims that Reigns and actor Mark Whalberg are among his A-list clients. Rodriguez calls Reigns a “down-to-earth guy.” Throughout the interview Rodriguez promotes a “documentary” about his situation coming soon, and says he will name more celebrities.
The Miami Herald reported on the raid back in February, but so far no independent source has verified the former gym owner’s claims about celebrity clients.
The report claims Rodriguez was part of a distribution chain that imported substances from China, manufactured illegal steroids in Arizona, and then sold them in Miami. Rodriguez and his wife reportedly made over $2 million in cash in under two years from the operation.
Last month on the WWE Network following an episode of Monday Night RAW the company debuted a new show entitled “Straight To The Source” with Corey Graves. Graves’ first guest was none other than current WWE Intercontinental Champion Roman Reigns. Reigns was asked about numerous topics surrounding his WWE career, but one statement “The Big Dog” made stood above everything else. Reigns claimed to be the “best performer in-ring in the world,” which of course sparked criticism from fans everywhere:
“You know I’m the best performer in-ring in the world right now. You can go to my matches and my pay-per-views over the last three years and you can say I’m an idiot or you can be like ‘man, he’s got a point’, you know what I mean?”
As for who most consider to be the best in-ring performer in the world today – New Japan Pro Wrestling star and current IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega is one of the names at the top of that list. In a recent interview with Bleacher Report, “The Cleaner” responded to Reigns’ claims last month and called them ‘ridiculous’:
“I don’t know if Roman was put up to saying a comment like that from a social media team or if it was something that he consciously thought of himself. But I thought it was pretty smart of him to do—to say—that, because it became instantaneously a topic that people were talking about. And just because it sounds so ridiculous. You know what I mean?
“By no means do I actually think he believes in those words. There’s no possible way. I don’t have to feel like I have to speak up about it. It is what it is, and I understand that it’s a fun thing for fans to generate interest in the product. I take absolutely zero offense in him saying it. Especially since it’s quite clear that the fact of the matter is much, much different.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74QIDIO5Pxw
You can read Omega’s interview with Bleacher Report by clicking here.
– As we’ve noted, The Miz will rematch Roman Reigns for the Intercontinental Championship at RAW’s 25th Anniversary Show on January 22nd. The Miz closed out this past Monday’s episode of RAW by attacking Roman Reigns with The Miztourage. The assault didn’t stop there, however, as The Miz took to Twitter today to taunt “The Big Dog” even further:
– On last night’s episode of SmackDown Live Ruby Riott suffered a loss to Becky Lynch in singles competition. WWE posted the following video in which Riott challenges Lynch, Naomi, and SmackDown Live Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair to a Six-Woman Tag match against The Riott Squad:
– As seen on last night’s episode of Monday Night RAW WWE Intercontinental Champion Roman Reigns successfully defended his title against Samoa Joe. The match had a stipulation in which if Reigns got disqualified he would lose his title to Joe. “The Big Dog” was able to maintain his composure against the man who injured his Shield brother, Dean Ambrose, and connected with a Spear for the win. He took to Twitter after the show to comment on his big win:
– WWE Superstar Titus O’Neal, real name Thaddeus Bullard, recently announced on Twitter that he will be honored at the upcoming MLK Honors with the Drum Major for Justice Award:
My 2018 starts on a really Honorable Note as I’m being Honored with a Drum Major for Justice Award- Family/Community by the Dr. Martin Luther King Parade Foundation. Yep 2018 is Going to Be Great!!#Blessed Time to get The Tuxedo out???? pic.twitter.com/OEfVKYGi67
Tonight’s WWE live event in Toronto, Ontario, Canada abruptly ended after Samoa Joe bled profusely during the main event match against Intercontinental Champion Roman Reigns.
After getting busted open above his eye, Joe continued brawling at ringside as he threw Reigns into the barricade. WWE personnel then began checking on Joe and despite him telling them that he was OK to continue, the referee decided to call off the match seconds later, ending the show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpE930eTzCE
They will battle again this Monday on Raw as Reigns defends the Intercontinental Championship against Joe. Raw General Manager Kurt Angle made the announcement on Twitter on Friday, with an added stipulation being that Reigns will lose the title if he gets disqualified.
Angle wrote, “On the first #Raw of 2018 @WWERomanReigns will defend his #ICTitle against @SamoaJoe; if Roman is DQ’ed, he’ll lose the match AND his title.”
