With Roman Reigns Out, Who Will WWE Rely On As Universal Champion?

On October 22nd, 2018, Roman Reigns announced that he had to step away from the WWE due to being diagnosed with leukemia for the second time in his life. He had previously been diagnosed when he was 22-years old and defeated the disease. All wrestling fans and wrestlers all over the world have shown their support for Reigns following the news. Whether you love or hate the character Roman Reigns, there shouldn’t be anyone out there wishing any ill-will towards the man playing the character, Leati Jospeh Anoa’i. I look forward to seeing Reigns return to the WWE and continuing his career.

With the unfortunate news, Reigns was forced to relinquish the WWE Universal Championship. Reigns had just recently won the championship after many failed attempts against Brock Lesnar. At SummerSlam 2018, Reigns pinned Brock Lesnar for the championship and survived a Hell in a Cell match against Braun Strowman the following month.

Reigns was scheduled to defend the WWE Universal Championship against Brock Lesnar and Braun Strowman in a triple threat match at the controversial Crown Jewel event taking place on November 2nd, 2018 in Saudi Arabia. Prior to Reigns shocking announcement, there wasn’t much thought as to who would walkout as the champion. However, now with the sudden change to plans, there’s no real positive idea as to who could win the championship.

Brock Lesnar is one of the biggest stars the WWE has to work with, but WWE fans have grown tired of his part-time schedule and the idea of having the WWE Universal Championship on television every week and exciting to many fans. Could the WWE decide to put the title on Lesnar and build to big pay per view matches much like they have been doing since Lesnar returned to the WWE?

Braun Strowman has had a lot of steam in the past year with his sudden emergence as a babyface. He had a brief heel turn aligning himself with Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre. That alliance lasted all of a month as Strowman is now seemingly destined for a singles feud with McIntyre.

According to Sports Betting Dime, the expectation is that Vince McMahon would prefer to keep the championship on a full-time wrestler. As a result, Braun Strowman could be in-line for picking up the biggest victory of his career. Winning the WWE Universal Championship for the first time and defeating Brock Lesnar to do so is a great way to stake claim to being the top guy.

Personally, I’d like to see Braun win the championship and have a lengthy run for it. Braun has consistently been cheered and seemed to be a guy that fans would pay to see and remain behind for the foreseeable future. A title feud against someone like Drew McIntyre could entice me to tune into the product on a more regular basis. Mind you, I haven’t been all that invested in 2018 wrestling for several months. Along with the recent Dean Ambrose heel turn on Seth Rollins, I’m intrigued to see where the WWE is going with the RAW brand.

Who would you prefer to see as WWE Universal Champion? Anyone aside from Brock Lesnar or Braun Strowman?

Thanks for reading.