Summary
With the blockbuster announcement that Roman Reigns and The Rock may be going head-to-head in the main event ofWrestleMania 40, there have been many Attitude Era wrestling fans scrambling to catch up on the history of the currentWWEChampion.
Roman Reigns, from his debut alongside The SHIELD in 2012 to his current reign as the Tribal Chief, has become the main face ofWWEfor the past decade. Despite the initial reluctance of fans to accept his status as the Head of the Table, Roman has crafted some truly great matches over his tenure inWWEwhich have won many fans to his side.
10Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns vs Seth Rollins
Wrestling Observer Rating: 4.5/5
Roman’s current title reign has lasted so long that many fans have forgotten just how long Roman has really been in the main event scene inWWE. After the break-up of The SHIELD, Roman moved towards the main event quickly, and he won theRoyal Rumblein 2015, giving him his first in a long string ofWrestleManiamain event matches.
Brock Lesnar was the champion at the time and Roman gave him an amazing one-on-one match. However, Mr. Money in the Bank, Seth Rollins, cashed in his contract for a title match during the main event. This allowed him to enact what has been known as the “heist of the Century” by beating Brock and Roman to become theWWEChampion. Despite the loss, this match was defining for Roman, since he would go on to be the face of mostWrestleManiaevents for the next decade.
9Roman Reigns & Solo Sikoa vs Jey Uso & Jimmy Uso
Roman’s current reign as champion has been as long as it has partly because of the help he’s received from his Bloodline faction,which has dominated recent Survivor Series events. This group, made up of members of the Anoa’i family which has defined many generations of wrestling history, started to fall apart in early 2023 with Sami Zayn first leaving, and then with Jey Uso and his brother beginning to slip away from the group.
Roman and his cousin Solo challenged the Uso brothers to a tag team match atMoney in the Bank, setting up a huge chapter in the history of this historic title reign and faction. Roman hadn’t been beaten in a match or pinned in over three years by this point, so the fact that Jey Uso managed to pin him to win this match, as well as the emotional implications of the match, made for one of the best moments in Roman’s career and historic title run to date.
8Roman Reigns vs Drew McIntyre
Roman has had a lot of opponents and many unforgettable matches in his legendary current title run with the Undisputed Universal Championship. One man who seemed like he might take the title from Roman was Drew McIntyre, another of the faces of the company. Even more, the title shot that Drew got was in the United Kingdom, where he is from, at a major event, and the stage seemed set for a crowning moment.
Unfortunately, with help from the Bloodline and debuting Solo Sikoa, Roman managed to defeat Drew and continue his title run. The match itself was an incredible encounter, fueled by a huge crowd that was seeing the biggest match to take place in the UK in over thirty years, helping give Roman’s title reign the unbelievable status it has achieved.
7Roman Reigns vs AJ Styles
It is easy to forget that Roman had world title reigns before his current lengthy one. After his defining victory atWrestleMania 32over Triple H, Reigns was the face of theWWEfor a few months, and his most fascinating rivalry during that time was against AJ Styles, who had arrived inWWEjust a few months early and experienced a meteoric rise.
Their second match, taking place atExtreme Rulesand under those conditions, was a brutal affair that won many fans for Roman’s side, who hadn’t believed in him until then. Though Reigns wouldn’t hold the title for much longer, this run was an important one in his career and that moment was the greatest highlight of that run.
6Roman Reigns vs Cody Rhodes
Cody Rhodes is set to challenge Roman once more in a rematch atWrestleMania 40for theWWEUndisputed Universal Championship. Their first match had an incredible build, as the Royal Rumble winner called his shot against the Tribal Chief, who had reigned overWWEfor nearly 1000 days as the face of the company and had become almostimpossible to defeat inWWEvideo games.
Despite an incredible contest, one which added further historical definition to Roman’s reign, Cody was unable to overcome the numbers, as the Bloodline once again helped Roman win a major match. Heartbreak followed for theWWEUniverse, who believed this would be a crowning moment for Cody, but with the rematch looming large, hopes are rising once again.
5Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose vs Triple H & Randy Orton & Batista
Roman’s history inWWEbegan when he debuted fromNXTalongside Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose as The SHIELD. This group has gone on to become one of the most successful in the history of professional wrestling, due to Seth being another of the faces ofWWEover the past ten years, while Dean has left the company and become one of the biggest faces of wrestling outside theWWE.
The final match that The SHIELD had in their first run before Seth Rollins betrayed the other two, was against another famous wrestling faction. Evolution contained three legends of the company, and those three had already gone head-to-head once in the months leading up to this huge confrontation. The SHIELD came out on top in this brutal encounter, putting a beautiful final flourish on this early portion of Roman’s career alongside his close friends.
4Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar
It would be wrong to not mention one of Roman’s most intense rivalries ever, Brock Lesnar, and the many huge matches they’ve had, as something which has helped to define his career. Despite their many previous encounters, theymanaged to craft their best-ever matchin the main event ofSummerSlam 2022.
This final encounter was a Last Man Standing match, and it was an incredible main event match that managed to excite even fans who were tired of the lengthy rivalry between the two, which had comprised multipleWrestleManiamain event matches already. Roman’s triumph felt like a final note, ending the rivalry, potentially forever, given Brock Lesnar’s current strained relationship withWWE.
3Roman Reigns vs Daniel Bryan vs Edge
Roman has had severalWrestleManiamain event matches, one of the stranger ones was this triple threat early in his current run as champion.The legendary Edge had returnedand won his second Royal Rumble match, while Daniel Bryan had been cheated the previous month in a match with Reigns, leading to this odd but fascinating main event at the Showcase of the Immortals.
The match itself was amazing, as both Edge and Daniel Bryan were veteran wrestlers withamazing WrestleMania matches behind themand grudges against Reigns, but in the end, Roman managed to stack and pin both men to retain his title. This was the perfect way to show theWWEUniverse exactly how dominant Roman was truly going to be throughout this reign as champion, at an event thatincluded one of the best women’s WrestleMania matchesever.
2Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns vs Braun Strowman vs Samoa Joe
Wrestling Observer Rating: 4.75/5
A match that didn’t come during one of Roman’s title reigns, but instead took place during a dominant Universal Championship run by his rival Brock Lesnar. With three different threatening opponents having gunned for Lesnar over the previous months, a huge four-way match was set for the main event of an explosiveSummerSlam.
This was one of the most brutal matches inWWEhistory and was praised by all sides, despite part-time champion Lesnar escaping once more with the title. Roman performed admirably in the match while on a run where he was winning mid-card titles and proving himself more to the fans.
1Roman Reigns vs Sami Zayn
Perhaps the very best match that Roman will ever have, this precursor toWrestleMania 38featured him taking on long-time associate turned rival Sami Zayn for his title afterSami attacked him at the 2023 Royal Rumble. With his lengthy reign on the precipice of ending, and the Bloodline threatening to tear itself apart, the meteoric rise of Zayn as a fan favorite, and the location of this match in his home country of Canada, set the stage for a magnificent encounter.
The match was an amazing main event, the crowd was absolutely on fire, and Roman’s taunting of the underdog Sami with all the emotional overtures behind the contest helped create an astounding moment that broke the hearts of fans as they saw Sami’s opportunity go by the wayside. This was another defining moment in Roman’s current run, one which will be talked about for decades to come.
