Roman Reigns

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from WWE and AEW.

Roman vs. Tyson Fury Match Potentially Discussed

Logan Paul may not have been WWE's first choice for Roman Reigns' opponent at Crown Jewel.

Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio said WWE initially wanted to set up Reigns vs. Tyson Fury.

"I'm sure, at some point, they want to do that [Reigns vs. Fury]. They did that faceoff [at Clash at the Castle] for that reason," Meltzer said (8-minute mark). "But the time is not now, because Tyson Fury is going to finish his boxing career before he does something like that. Or he's got a fight on the horizon, he didn't want to risk that fight by getting hurt in a wrestling match, so it was Logan Paul."

Fury and Reigns briefly shared the ring after the latter's win over Drew McIntyre but did not come to blows. Instead, Fury took to the ring and led a sing-along with a defeated McIntyre, much to the confusion of the audience watching at home.

While the staredown seemed to indicate an angle was on the horizon, it was instead largely dropped in favor of Reigns' announced match against Paul for the Saudi show. The YouTuber-turned-boxer-turned-wrestler has been impressive during his short wrestling career, but there is almost no one who views him as a legitimate threat to unseat Reigns.

Fury, by contrast, was far less impressive during his WWE debut against Braun Strowman in 2019. That said, Reigns has publicly said the lineal heavyweight champion is capable of being a star in pro wrestling.

“I think he is 100 percent built for what we do," Reigns said on Behind the Gloves. "He’s a sportsman, he’s a showman, he’s a great entertainer. He has a deep, you know, a great experience of what it takes to be that guy, to be in that position. So I think it’s just only a matter of time and obviously on what he wants to do. So I think it’d be a perfect fit for sure.”

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Randy Orton Remains Out With Back Injury

No news is, well, not great news in regard to Randy Orton's WWE return.

Mike Johnson of PWInsider reported Orton remains out of the picture with a back injury.

Orton has not been on television since he and Matt Riddle lost a tag team championship unification match to the Usos on the May 20 edition of SmackDown. It's been essentially radio silence in the four months since, with no word from WWE or Orton's camp about when he may be back in action.

With Riddle being laser-focused on his feud with Seth Rollins in recent weeks, even the onscreen mentions of Orton have been few and far between.

Unless WWE is planning a surprise, it would be a shock to see Orton back in the ring before the calendar year flips to 2023 at this point.

Booker T Names His WWE Mount Rushmore

Booker T is playing it safe with his WWE Mount Rushmore.

"I'm not one of these Rushmore-like type guys," Booker T said on his Hall of Fame podcast. "But as far as WWE Mount Rushmore, it would definitely be Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, John Cena and, probably, Triple H."

Some may quibble with Triple H making the list over Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker or Hulk Hogan—though the latter can be left off for very justifiable reasons—but Booker came up with a straightforward, no-frills list that's hard to find issue with.

Austin and The Rock defined the Attitude Era, while Triple H and Cena both had reigns of excellence that spanned multiple eras in WWE.

Perhaps the only surprise factor in Triple H being included on the list was the fact Booker took the loss to Hunter at WrestleMania 19. Most fans and critics felt Booker T should have gone over in that feud, particularly because of the questionable content in some Triple H promos leading up to the match.

In the end, it doesn't appear Booker harbors any hard feelings for the loss.

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WWE Hall of Famer and chief content officer Triple H announced Saturday that Roman Reigns will defend the undisputed WWE Universal Championship against Logan Paul at Crown Jewel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Nov. 5.

BREAKING NEWS: As announced by @TripleH, @LoganPaul will challenge @WWERomanReigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at #WWECrownJewel on Saturday, November 5.@peacock@WWENetwork pic.twitter.com/jwKmeDeGau

— WWE (@WWE) September 17, 2022

The announcement was made during a press conference in Las Vegas, which was attended by Paul, Reigns and The Tribal Chief's entire Bloodline stable:

Reigns and Paul nearly came to blows at the end of the press conference when Paul called out the champ, but Triple H managed to diffuse the situation by stepping in between them.

Rumors and speculation ran rampant regarding a Reigns vs. Paul match after Reigns appeared on Paul's Impaulsive podcast this week. Reigns accused Paul of talking trash after he was on the show, which led to Paul being invited to appear on Friday's episode of SmackDown.

