Roman Reigns is the most polarizing WWE superstar at the moment and he is set to have a big year in 2017. Reigns will face Kevin Owens for the WWE Universal champion at the Royal Rumble but the plans for him heading to WrestleMania is still vague.
According to Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer (subscription required), the WWE has not decided on what the outcome of Owens vs. Reigns at the Royal Rumble. There is some backstage talk saying Reigns will win the Universal title.
However, it is still unconfirmed at the moment and plans tend to change on a regular basis. A lot of rumors in the past couple of weeks pointed out to Reigns facing Braun Strowman for the Universal championship at WrestleMania 33.
Strowman is currently the favorite to win the Royal Rumble and challenge Reigns for the title. The seeds of their possible feud have been planted a couple of weeks ago on Monday Night Raw. The WWE continued the trend this week with Strowman looking strong again.
Meltzer pointed out that only one thing is for sure at the moment - Reigns will not win a title at WrestleMania 33. The belief backstage is that the WWE feels another coronation for The Big Dog will backfire since the last two years did not go as planned.
The WWE has been trying to get Reigns over for the last couple of years. All their efforts have failed as half of the audience still boos him out of the building. However, he has improved in the ring this year and he has gotten more comfortable on the microphone.
The problem for the WWE right now is Reigns' run as United States champion has been a failure. He has only defended the title thrice since winning it in September. The title has been diminished once again and the WWE should have prioritized making Reigns one of the greatest U.S. champs of all time.
Nevertheless, all signs are pointing to a Reigns vs. Strowman WrestleMania 33 match. It is something that could easily backfire with fans possibly protesting against it, per Forbes.com. The WWE Universe has altered the main event plans for WrestleMania 30 and 31.
Daniel Bryan was inserted to the WrestleMania 30 main event while Reigns was not crowned as WWE champion at WrestleMania 31. The WWE went with their original plan at WrestleMania 32 but Reigns was not able to get over despite the best efforts from Triple H.
Check out the video below to watch Strowman attacked Reigns, as well as Seth Rollins in an episode of Monday Night Raw. For more WWE news, rumors and updates, follow me on Twitter @johnnyrundown.