Did Roman Reigns Need to Defeat Rusev at WWE Clash of Champions?
Roman Reigns beat Rusev for the US Championship, but did he need to?
Roman Reigns has had an up and down year. He lost the WWE World Championship at the Royal Rumble but gained it back at WrestleMania. Then, he got suspended for failing WWE’s Wellness Policy. Since then he has slowly been brought back into the main event, but didn’t regain gold until WWE Clash of Champions. Did he really need to, though?
A reason why it was a positive decision for Reigns to win is it was time for Rusev to lose the championship. The Bulgarian Brute had held the belt for 126 days before his loss at Clash, so it was definitely time for a potential change.
Typically I’d rather see longer reigns for the Universal and World championships with moderately shorter reigns for the other title. A four-month run as U.S. champion is a good length, especially if the champion moves on.
However, in this case, the feud is seemingly not going to be over anytime soon. It would have made more sense to have had Reigns come up short or get disqualified if they are going to continue this feud through Survivor Series.
Having Reigns win at Clash of Champions may have been premature. Making him wait to capture the United States Championship for a couple of more pay-per-views would have built the anticipation for Hell in a Cell or Survivor Series.
It was also time to forgive The Big Dog for his wellness policy violation. While he needed to be pushed out of the top spot in WWE after violating the rules while champion, enough time had passed since his suspension ended. So, it was time for Reigns to start winning again.
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Conversely, others who broke the rules in the past have had to pay a much longer price. Triple H, for his role in the Madison Square Garden Curtain Call, truly had to start over from the beginning and wasn’t winning championships months later. However, both situations are completely different. WWE was not in a strong position during the Kliq incident and they weren’t going to punish Shawn Michaels for his participation in the kayfabe breaking event.
Finally, Reigns needed to win the U.S. belt at Clash of Champions as nearly every singles title in WWE is held by heels. Kevin Owens, Charlotte, AJ Styles, The Miz, & Rusev are all heels, so there definitely needs to be more balance at the top of the card and their champions.
However, is Reigns truly a face? He is facing a top foreign heel yet continues to get booed as soon as his music hits. While some of it is from the contrarians in the crowd, I am not sure you can truly call the former Shield man a face. So does having him as champ change things in a company full of face champions?
Roman Reigns winning the U.S. Championship was a good idea. However, it would have been better to wait until Hell in a Cell to pull off the title change. Hopefully having Reigns as champion now doesn’t hurt the chance to rebuild him as a face of the company.
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