Reigns' special counsel, Paul Heyman, had a war of words with Paul on SmackDown, while The Usos, Sami Zayn and Solo Sikoa tried to intimidate him. During the exchange, Paul announced a Crown Jewel press conference for Saturday.

While addressing those in attendance at the press conference, Triple H stressed the importance of having a spectacle and an attraction for Crown Jewel, which is why he decided to book Reigns vs. Paul with the title on the line.

Reigns acknowledged Paul's status as a social media star with over 30 million followers, but he vowed to defeat him in dominant fashion at Crown Jewel.

Meanwhile, Paul made note of the fact that he faced legendary boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. in his second-ever boxing match and managed to make it the distance. Because of that, he has belief that he can beat Reigns in his third wrestling match.

Paul made his in-ring debut at WrestleMania 38 in April and teamed with The Miz in a winning effort over Rey and Dominik Mysterio. Paul then defeated The Miz in a singles bout at SummerSlam and shocked the WWE Universe with how natural he looked in the ring.

On the other end of the spectrum, Reigns is an all-time great and future Hall of Famer who is the face of WWE and has held the Universal Championship for over 700 days.

Few expect Paul to beat The Head of the Table at Crown Jewel, but based on the novelty of the match, it figures to receive a ton of mainstream attention over the next couple of months.

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WWE has long had an issue with Roman Reigns as its unified champion.

Things would be great if Reigns was showing up on both Raw and SmackDown the majority of the time. But instead he has been a part-timer while midcard titles instead headline shows.

The unified title situation was lined with forehead-smacking decisions, such as dedicating the entire run of pay-per-views before WrestleMania 38 to making Lesnar look good at the cost of the entire Raw main event scene.

As WrestleVotes noted, it sure sounds like WWE would like to have this whole line of decisions back now that the attention turns to the next 'Mania season:

The situation w/ the world titles & Roman Reigns is “complex” according to a source. They would like to go into “Mania season” & WrestleMania itself with 2 champions, but they also don’t want Reigns losing AT ALL prior. I’m told HHH & co are open to all things creatively here.

— WrestleVotes (@WrestleVotes) September 13, 2022

But here's the thing: The fix is easy.

Roman has two belts. Make him lose one. Easy. Some might scoff, but WWE can do whatever it wants with its storylines.

Find a way to make Roman defend both titles in one night or even both titles in one match. What if Paul Heyman betrays him via contractual language? Or his arrogance causes him to overlook a stipulation written into a contract?

Reigns himself could just decide to only put one up for grabs, too, or he could be betrayed by The Bloodline. WWE could even have a Raw GM come out and declare the show needs its top title back—the options really are endless.

There's also Austin Theory's Money in the Bank briefcase, which theoretically only guarantees him a shot at one title.

Reigns losing a title won't hurt the legacy of his current run. In fact, the mentioned derailing of an entire men's main event scene is doing more damage than a loss would. Now that it's getting a bit stale, it actually feels like an extension of when WWE shoved Reigns at fans endlessly as a babyface for all those years.

Never mind the fact that the execution of the "loss" matters. Maybe he retains the SmackDown title but is just so obsessed with an away-from-ring slugfest with Braun Strowman that Kevin Owens pins Theory or vice versa for the Raw title.

As long as somebody else eats the pin that strips Reigns of the Raw title and it's not because he's incapacitated, he doesn't look weak. WWE can revisionist history the heck out of it, and Reigns can play it off like he doesn't care about the belt he swiped from Lesnar.

It's pretty clear this was Vince McMahon's way of making a GOAT run for Reigns that goes down in history. But McMahon is gone from creative now, and his dropping one belt to help both programs get back to normal could register as a defining moment for the new Triple H era.

Reigns eventually walking into WrestleMania 39 in California against The Rock with just one title strap isn't all that terrible compared to two. It doesn't really need a title at all. If he walks into 'Mania with both, it means most of the men's roster on Raw had nothing but a midcard title to chase, too.

WWE would probably like to have Reigns win a big one at WrestleMania 39 and then run an angle where he relinquishes the titles and things reset there. But the situation restricts too much for too long in the meantime when there are easy outs possible.

