Roman Reigns dethroned CM Punk to become the new World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania 42. This was a disgusting decision by the WWE. Despite the fact that CM Punk was the Plan B Champion, he was doing very well with that championship.
He should have kept his reign going until he was in a position to put over a rising star, like Oba Femi or Bron Breakker, instead of an established part-timer, like Roman Reigns. Furthermore, Reigns has won multiple WrestleMania Main Events, and Punk needed the win a lot more to solidify himself on a prestigious list of legends who main evented ‘Mania and delivered under the brightest lights.
Seth Rollins was originally scheduled to walk into ‘Mania 42 as the champ and defend against Reigns, but his injury threw a wrench in those plans. Due to the fact that the track record from their days in The Shield indicates that Rollins always had Roman’s number, Reigns would likely have won the title against Rollins to get his sweet revenge for the Shield betrayal.
Since Rollins never lost that title, he still has a rematch clause and can run it back with Reigns. However, now that Reigns is the champ, he has a big target on his back with other rising stars on the Raw brand. Here are the three biggest threats to his World Title on the road to SummerSlam.
Oba Femi
Roman Reigns called out Oba Femi on the WrestleMania 42 Post-Media Scrum and let him know that slaying the Beast is not enough to step up to the Tribal Chief. Reigns claimed that he slayed The Beast multiple times in his career, so what Femi did was essentially neither special nor substantial in his eyes.
Although Reigns also lost many times to Brock Lesnar and Femi defeated Lesnar in one go, Femi can prove himself even more by winning the King of the Ring Tournament. That way, he can earn his first world title shot on the main roster and headline SummerSlam with the banner reading: “The Ruler vs. Tribal Chief.” That will assuredly sell some tickets.
Gunther
Gunther is another name that has been thrown around as a potential opponent for Reigns this summer. Reigns actually eliminated Gunther last in the Royal Rumble to win and punch his ticket to Mania, and Gunther never got his lick back. In fact, after Gunther lost the World Title to Punk at SummerSlam last year, he never even got his rematch. Gunther has all the momentum on his side after defeating Seth Rollins at ‘Mania 42.
After Gunther uses his favor from Paul Heyman to retire Brock Lesnar for good, that would propel him to that top spot once again. He can even goad Heyman into spilling the tea on some Bloodline trade secrets in the interim.
