WrestleMania 38 featured some iconic moments with great matches from Stone Cold Steve Austin, and even Logan Paul surprised fans. However, for all the great things that happened during the two-day event, the biggest match from both nights, which occurred between Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar, left a lot to be desired. The abrupt end to this match at WrestleMaina 38 led to speculation about if Reigns suffered an injury, and now there are more rumors spreading around that might leave fans wondering what’s going on.
Roman Reigns appeared on Monday Night Raw and SmackDown the week following WrestleMania 38 (Peacock premium subscribers can watch it now), but fans might’ve noticed he didn’t wrestle on either show. Ringside News reported that Reigns didn’t wrestle at any WWE live event over the weekend either, and now the rumors that the champion is injured seem stronger than ever.
Additionally, it’s said that Vince McMahon isn’t discussing the issue with other WWE employees in regards to Reigns’ status for the upcoming Backlash pay-per-view. An unnamed tenured member of WWE’s creative team said they inquired about Roman Reigns’ status for the pay-per-view, but didn’t get an answer.
The current theory is that Roman Reigns injured his arm during his WrestleMania 38 match with Brock Lesnar. It appeared that Reigns dislocated his shoulder following a spear and put it back into place by tugging on the ring rope, as commentator Michael Cole pointed out. Cole’s mention of the moment made it seem as though the injury was a planned storyline. It’s possible that’s still the case, and eventually a WWE superstar will step up and realize the champion is at his most vulnerable and take the titles in a match. It’s always hard to track down what the real story is when it comes to pro wrestling, but it does feel like something real is going on at the moment, rather than being scripted.
Another interesting dimension to this story is that Brock Lesnar also hasn’t appeared on television since losing at WrestleMania 38. Of course, that situation is less surprising to wrestling fans, as Lesnar is a part-timer who just lost a major match. His frequent appearances leading up to WrestleMania were part of building anticipation (which worked for many Roman Reigns fans), so it seems logical that the WWE would give him a break now that the match is over.
Whatever the case may be with either wrestler, the WWE may be in a tight spot with its undisputed champion. The WWE put both of its biggest titles on one champion, and if he can’t wrestle, then the company either needs to vacate his championships or find a way for him to keep the titles without fans complaining they’re not on the line. Hopefully we’ll get some definitive answers on Reigns’ status soon and what’s next for him.
Monday Night Raw airs on USA on Mondays at 8:00 p.m. ET. While we may not know what Roman Reigns’ status right now, at least there are plenty of other exciting story directions for wrestlers to go down following WrestleMania to still talk about and should bleed into the next few months of storylines.