Roman Reigns first won the Intercontinental Championship from The Miz on 22nd November’s edition of RAW:
Fast forward a month, and Reigns found himself able to retain his title against Samoa Joe after he used his Champions advantage to full effect, being disqualified. He was later fined by WWE for pushing the referee official.
Kurt Angle has now arranged a rematch as Reigns is set to take on Samoa Joe during 2018’s first episode of RAW. Angle has also added the stipulation that Roman Reigns will lose his Intercontinental title if he loses the match via disqualification.
It’s also worth noting that The Miz has been cleared to return to the ring, after fulfilling his role in the next edition of The Marine franchise with Becky Lynch and Shawn Michaels. It wouldn’t be surprising to see him return and make the match a triple threat. as he never claimed his contractual rematch.
– We previously noted that Rolling Stone named The Miz their 2017 WWE Wrestler Of The Year. The Miz recently Tweeted out his reaction to the news, taking a shot at WWE Intercontinental Champion Roman Reigns in the process (who defeated Miz for the strap on RAW last month):
– England’s Tottenham Hotspur football club posted a video of midfielder Mousa Dembele engaging in a joke battle with WWE Superstar Finn Balor. Check it out below:
– In Alfred Konuwa’s latest blog on Forbes, he takes a look at the most disliked videos on WWE’s YouTube channel. The most disliked video of 2017 was Roman Reigns’ promo the night after defeating The Undertaker at WrestleMania 33. The video has 35,000 dislikes compared to the 27,000 likes, making it’s dislike percentage of 56%. One of Emmalina’s promos from January received 11,000 dislikes compared to 1,000 likes, giving it a dislike percentage of 92%. You can read Konuwa’s full blog at this link.
– Newsday recently did an interview with Kane to promote yesterday’s WWE live event from the Nassau Coliseum. During the interview Kane discussed having to work on Christmas Day for a live episode of Monday Night RAW. Here’s what he had to say:
“The thing about it is that this is one of our most important times of the year business wise. We do really, really good business the week after Christmas,” Kane said. “It is what it is. There’s always trade-offs. We’re not the only people who this year will be working on Christmas Day. A lot of people do that to provide for their family.”
– WWE.com reports that Roman Reigns has been fined $5,000 for shoving referee John Cone during his title defense against Samoa Joe on Raw last night. Reigns was disqualified as a result of the shove:
Roman Reigns receives $5,000 fine for shoving official on Raw
“Intercontinental Champion Roman Reigns has been fined $5,000 for shoving referee John Cone during his title defense against Samoa Joe on Raw last night, WWE.com can confirm.
“The incident occurred after Reigns backed Joe into the corner of the ring and continued to attack him past the official’s count. When Cone attempted to intercede, Reigns shoved him aside to continue his attack. The champion was subsequently disqualified, though he kept his title as a result of champion’s advantage.”
– On next Monday’s New Year’s edition of Monday Night RAW, WWE Cruiserweight Champion Enzo Amore will defend his title against Cedric Alexander. Alexander Tweeted out the following regarding his Cruiserweight title shot:
– WWE posted the following Fallout video showing what happened after last night’s Monday Night RAW. The women of RAW celebrated the announcement that the first-ever all-female Royal Rumble would be taking place next month:
– WWE Intercontinental Champion Roman Reigns was not mentioned on last night’s Monday Night RAW. He is being advertised for next week’s Christmas episode of RAW.
– There’s been some speculation that WWE Intercontinental Champion Roman Reigns could miss next week’s episode of Monday Night RAW in Providence, Rhode Island, as neither WWE or the Dunkin Donuts Center website is advertising him for the show.
A Texas Tornado RAW Tag Team Title dark match is being advertised between The Bar and the team of Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose – but no sign of Reigns. A match between Braun Strowman and Kane, as well as an appearance from Brock Lesnar, is also being advertised.
– It was noted on last night’s episode of 205 Live by Drew Gulak and Ariya Daivari that Noam Darr is currently out-of-action and is going to get surgery to repair his injured knee. Darr last wrestled in a match against Cedrick Alexander on last week’s episode of 205 Live, which he lost. There is currently no word on the specifics of Darr’s injury or how long he’ll be out:
As we noted before, Roman Reigns recently appeared on WWE Network’s Straight To The Source where he talked about a variety of topics. Below are some more highlights from his interview:
His recent mumps infection:
“It was just a strange scenario, I was infected with the mumps and, like, I don’t know if we’ll be able to use this [footage]. Like, I wasn’t in any serious pain or anything. You have your obvious side effects and gland swelling and stuff like that. The only real pain I felt was like in my jaw and in my ears, but the main thing was the isolation.