Otherwise, everything between now and 'Mania is again filler. That crushes the product and deserving stars until 'Mania, when that massive non-hardcore audience WWE wants will watch just to see The Rock fight no matter how many belts his opponent has.

So the solution to a much more entertaining product is to take Raw's title off Reigns. Give it to a deserving star like Owens, one of Triple H's chosen ones on the main roster. Heck, give it to Theory and really get his long ascent to the top going.

No matter what, just make it happen via some fun pro wrestling storylines, because only in pro wrestling can a company dig itself out of this sort of hole in such an entertaining manner.

For the second time in his career, undisputed WWE universal champion Roman Reigns is atop the PWI 500.

Pro Wrestling Illustrated released its annual list of the top 500 pro wrestlers in the world on Wednesday, and Reigns paced the field for the first time since 2016:

As just announced on @BustedOpenRadio, Roman Reigns is again the #1 wrestler in the #PWI500. The 32nd annual "500" list is featured in our latest issue, available now for print preorder at https://t.co/ylNeV87zar

The digital edition is available now at https://t.co/CBIZbQfbOb pic.twitter.com/XJiDhbbTBR

— PWI (Pro Wrestling Illustrated) (@OfficialPWI) September 14, 2022

Per Fightful's Jeremy Lambert, the top 10 for the 2022 PWI 500 is as follows:

1. Roman Reigns
2. Kazuchika Okada
3. CM Punk
4. "Hangman" Adam Page
5. Bobby Lashley
6. Cody Rhodes
7. Bryan Danielson
8. El Hijo del Vikingo
9. Big E
10. Jonathan Gresham

Reigns somewhat controversially finished second on the list to AEW's Kenny Omega last year, with Omega getting the nod because he held world titles in AEW, Impact Wrestling and AAA during the evaluation period.

The evaluation period for the 2022 PWI 500 ran from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022, and Reigns was a world champion in WWE for the entirety of that time.

Reigns has surpassed 700 days as universal champion, and at WrestleMania 38 in April, he added the WWE Championship to the fold by defeating Brock Lesnar in the main event.

The PWI 500 is based largely on factors like win-loss record and championship wins, making it difficult to argue against Reigns at No. 1 since he didn't lose a single match of consequence over the course of the year.

Coming in second on the list is New Japan Pro-Wrestling star, Kazuchika Okada, who was No. 1 in 2017, and was the IWGP world heavyweight champion from January 2022 until June 2022.

AEW's CM Punk made his return to the PWI 500 at No. 3 after a lengthy absence because of his hiatus from pro wrestling.

Punk returned to wrestling in August 2021 after more than seven years away, and he quickly established himself as one of the faces of AEW.

He became AEW world champion late in the evaluation period by beating No. 4 finisher "Hangman" Adam Page at Double or Nothing, leading to his best placement in the PWI 500 since finishing first in 2012 and second in 2013 while he was in WWE.

Reigns taking the top spot in the PWI 500 breaks a two-year run of dominance by AEW, which saw Jon Moxley take No. 1 in 2020, followed by Omega in 2021.

The Tribal Chief is just the second WWE Superstar in the past six years to top the PWI 500, joining former Shield stablemate Seth Rollins, who was No. 1 in 2019.

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Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe.

Stone Cold Praises Star Power of Lesnar, Reigns

WWE Hall of Famer Stone Cold Steve Austin is arguably the biggest draw in professional wrestling history, so his opinion on the stars of today tends to carry a great deal of weight.

In an interview with veteran wrestling journalist Bill Apter (h/t Subhojeet Mukherjee of Ringside News), Austin gave his take on the biggest stars in the business currently:

"[Brock Lesnar] is still, after almost 20 years, the biggest draw, him and Roman [Reigns], in the business today. Brock Lesnar has had one of the most amazing, different runs in the history of the business, and no one will ever do it like Brock Lesnar has done it. Whether it is Suplex City or in the Octagon."

There is little doubt that WWE agrees with Austin's assessment, as it has gone back to the Lesnar vs. Reigns feud on multiple occasions, including three times at WrestleMania.

