Roman Reigns had a string of high-profile matches when he was the Universal Champion. At Payback 2020, Reigns returned and aligned himself with Paul Heyman. Shortly after, he defeated Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman for the Universal Championship and started a reign that lasted over 1,000 days.
During this time, Reigns faced several big superstars and had a lot of great matches as well. Although fans complained that his reign was long, unnecessary, and often included the same finish, Reigns nevertheless managed to create a record and became the third-longest reigning champion in WWE history. One of the matches he had against John Cena at SummerSlam 2021 had a big stipulation: if Roman Reigns lost his title that night, he would leave WWE as well.
It turns out that WWE originally wanted to have Roman Reigns lose the title that night. We don’t know if this would have actually led to Reigns leaving WWE, but considering he’s a big part of the current product, chances are he would have returned one way or another.
John Cena Says He Was Originally Going To Defeat Roman Reigns At SummerSlam 2021
On No Contest Wrestling, John Cena said that until the day of the show, he was supposed to go over The Original Tribal Chief. But then, WWE secured Lesnar for the show, and the finish was changed.
“In the last moment, we had a surprise guest booked, he came out after the match was over. Brock. They didn’t secure Brock until 5 PM that day. I was going to win 17. We were going to have someone come out and restart the match, Roman was going to take it back.”
Also read: John Cena Rejected One-Match Show Idea for His Final WWE Match
If John Cena had won this match, this would’ve been his 17th World Championship reign in WWE. The Cenation Leader eventually managed to create this record at WrestleMania 41, when he defeated Cody Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Championship.
Fans will remember that after their match, Brock Lesnar returned to the ring and attacked John Cena. Later, he confronted Roman Reigns and kick-started another WrestleMania rivalry.
Reigns defeated Lesnar at WrestleMania 38 in a “Winner Take All” match for both the Universal Championship and the WWE Championship. He held both belts for another two years before losing them to Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 40.
Earlier this year, Roman Reigns won the Men’s Royal Rumble match (the second of his career) and challenged CM Punk for the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania. Both wrestlers have been at odds since their Shield days. Despite working together as allies during last year’s Survivor Series: WarGames, it’s clear that Reigns and Punk don’t see eye to eye.
Ishaan Sharma has been following wrestling ever since he was 8. That was over a decade ago. He loves to write about this pretend sport and has worked with online publications such as Sportskeeda and TheSportster, where he shared his insights about the wrestling business.