It’s such a rare virus that, hell, half the nurses didn’t even know what the mumps were because it’s so old school. You get your vaccines at one [year old] and everything. I think when we were younger they didn’t do boosters at a certain age, so now they do it, and, regardless, my immune system wasn’t up to the task! I caught it and I was out for about three weeks. And the crazy part is that I was stuck in the hospital or in the hotel and to be in the hotel sucked, man.”
How his infection reminded him that life can change in an instant:
“It reminds you how fragile everything is and as simple as one little thing like a freak occurrence like that can take you out of your life. It can take you out of your normal schedule, so for me, I mean, I’ve always been very thankful for health and it’s the little things, being able to wake up in your bed, and play with your kids, and be next to your wife, being able to kiss your kids, kiss them on the cheek. Yeah, I get yelled at for kissing the kids now!”
Why he was pulled from a WWE tour last year:
“It’s funny how people come up with, like, all these conclusions. Like, nobody knew what was going on with me, I’m not like [The] Miz where I announce it on every RAW. ‘He’s sick!’, ‘something happened!’, ‘he got in trouble!’, ‘oh no, he did it again!’ And then, no, like, I went home because I was having babies! We didn’t talk about it [publicly]. That was a year ago.”
You can check out some more highlights from the same interview, including Reigns claiming that he is the best in-ring performer today here.
Roman Reigns had an interview with The Times of India while promoting the recent WWE Live Event in India. Below are some highlights from his interview:
If it was more satisfying to beat John Cena or The Undertaker:
“Beating Cena was more satisfying but it was bigger moment obviously for me beating The Undertaker in one of the biggest Wrestlemania’s of all time. It was just one of those moments in my career that’ll shine no matter what happens or who I get in the ring with. Being in the ring with The Undertaker in the main event, that speaks for itself but there is something very satisfying about beating John Cena.”
How much an influence The Rock has been on his career:
“To be honest, not that much. He’s such a busy guy that I don’t really get to see him that often. He’s always on the go so I can’t really say that he’s been able to mentor me as much people would think. But anytime I get to see him, It’s really good seeing him. I mean it’s the Rock. He greets you with a smile on his face; he’s always there to help with any advice or even if I just need someone to talk to. Anytime I get to see him, it’s a pleasure and it’s a positive thing. He’s been there and done everything, so the moment you think you’ve achieved a level of success just think about what he’s doing.”
The best rivalry he has had:
“I believe I and Braun Strowman made for a great rivalry. The chemistry and the stories that we were able to tell were captivating. What I like most about it is that since we’re both younger talents, it was really a need for me to be able to help him and throw some of the experience that I’ve gained to put him on the fast track. And I think it’s definitely helped. From being a Wyatt to being a main-eventer, he’s been a featured guy and a scary dude. If I can just continue to do that with any young talent that I can get in the ring with then my career would be a success.”
If he has to choose one, would he choose Dean Ambrose or Seth Rollins:
The main event from WWE’s 2nd Abu Dhabi show featured Triple H challenging for the Intercontinental Championship against the current title-holder, Roman Reigns. Roman Reigns successfully defended his title at the event.
Saturday’s WWE live event from India has been billed as a “Super Show” and will feature Triple H vs. Jinder Mahal in the biggest match in the country’s history. The rest of the card is as follows:
The Shield: Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose vs. Samoa Joe and RAW Tag Team Champions Cesaro and Sheamus
Braun Strowman vs. Kane
Finn Balor vs Bray Wyatt
RAW Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss vs. Sasha Banks
Jason Jordan vs Elias
WWE Cruiserweight Champion Enzo Amore vs. Kalisto
Apollo Crews and Titus O’Neil vs Gallows and Anderson
Roman Reigns recently sat down with Corey Graves for WWE Network’s Straight To The Source where he talked about a number of wrestling related topics. Below are some highlights from his interview:
Potentially retiring the Undertaker at WrestleMania:
“Being out there with him was incredible, I’ll never forget those things I felt. They didn’t teach us that. They didn’t tell you how to potentially retire The Undertaker or how to take that emotionally, how to accept that responsibility. Obviously, it was a great responsibility and I’m always up to the task, but it was emotional, man. It was way more [emotional] than I thought it was going to be, to be honest. It was a rollercoaster of emotions. I’ve been calling it ‘heavy’ as far as the emotions and stuff. It was more than I expected it to be. I want to stand out and be on the very top, but he just plugged in so much time and earned so much respect. It was cool to be able to feel that. I want to achieve that. I’ve never felt that level of respect from an audience.”
