Roman Reigns' WWE title win sets path to Royal Rumble, WrestleMania 32

When Roman Reigns landed that spine-tingling spear against Sheamus at "Monday Night Raw" and pinned him to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, it capped off what has been a strange, sometimes frustrating and ultimately fulfilling year for the superstar.

This was supposed to be the year that the "Roman Empire" began with him winning the 30-man, over-the-top-rope Royal Rumble in January, earning him a championship match at WrestleMania 31, where he would take his crown as the new top star for the company.

But even in a scripted business, the best-laid plans many times don't work out. Rather than being cheered for his Rumble victory, the rough Philadelphia crowd showered him with boos that night. Even The Rock giving his approval wasn't enough to win over the audience who didn't envision Reigns as "the" guy just yet.

Since then, the No. 1 goal for the WWE has been to make Reigns into that top star, the hero that everyone wants to root for and finally have his shining moment.

When Reigns was once again cheated out of a championship at the Tables, Ladders and Chairs pay-per-view last Sunday, he finally showed a side of himself that people yearned for: anger.

He hit his tipping point and went on a rampage, ripping apart Sheamus and his cohorts from the League of Nations stable. When WWE COO Triple H intervened to calm him down, Reigns would have none of it, unleashing a beating on the authority figure capped off with a violent spear.

The fans ate it up. He finally had them in his corner.

The following night on "Raw", WWE went one step further to make sure fans were behind Reigns by bringing out their most dastardly villains: the McMahon Family. There was Stephanie slapping the taste out of Reigns' mouth for his attack on her husband. Even the Chairman, Vince McMahon, made a rare powerwalk to the ring to fire Reigns, instead having him put his career on the line in a championship match later in the show.

Mr. McMahon did everything he could during the match to stop Reigns from winning, but instead the 70-year-old was smacked in the mouth with a Superman Punch as Reigns overcame all to finally get his feel-good moment. This time, the crowd showered him with cheers. Mission accomplished.

After many twists and turns, it feels like WrestleMania 32 is finally coming together with a match between Reigns and a vengeful Triple H looking to be the main event at the annual extravaganza.

That would make sense with Reigns having to fend off Sheamus and anyone else The Authority put in his path until then, building up to that big showdown.

The only other opponents that seem possible against Reigns would be either Brock Lesnar or John Cena, but neither tells the story they can with Triple H. Plus, Reigns and Lesnar squared off at this past WrestleMania and the WWE brass probably don't want to go back to that match so quickly.

So where do they each fit on the 'Mania card? A showdown of two behemoths between Lesnar and Sheamus makes sense, especially if the Celtic Warrior and the League of Nations eliminate the "Beast Incarnate" from the Rumble match, helping Triple H get the victory and earning the title match at 'Mania.

As for Cena, he could be paired up against The Undertaker in a dream match pitting legend versus legend. It's just too bad that the Dead Man's undefeated streak wasn't still intact, but this is still a huge match between two of sports entertainment's most iconic stars.

A Fatal-Four Way for the tag-team titles between The New Day, The Usos, The Lucha Dragons and the Dudley Boyz would be the way to go here. All of them have such great chemistry together and it would be anyone's guess who could leave with the gold.

Charlotte defending the Divas Championship against her soon-to-be-former BFF Becky Lynch is the direction they are headed right now. To spruce it up, her former NXT nemesis Sasha Banks could be thrown in to make it a Triple Threat match.

The biggest challenge for WWE right now is cobbling together an attractive card for the show at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, which they are hoping to draw a record crowd of more than 100,000 fans. That got even tougher considering that Seth Rollins, Randy Orton, Cesaro and Daniel Bryan are all expected to miss WrestleMania due to injuries.

Plus, Steve Austin is definitely not coming out of retirement on the show --€“ as had been rumored -- and The Rock is not expected to have a match either, although both could make cameos.

One person who will likely be back is Chris Jericho in a match against Dean Ambrose. That set up at September's Night of Champions event where they teamed together with Reigns only to lose to the Wyatt Family with Jericho being pinned and storming off afterwards.

WWE had originally hoped to include UFC star Ronda Rousey on the show following her surprise appearance at the event earlier this year when she was called into the ring by The Rock and got physical with both Stephanie McMahon and Triple H. But UFC president Dana White was probably not going to allow her to have a match, even before her recent loss.

This is the hand that the WWE is dealing with and they're banking on the WrestleMania name itself being a big enough attraction to sell out the building. And having the McMahon Family once again up to their dirty tricks in trying to thwart the new champion and control the WWE may be just the ticket to get it done.