A new report claims Roman Reigns’ historic WWE title run was supposed to be half as long as it ended up being.
Heading into 2020, Reigns had already been positioned as one of the top faces of WWE. He had main-evented WrestleMania more than once and had a win over The Undertaker at the huge yearly event. However, he took his game to new heights in the summer of 2020.
After being away for much of the COVID pandemic, Reigns returned to WWE television in the early summer to regain the company’s top title, and also debuted a new heel version of his character that included Paul Heyman becoming his “wiseman.”
No one knew it at the time, but regaining one of the brand’s top titles in August of 2020 was the start of what would end up being a 1,316-day run as a WWE champion. His close to four-year run at the top of the mountain solidified his place as a new icon of the company and one of wrestling’s biggest stars of all-time.
Roman Reigns’ historic title run was supposed to end in 2021
However, that historic run was set to end far earlier than it actually did. In a new interview with the No-Contest Wrestling Show, retired WWE legend John Cena revealed that the original plan was for him to defeat Reigns at SummerSlam in 2021.
The creative plan heading into the event was for him to get his record-breaking 17th world title win over Reigns. However, when the company came to terms on a new deal with Brock Lesnar, they decided to pivot and instead have Reigns win clean to set up another clash with his long-time rival.
If that had happened, it certainly would have changed a lot of history that was created after, including Roman Reigns’ historic title run and Cena winning his 17th world title at last year’s WrestleMania 41.
“It happens to everyone. It happens from the top of the card down to the bottom. They will switch,” Cena said. “They’ll cut your time. They will give you different creative. It happens all the time. So I didn’t flip out.”