If he is the top guy:
“Every day of the week. This is the top of the mountain here point blank, period. I’m going to bust my ass and do my thing. And it was his yard. It’s mine now.”
Being the best in-ring performer today:
“I’m the best performer, in-ring, in the world right now, You can go to my matches and my pay-per-views over the last three years and you can say I’m an idiot or you can be like, ‘man, he has a point.’ Do you know what I mean? I didn’t come here for any other reason.”
Roman Reigns’ Intercontinental championship will be on the line when he battles WWE COO Triple H at Friday night’s live event from Abu Dhabi. Both men spoke with GulfNews.com about the match.
Reigns said he’s a fighting champion and has no problem putting the gold on the line against anybody. “I’m super excited,” he said. “Going against Triple H, I think that speaks for itself. I’m always down to defend my yard… It’s not just a regular match, it’s for my Intercontinental title. I’m looking forward to put it up on the line… that’s the type of champion I want to be.”
Triple H said “we’ll see” what happens when the Big Dog and The Game step in the ring together. They’ve tangled before and he thinks his intensity will give him the edge.
“I bring a different intensity that my era brought to the ring. This is kind of a rematch from WrestleMania 32… and Roman is probably one of the most intense competitors in the WWE right now so I look forward to stepping in the ring with him. He calls himself the ‘Big Dog’, I call myself ‘The Game’… So, we’ll see.”
Friday night will mark the first time Triple H has challenged for the Intercontinental Championship since 2006. He’s a 5-time IC champion.
WWE Intercontinental Champion Roman Reigns recently had an interview with Sportskeeda‘s Riju Dasgupta while promoting the upcoming WWE Live Event in India. During the interview, Reigns talked about facing the Undertaker and more. Below are some highlights from it:
How he felt about beating the Undertaker at WrestleMania:
“You know, the magnitude of retiring The Undertaker, possibly being one of his last matches. For me, it was quite heavy. Everything felt very smooth and good, going into it. And you know, once we got to that stage, it was a lot more emotional than we thought it could be. I’m proud and honoured to be a part of his career, and to be the last chapter in his book. Just very grateful that I got to work with him, learn from him and especially for this new generation, there’s not many of us that can say we did that. So, it’s cool to be in that group.”
What it means for him to become the Intercontinental Champion:
” It was extremely important for me. Not just a checklist of holding all the titles, working towards the grand slam achievement, but just the fact that it is known as the ‘workhorse title’. That title has been known to be present at every single TV, every single live event. I don’t care who I’m wrestling. As long as someone’s willing to get in there, compete and push me, I believe iron sharpens iron. If you want to get in there with me, just be willing to step up. That’s the thing. I’m a fighting champion.”
Becoming a Grand Slam champion:
“It’s really neat. I’m so driven at this point that it feels really good, but I still know that there’s another out there. Even though, with the new generation, the new era, you can switch it up due to creative and storyline but that Universal Championship is still very important to me. Right now, the most important thing and priority is to represent this Intercontinental title. That’s my goal, to make it ‘the’ title, not only on RAW, but in WWE. It’s what everybody wants to see. Everybody wants to see Roman Reigns defend the IC Championship. That’s what I want. That’s the reputation of this title.”
His message for Indian fans:
“I just want to say, last time I came, they were excellent. I felt that, it was real. I felt goosebumps being there, it gives me goosebumps thinking about it right now. I just want to say thank you for the way they received me last year. We’re going to come there and we’re going to give it our all. That’s all we can do. It’s going to be a great show, and I hope they can enjoy it. We’re looking forward to it. Can’t wait to get there.”
Later this week, WWE heads to the United Arab Emirates for two shows in Abu Dhabi at the Zayed Sports City Tennis Stadium. During an interview with Abu Dhabi’s The National newspaper, The Game spoke about competing in UAE for the first time about, wrestling at 48 years old and his match against Roman Reigns this Friday night.
WWE has been traveling to Abu Dhabi for the past five years and sees the Middle East as an important market for both holding shows and recruiting talent. “We have had recruiting trips in the Middle East,” said Triple H. “We are also doing recruiting trips in India. I think as the world becomes more connected it is more imperative than ever before for you to not only to expand everywhere in the world but to localise and be on the ground in those markets.”
Roman Reigns gets a lot of backlash from fans who perceive him as the ‘chosen one’ by management, but Triple H said those fans really don’t know what they’re talking about.