At WrestleMania 38 in April, Austin made his in-ring return and had his first match in nearly 20 years, beating Kevin Owens in the main event of Night 1. Naturally, Night 2 was headlined by Reigns defeating Lesnar to unify the WWE and Universal Championships.

Lesnar got a rematch at SummerSlam in a Last Man Standing Match, and The Tribal Chief was victorious again thanks largely to interference from The Usos.

Since making his WWE main roster debut in 2002, Lesnar has been a major attraction. His stock was bolstered even more after a stint in UFC that saw him hold the UFC heavyweight title.

WWE has been trying to push Reigns as a top star from the start of his time on the main roster as well, and while he wasn't well received for quite some time, everything changed two years ago when he turned heel and embarked on the best run of his career.

While WWE has many other performers who are on the brink of top star status, Lesnar and Reigns are the old standbys at this point, and that will likely continue to be true for as long as they are with the company.

WWE Superstars, Employees Reportedly Happy Under New Management

Many within WWE have reportedly seen their morale improve since a change in management occurred in July.

Vince McMahon stepped down from his roles as chairman, CEO and head of creative and entered retirement in July amid a WWE board of directors investigation into allegations that he paid millions of dollars in hush money to multiple women who previously worked for WWE in exchange for them remaining silent about alleged sexual relationships and encounters with McMahon.

In place of McMahon, Triple H was named the new head of creative, and McMahon's daughter, Stephanie McMahon, became chairwoman and co-CEO along with Nick Khan, who previously served as WWE president.

According to PWInsider.com's Mike Johnson, the management change has "energized" people across the company, including wrestlers, production workers and other employees.

Those who work for WWE reportedly have a better work-life balance than they did under Vince McMahon and are under less stress since they don't feel obligated to keep up with Vince's breakneck pace.

It was also suggested by those who spoke to Johnson that there was a fear of repercussions or the possibility of getting fired if a misstep was made under Vince, whereas that isn't the case with Stephanie, Triple H and Khan calling the shots.

There is no question that the WWE product has been received far more favorably by fans since the management change occurred, and it has been far more unpredictable in a positive way as well.

A big part of that has been Triple H bringing back talent that was either released or didn't re-sign when McMahon was at the helm.

Dakota Kai, Karrion Kross, Scarlett, Dexter Lumis, Hit Row, Johnny Gargano and Braun Strowman have all been surprise returns, and it has made it feel like anything can happen in WWE.

The on-screen product has been more fun to watch, and based on Johnson's report, that good feeling has permeated backstage as well.

Bobby Fish Open to WWE Return

Former NXT star Bobby Fish isn't ruling out a WWE return now that his brief run in AEW has come to an end.

In an interview with Steve Fall of NBC Sports Boston (h/t Bill Pritchard of WrestleZone), Fish confirmed last week that he could not come to terms on a new contract with AEW, making him a free agent.

In that same interview (h/t WrestlingInc's Phil Hall), Fish said he was keeping the door open for any and all offers, including WWE: "I'm open to all options and offers at the moment. I do know that there have been quite a few people have gone back through those doors."

Fish was referring to Superstars who have made their return to WWE under Triple H after getting released while Vince McMahon was in charge. Most of those who have returned thus far worked closely with Triple H in NXT.

That was the case for Fish as well, as he was part of the NXT roster from 2017 to 2021, spending most of that time as part of the Undisputed Era stable with Adam Cole, Kyle O'Reilly and Roderick Strong.

Strong is still in NXT, while Cole and O'Reilly are in AEW. Fish teamed with them briefly in AEW, but Cole and O'Reilly got injured, and Fish's contract expired at a time when he wasn't being used.

The Undisputed Era reunion in AEW ultimately fizzled, and Fish will now have the opportunity to go off on his own, which isn't something he has done much of over the past several years.

It is unclear what WWE's level of interest would be in bringing back Fish at 45 years of age, but there could be some interest in pairing him with Strong again in what would be a semi-reunion of Undisputed Era.

Fish was a multi-time tag team champion in NXT and took part in no shortage of memorable matches and rivalries, so a return would likely be well received by the fans.

If nothing else, Fish could be a valuable asset in terms of helping to develop younger Superstars thanks to his extensive experience.

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