You've been Bloodline'd

[d-d-d-dAz]

Roman Reigns. 

Champion. Conqueror. Sexpot.

The man has held some variant of the World Title since August 2020, and for a large part of that time was the only show in town. What struck me watching Smackdown, as AJ Styles cut a promo about LA Knight, is there will have been quite a few people over that time who would've otherwise had a World Title run in that period but didn't because 50% or 100% of the World Title's were around the waist of the Tribal Chief. Perhaps there are some people who now will never win the big one, where there may have been some momentum behind them in the last 4 years.

The obvious one for me is AJ Styles getting another run, as I think his time may well be gone now. In another LA Knight probably won the title in his really hot period. I'm sure Supremo will make the argument for Sami Zayn, and Scorcher may try to upset me by saying Cody Rhodes. But, who else is there? Could anyone make the argument that Daniel Bryan might still be there if Roman's career hadn't been resurrected as the saviour of Smackdown?

For all the positives of Reigns' reign, who or what has been sacrificed at the altar of the Bloodline to allow this huge title run to continue?

[DavidB6937]

Cody and Sami are the only two that I would say genuinely feel like a worthy next step from Roman.

Anyone else feels more like a secondary Seth title holder. I don't think in any era they would've strapped that rocket to LA Knight THAT much to give him the Roman title.

And Bryan wouldn't still be around. It was never about titles for him. He wanted to wrestle a whole bunch of people and the only way he was ever going to do that was by leaving WWE. And same with Adam Copeland to be honest. They'd both done it all, had second chances at careers, and were only ever going to do more if they left the safety net.

[air_raid]

Zayn may have won a title if Roman was only one of the champions instead of THE champion, and if they weren't committed to Roman being champ forever and timing wise, needing to take his title into Mania 39.

As much a focal point of the show as Judgment Day have been, in a timeline where the belts were separate it wouldn't have shocked me either to see Balor FINALLY get a title around his waist again and either be a factor in feuds with Rey and Cody, and/or become an impetus for the eventual split and Balor vs Priest, given somebody either is or at least was high on Priest.

I know he's had injury issues but I think Lashley may very well have had another run. Likewise Drew. Orton would definitely be in the hunt right now if McIntyre wasn't sole focus for Seth's Silver Medal and Cody's turn hadn't been made to wait another fucking year longer than it should have had to.

Finally..... fuck it, JOHN CENA. The handful of matches that he's had over the last couple of years could have been used giving him one last reign, and in company canon the 17th would have him "breaking the record" without having to name the "record holder" that they can then never mention again, given that he's (a) been working for the enemy and (b) is problematic/needs to be cancelled.

Not that "the record" has any more validity to it than Roman catching "Hogan's record." WCW referred to Flair as a "16 time World champion" based on wins of the NWA or WCW titles that they recognised, but at the point he quit and went to the WWF in 1991 they were actually including his last title reign, his 10th NWA title reign and his/the first reign with the WCW title, as one reign... so he was, in official terms, by the death of WCW, a 10 time NWA champion and 7 time WCW champion, which makes 17, not 16. Furthermore and hilariously (well, to me anyway), WWE continue to refer to Flair as "the sixteen time World Heavyweight Champion" - oblivious to the fact that WCW weren't including his two runs with the WWF title as was... which WWE likely would have wanted to, if they'd realized. So as close to an "official" number that there could be, in terms of what was ever officially recognised by the NWA, by WCW or by the WWF/WWE, Flair is at least a 19-time World Champion in official canon.

Not including ones that happened in Puerto Rico, New Zealand, Singapore or God knows where else where the touring champ would "drop the title" to Carlos Colon or whoever on his first night in town then win it back on his last, without the NWA ever recognising it.

7 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

And same with Adam Copeland to be honest.

I disagree here. If they weren't keen on keeping Reigns as champion coming out of Mania 37 with a view to being able to do Reigns vs Rock potentially for 38 in a fuller stadium (which Rock ended up turning down anyway), it wouldn't have surprised me if they had ridden the wave of Edge's return to one more title reign in a different landscape with different opponents from when he retired. Hell, they might have done that before his injury the year before.

22 minutes ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

For all the positives of Reigns' reign, 

I'm struggling. It's been boring as fuck for most of it. The Bloodline civil war crossed with Sami & Kev was good for one year out of the 3.5 that Roman's been U champ. Even that was ruined at the end by the Usos splitting off then Jimmy going back.

[RedRooster]

It's interesting to consider what they might have done had Cody remained in AEW. I imagine Sami Zayn probably would have been the beneficiary, at least in the sense that he might have ended up with a Wrestlemania match with Roman last year. If you take Cody out of the picture, there's no obvious successor to Roman. I guess they could have built up someone like Bron Breakker; but there's something about him that doesn't quite connect with me. I just don't see him as being the next big star for the company. 

[d-d-d-dAz]

30 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

Cody and Sami are the only two that I would say genuinely feel like a worthy next step from Roman.

Anyone else feels more like a secondary Seth title holder. I don't think in any era they would've strapped that rocket to LA Knight THAT much to give him the Roman title.

 

But it's only the Roman title because we've all been collectively Bloodlined. Prior to the sexpot, the Universal title was held by The Fiend, Braun Strowman, Goldberg for a bit and Seth Rollins.

I think title reverance is a new phenomenon in WWE, and had Roman not returned in 2020 there's loads of people who might have got a short run.

Orton, Edge and Cena are great shouts, as there was just no real room for that elder statesman huge star once Roman kicked into gear.

[Supremo]

In the alternative timeline, his World Title victory at Elimination Chamber in Montreal is one of the greatest moments in company history. A similar sense of joy and catharsis as Mick Foley winning the title in 1998. Roof coming off the building. Thousands if not millions of fans for life made in that one moment.

Sami Zayn single-handedly turned the fortune of this entire company around. It’s a crying shame he never got his one, proper, truly satisfying moment. Both in and out of kayfabe. Would have capped off one of the best storylines they ever did. Owens and Zayn winning the tag belts was still good, but fuck me. If he’d raised that gold in Montreal? They’d be selling out stadiums right now, never mind arenas.

Edited March 11 by Supremo

[air_raid]

Zayn winning the title from Reigns works fine if you have someone else lined up, the way Kofi got his shine knocking off Danny Bry but there was Lesnar waiting in the wings to cut him off.

I can definitely picture Zayn beating Reigns at Elimination Chamber and then taking it into Mania and possibly even retaining over Reigns and others in a multi man where he can pin someone else, and lose it back to Roman at a later date, if there's another title match on last at that Mania - a big singles match for the other title which we look back on as the real main event e.g. closes night 2.