“Roman is in an unique position because the fan base tends to believe that he is this chosen one that the WWE wants in this position so they choose not to accept that position. But the truth is, and some people will listen to this and want to argue against it, but honestly most of the people who argue against it aren’t qualified to make that argument. I am. Roman is one of the most skilled performers bar none in the WWE right now and that is on every level.”
As for how long he plans to keep wrestling, Triple H said right now, it’s still fun for him and it’s something that he enjoys. He knows he can’t perform forever, but he doesn’t ever see a time when it’s not fun for him anymore. He has certainly grown into his corporate executive role at WWE, but he doesn’t have 10,000 people going nuts for him when he’s at the office.
– The WWE Network will be debuting a new show after Monday Night RAW entitled “Straight To The Source With Corey Graves.” Graves’ first guest on the show will be Roman Reigns as they discuss the reunion of The Shield. Over the past few days WWE has been releasing teaser clips on their YouTube channel for the show, with one including Roman Reigns making fun of Dean Ambrose’s constant flexing:
– Speaking of Reigns, he previously noted that he would be “stalking” Samoa Joe on tonight’s episode of RAW. Joe sent the following warning to “The Big Dog” via WWE’s Instagram page:
– Some speculation has seemed to have emerged after Roman Reigns’ recent defeat of The Miz for the Intercontinental Championship, leading some to believe that he may no longer be taking on Brock Lesnar in the main event of WrestleMania 34. This is not the case, per a report from Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio, who notes that plans have not yet changed.
As of last week Reigns is still scheduled to challenge Lesnar for the Universal Title, but it’s unknown if he will go into “The Show Of Shows” as Intercontinental Champion. It’s expected that “The Big Dog” will drop his title before then.
– WWE Hall Of Famer Diamond Dallas Page has released a commercial for his new DDP Yoga Rebuild DVDs. You can check it out here below:
– As seen below, the latest RAW Fallout video with Titus O’Neil and Apollo Crews once again teases Dana Brooke joining Titus Worldwide. Crews and Titus give Dana props despite her squash loss to Asuka. Dana pokes at Titus and Crews for getting taken out by Samoa Joe and says if they would have studied just a little more, maybe they could have escaped the Coquina Clutch. Titus says Dana is highly motivated and highly educated, all she needs is to be more respected and well connected. Titus says that’s where they come in. He tells her to step into the Titus Worldwide office as they leave together.
– No word yet on when The Miz will get his rematch from WWE Intercontinental Champion Roman Reigns but Reigns noted on this week’s RAW that we won’t be seeing Miz for a while after he took a table powerbomb from The Shield after last week’s RAW went off the air. As noted, Miz was written off TV to film WWE Studios’ “The Marine 6” with WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels and Becky Lynch. No word yet on if Becky was written off TV as well after last week’s attack from Ruby Riot, Sarah Logan and Liv Morgan on SmackDown.
– Speaking of Reigns, Michael Cole noted on this week’s show that a post-match photo posted after last week’s RAW of Reigns with the title is WWE’s most-liked Instagram photo ever. As of this writing, the photo has 587,806 likes. It’s worth noting that a photo of Paige posted last Wednesday, to generate discussion on her return, currently has 504,423 likes. Below is the photo of Reigns:
Last week Roman Reigns defeated The Miz to capture the Intercontinental Championship in the main event of Monday Night RAW. Shortly after the victory “The Big Dog” claimed that he’d be holding open challenges to defend his newly acquired title:
Wherever I am, consider it My Yard. So if you want my title… …all you have to do is step up. #Rawpic.twitter.com/jjJaklC5fF
It turns out that two RAW stars have already seemingly accepted that challenge, as they took to Twitter to respond to Reigns. The son of RAW General Manager Kurt Angle, Jason Jordan, posted the following video in which he accepts Reigns’ open challenge:
– As we’ve previously noted, WWE did an article on WWE Superstars who have won every active title in the company today. The list featured names such as Daniel Bryan, Chris Jericho, and Roman Reigns who captured the Intercontinental Championship from The Miz on RAW this past Monday.
JBL took to Twitter to react to being left out of the mix, however, it should be noted that the World Tag Team Championship that he won was retired in August of 2010. Therefore, he technically hasn’t won every title currently active in the company today:
I win US Title, Intercontinental Title, Tag Titles and WWE Title-Grand Slam Champion, and @WWE puts out a list and omits me? Come on man!
