It’s almost a lock that Roman Reigns will defend his Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at Royal Rumble in Florida next month. What’s less certain is who will be standing across the ring from him attempting to take his title.
One of the drawbacks to Reigns’ “special attraction” schedule is that it gives WWE less time to build up his opponents with face-to-face interactions. Having Paul Heyman as his special counsel mitigates that to a certain degree, but even then he’s usually responding to the established challenger at the time instead of calling out someone new.
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Reigns hasn’t appeared on WWE television since his successful defense against LA Knight at Crown Jewel, and his next scheduled appearance isn’t for two more weeks. That gives everyone some time to speculate about who he’s going to face in St. Petersburg.
Dave Meltzer gave us a great starting point in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter (subscription required), noting that Reigns “wasn’t locked in” as of the beginning of this week to a Royal Rumble opponent. He also threw out several possibilities, so let’s go through them in what this writer feels is descending order of possibility.
Randy Orton
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Yes, Randy Orton just made it back after more than a year off for injury. But he looks great and he’s never had a chance for a program with Reigns during his current Tribal Chief/Head of the Table run.
Plans to do so leading up to SummerSlam 2022 had to be scuttled once Orton’s ailments took him out of the mix, so this would be a chance to revisit something WWE believed would work before. Orton isn’t getting any younger, so there’s no reason to sit on this pairing like the company might with other potential Reigns foes.
Orton will be on SmackDown tonight (Dec. 1), and it will be worth watching to see if there are hints that he’ll be Roman’s next feud.
Kevin Owens
Since Kevin Owens was sent to SmackDown as the “player to be named later” in the Jey Uso trade (baseball fans will get that reference), he’s been as entertaining as ever but a little directionless. He’s mostly been dishing out well deserved lumps to Grayson Waller and Austin Theory, so it’s possible WWE sees more there.
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But he does have a long history with Reigns, and can credibly claim to be the man who has come closest to derailing the entire Bloodline era. His actual in-ring work with Roman is always great as well.
It would just be a bit disappointing to see KO used in what would essentially be a throwaway program to kill time before WrestleMania, where Reigns is expected to face Cody Rhodes (or perhaps now CM Punk). For that reason alone, Owens feels less likely a choice than Orton.
LA Knight
On one hand, Knight already got his shot at Reigns and came up short (though barely, and with the usual Bloodline interference). On the other, the Megastar has vowed to dismantle the Bloodline one member at a time.
Logically, that would seem to suggest he’s headed for a rematch with Reigns, but Meltzer says he’s “supposed to go in another direction.” If that’s the case, we should discover what it is pretty quickly.
The shame of it all, though, is that Knight doesn’t appear to be in the mix for any WrestleMania main event caliber matches at the moment. Maybe he’ll surprise us and win the Royal Rumble or something, but for now his path forward seems less clear.
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