It has been a tumultuous 2017 for Roman Reigns but apparently, neither a Shield reunion nor a case of the mumps nor winning the Intercontinental Title is causing WWE to deviate from its plans for "The Big Dog" at WrestleMania 34.
On a recent episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer reported that WWE still had its sights set on a WrestleMania main event with Reigns challenging Brock Lesnar for the Universal Title. Not only is it a rematch of their headliner from WrestleMania 31, it also reportedly has been in the company plans since before WrestleMania 33 even happened. Those plans apparently remain on course even though Reigns just became Intercontinental Champion, a title he defended for the first time last night on Raw.
WWE planted the seed, narratively speaking, for the match on the post-WrestleMania episode of Raw, when Paul Heyman discussed the parallels between Reigns and Lesnar as the only two men to defeat The Undertaker at WrestleMania. The crowd, annually of the most vocal and raucous to attend a WWE event, primarily jeered the set up of a potential match between the two.
Since then, the paths of Reigns and Lesnar have crossed only a few times -- most notably as half of the Fatal Four Way for the Universal Title that headlined Summerslam. Reigns then reunited the Shield with Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins, only to miss several weeks of action recovering from a viral infection that sidelined him for the TLC pay-per-view and led to the in-ring return of Kurt Angle.
If the creative plans do not change, Reigns would be in the main event of WrestleMania for the fourth straight year. His match with Reigns turned into an impromptu triple threat when Seth Rollins cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase and won. Reigns defeated Triple H to become WWE World Champion at WrestleMania 32, then closed WrestleMania 33 by defeating Undertaker.