– In regards to Roman Reigns’ Intercontinental Title run it was noted that he is expected to hold open challenges for the title. 205 Live star Cedrick Alexander teased accepting one of those challenges:
Since returning from a viral infection, Roman Reigns has been on a roll. After reuniting with his Shield brothers at Survivor Series and defeating The New Day, Reigns became a Grand Slam Champion the following night on RAW when he captured the Intercontinental Championship from 7-time IC Champion The Miz.
Love him or hate him, I think it was a smart move to put the Intercontinental Championship on Reigns at this time. Here are 3 reasons why:
The Miz Had To Legitimately Lose.
The Miz hits the Skull Crushing Finale on Seth Rollins onto a chair on WWE RAW 7/17/17. (Photo Credit: WWE.com)
It has come to light that The Miz will be taking time away from the ring to focus on his acting career as he’ll be working on a new movie. The main point is that he won’t be around to continue a feud. Therefore, the superstar to take on the Intercontinental Championship needed to be able to legitimately defeat The Miz, as well as The Miztourage or, in this case, Shaemus and Cesaro.
Rollins and Ambrose did not interfere with the match, they just reacted to the actions of The Bar who distracted Roman to allow The Miz enough time to secure his Skull Crushing Finale; this had the added benefit of allowing WWE and Reigns to keep his face persona.
Roman also needed to show that he had the ability to kick out of a pin after Miz’s finishing move, and for it to be believable. During his title reign, The Miz has used The Skull Crushing Finale to good affect, which usually results in a secured pin. To give the Intercontinental Championship a clean and fresh start, the superstar to win it from The Miz needed to legitimately and believably defeat The Miz after a Skull Crushing Finale.
There aren’t many faces on the RAW roster, other than Reigns, who would be able to do this.
What Would You Do With Roman Reigns Otherwise?
Roman Reigns (Photo Credit: WWE.com)
Let’s pretend for a moment that Roman wasn’t pushed and set up to win the Intercontinental Championship, and assume that he’s still scheduled/predicted to face Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 34. Who does he work with until then? Braun Strowman, Samoa Joe, Bray Wyatt, Kane? Strowman and Joe vs Roman has been done, and Bray Wyatt just can’t win a match at the moment. Kane could work as a revenge plot for his brother The Undertaker, but Kane and Strowman are currently in a feud together and I’m not sure I’d want to see Kane vs Roman Reigns anyway.
The other option would be to give Roman a shot at Lesnar, but Roman needs to earn that back again as he has dropped down the pecking order since being away. This would also clash with the projected timeline working up towards the major showdown between these 2 at WrestleMania.
Perhaps he could get involved in the tag-team championship as a member of The Shield? Except there’s an unfinished feud between The Bar and Reigns’ other Shield partners – Rollins and Ambrose. It would appear awkward and mismatched to now bring Roman Reigns in as a tag-team champion, especially when Rollins and Ambrose were the founding members that caused this particular reunion.
Without the Intercontinental Championship, Roman wouldn’t be adding anything to the company. As one of their main figureheads in the ring, he needs a strong purpose and direction, as does The Intercontinental Championship.
Looking After The Future Of The Intercontinental Championship.
The past year has seen The Miz and Dean Ambrose hold the Intercontinental Championship. While it could be described as stable, some may say that it has been stale, boring and predictable, without competition in recent months. Dean Ambrose would rely on disqualification to win, while The Miz would rely on outside help from his wife Maryse, or The Miztourage. Roman Reigns offers a fresh start for the title, which would rely on power and skill rather than alternative/easy ways to win matches.
So although Samoa Joe feuded with Roman Reigns in the last year, and I’ve said that it would be old, adding the IC title now gives value to a new confrontation. Suddenly The Intercontinental Championship isn’t being fought over among the mid-card.
Throw Finn Balor and Jason Jordan into the mix and there’s a Fatal 4-Way match at the Royal Rumble where Roman doesn’t need to be defeated to lose the championship. Jason Jordan would then be perfect to open the title back up to the mid-card.
If the title was given to another Superstar, it risks floating around and becoming irrelevant; and with Brock Lesnar not always present, the Intercontinental Championship needs to remain relevant and held by a consistent superstar. What is Roman Reigns other than consistent?
It is important to remember that Roman Reigns won’t be the last Intercontinental Champion. In 2001 and 2002 there were 21 Intercontinental Championship reigns. There have been 9 In the last 2 years. Roman will come and go, but for now he acts as a solid platform and gateway for the future of the Intercontinental Championship.
Also, let’s remember that Roman has had other titles, and lost all of them. Therefore he can be beaten, even if WWE make sure that it appears he can’t.
