Roman Reigns Hits One Year Mark As WWE Universal Champion

Roman Reigns has hit a milestone in his Universal Title reign.

It was exactly one year ago today (August 30, 2020) that Roman Reigns won the Universal Championship at Payback 2020. The Tribal Chief had returned to WWE the week prior at SummerSlam, attacking The Fiend Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman after their match for the belt. The soon-to-be Tribal Chief aligned with Paul Heyman on the subsequent SmackDown and won the Championship just a couple of days later.

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Prior to his return, Roman had been out of action, quarantining during the on-set of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Roman's year has seen him fend off the likes of Jey Uso, who would later become his right-hand man, Kevin Owens, Daniel Bryan, Rey Mysterio, and Edge. Most recently, he defeated John Cena at SummerSlam despite initially rejecting the 16-time Champions requests for a title opportunity. After disposing of Cena, Reigns was confronted by a returning Brock Lesnar but stepped away before the two came to blows.

Up next for Reigns is a Universal Championship defence against Finn Balor on the September 3 edition of WWE SmackDown. Fightful has live coverage of WWE SmackDown every Friday night beginning at 5 p.m. PST with a post-show review on our Youtube channel immediately following AEW Rampage.

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