Roman Reigns quick recovery from leukemia was nothing short of a miracle. Coming back from such a lethal disease in less than 5 months and wrestling a match just shows how tough he is as a competitor. But, unfortunately, his homecoming was short lived as he encountered a man on a mission, Drew McIntyre.
Drew McIntyre vs Roman Reigns: WrestleMania 35 Preview
Even though it is not built as such, it is a battle of two guys who were handpicked by Vince. When Drew McIntyre first burst onto the scene in 2009, the chairman declared him as the ‘chosen one’. He even got a massive push with the 150-plus-day Intercontinental Championship reign and a tag-title run with Cody Rhodes. But, due to a series of the unfortunate events that followed afterward, he was reduced to a comedy act by 2012 and was released from the company in 2014.
That was also the time when all three members of The Shield had started going their own ways due to a shocking betrayal by Seth Rollins. Much to everyone’s despair, Vince chose to push Roman Reigns as the guy by constantly booking him in the main event spots. When Drew came back to WWE in April 2017, Roman had already become the face of the company and was in a place where Drew once was destined to be in.
Since his promotion to the main roster last year, Drew’s only purpose has been to take his throne back and to run WWE on his own term. He has been trying to destroy all the three members of Shield once and for all ever since. He fought with them on many occasion and had also come closer to achieve that, but his objective is still not completely fulfilled. So, after Fastlane 2018, he took the matter on his own hands.
Post Fastlane, Rollins shifted his focus on pursuing the Universal Championship. That left Dean Ambrose, who has been putting guys over since February because of his contract situation. On March 11th episode of Raw, McIntyre took out Reigns giving him a kayfabe concussion scare. This made Ambrose challenge Drew to a Falls Count Anywhere clash that same night, which didn’t go well for the former as he was completely shattered by the end of it, but that made Roman real mad. So, because of that abundant assist from the lunatic fringe, Reigns and McIntyre’s business got really personal.
The promos that McIntyre cut leading up to their match at WrestleMania were quite intriguing and hyped up the fans who were having second thoughts about this match till last month. The writers have made an effort to portray Drew as an unstoppable prick by letting him almost murder Ambrose on a couple of occasions and by giving him the upper hand on Roman Reigns on the go home episode of Raw.
Roman for the first time since 2014, has fans who are rooting for him. He even managed to get empathy from the crowd due to the beating he has been receiving from Drew. The match promises to be filled with precarious moves and dangerous spots as it is a match between two sides of the same coin. Come April 7, on one corner you will have a once-polarizing figure, who has been giving everything that he has got to the business and even cancer couldn’t stop him from doing that and; on the other corner, you would have a man who has done nothing except polishing himself to suit the description of an ideal champion since last 6 years and has been battling for the chance to carry that symbolic mantle into the new era of WWE.
It’s a battle between ‘The Guy’ and ‘The Chosen One’.
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