The WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns defeated Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 38 to unify the world titles. His appearances in WWE since then have been few and far between.
Reports emerged in May revealing that the Tribal Chief Roman Reigns signed a new deal that will see him work in fewer live events than he was previously. However, Reigns has also missed the last few episodes of Raw, SmackDown, and the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view. He is yet to defend the WWE Universal Championship.
SI‘s Justin Barrasso first reported on Wednesday that Reigns is not scheduled for Money in the Bank. Dave Meltzer from Wrestling Observer has also confirmed the news.
There are no reasons mentioned why Reigns is no longer scheduled for Money in the Bank. Barrasso noted that “plans changed once Money in the Bank was moved from Allegiant Stadium to the indoor MGM Grand Garden Arena.”
Reigns’ last match was at a live event at Cedar Rapids where he faced Drew McIntyre. WWE has plans in place to have the Scottish Warrior square off against Reigns for the WWE Universal Championship at the Clash at the Castle event.
The Head of the Table’s last match at a pay-per-view was the six-man tag team match at WrestleMania Backlash. The Bloodline defeated McIntyre and RK-Bro.
What could this absence mean for Roman Reigns and WWE?
Roman Reigns is undoubtedly one of the biggest superstars in the pro wrestling circuit let alone WWE at the moment.
Time off for Reigns does not bode well for Vince McMahon’s company, especially at a time when other top guys like Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes are set to miss a few months of action. While it is true that Reigns deserves some rest but the problem is that his break coincided with injuries to other popular wrestlers.
WWE even had to shift plans hastily regarding The Judgement Day. Edge was kicked out of the villainous faction that he had built a couple of months back. Now the Hall of Famer will once again return to being a babyface. The likes of Edge, Bobby Lashley, and Riddle will have to share the bulk of the workload on RAW while the SmackDown side of things looks quite bleak. There is no one of McIntyre’s stature on the blue brand and he is having to team up with The New Day in matches of little consequence.
It is still uncertain when Reigns will return to action. The fact that he is holding both the world titles isn’t doing much help either.
Can the mid-card titles help?
Maybe WWE should put more focus on the United States and Intercontinental Championships during this time.
Ricochet and Theory are holding the Intercontinental and United States Championships at this point in time. The two mid-card titles have hardly been defended in pay-per-view events this year. However, there is some good news if rumors are to be believed. John Cena is returning to Raw on the June 27 episode. Rumors suggest that he might face Theory for the United States Championship. Cena is one of the all-time greats of WWE and him competing against a talented youngster like Theory will be a huge boost for the reputation of the United States title.
As for the Intercontinental Championship, Ricochet will defend the title this week on SmackDown against the Ring General Gunther. This is going to be the toughest challenger Ricochet has faced since winning the title from Sami Zayn.
The WWE Universe has time and again expressed their frustration at WWE not giving enough importance to the mid-card titles. With the world titles not being defended, this could be a great chance to glorify the U.S. and Intercontinental Championships once again. After all, the titles have been held in the past by a number of WWE Hall of Famers.
It is important to mention that this week on RAW, Theory confronted Bobby Lashley. However, when Lashley wanted Vince McMahon’s protege to defend his title, the youngster fled away. We might get a Lashley-Theory feud before Cena enters the fray.
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