Adam Pearce explains the logic in booking a Raw Superstar to face Roman Reigns at Royal Rumble.
Roman Reigns will be defending his WWE Universal Championship against a Monday Night Raw Superstar despite the fact that the title is property of Friday Night SmackDown. This is on the heels of Roman Reigns not being able to defend his WWE Universal Championship against Brock Lesnar at Day 1, leading to Brock Lesnar joining Monday Night Raw and becoming WWE Champion.
The WWE Draft just took place in October and already, there is plenty of cross-brand activity going on in the world of WWE. Speaking on WWE’s The Bump about the decision to pair Roman Reigns against Seth Rollins at the Royal Rumble, WWE Official Adam Pearce says that the driving factor in his decision was the history between both men.
Of course, Rollins and Reigns joined WWE at the same time. This year's Survivor Series event will mark 10 years since both of those men, alongside Dean Ambrose (Jon Moxley), made their debut in the company as The Shield.
"You know, the thing about finding Romans challenger is that you need to scour every nook, every cranny, and you've got to find somebody that you believe is a formidable challenge to Roman Reigns. I was listening to Bobby Lashley a second ago talking about the match coming up against Brock Lesnar at the Royal Rumble, and I wanted to find something that would bring a very similar feeling. What landed me on Seth, is history. Really, when you think about two people intertwined for a certain period of time, I think Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins with everything they've been through, with everything they've stood together for and against, makes a very intriguing matchup and one that I know Mr. Reigns is not happy about, but here we are. They trusted me to make the decision and it's official."
Allow @ScrapDaddyAP to set the record straight about @WWERomanReigns vs. @WWERollins at #RoyalRumble.#WWETheBump pic.twitter.com/QDxb5fUF3c
— WWE’s The Bump (@WWETheBump) January 12, 2022
Brock Lesnar, a free agent, is still on Roman Reigns’ radar and Seth Rollins is being advertised for upcoming episodes of SmackDown to build to the upcoming match of the Royal Rumble. Therefore, Roman Reigns has an even bigger target on his back than usual leading into this year's WrestleMania.
You can see the full card for the Royal Rumble at this link. We will have live coverage of the Royal Rumble on Saturday, January 29.
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