Roman Reigns is set to face Goldberg for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania 36 in a match which many WWE fans are expecting him to win.
Reigns was booked into the Universal title match at WrestleMania last week on SmackDown when he emerged to challenge current Universal Champion Goldberg at the start of the show.
Fans will be glad to see The Big Dog back in the title picture once more, and they’ll be hoping he can dethrone the WCW icon at this year’s Showcase of Immortals in April.
Knowing WWE, there’s an off chance they decide to throw a curveball in this match and have Goldberg retain the Universal Championship, which would be the wrong decision.
We’ve already seen how negative the reaction was towards Goldberg beating ‘The Fiend’ Bray Wyatt at Super ShowDown to win the Universal title, so WWE can’t repeat the same mistake at WrestleMania.
Here are five reasons why Roman Reigns must beat Goldberg and win the Universal Championship at WrestleMania 36.
Reclaim a title which he never lost
A victory for Reigns vs Goldberg at WrestleMania will see him reclaim the Universal title, a title which he never lost in a match.
The Big Dog was forced to relinquish the Universal title back in October 2018 as he had to take some time away from the WWE in order to battle leukaemia.
The four-time world champion was able to return to WWE in February 2019 once his cancer had gone into remission, but he is yet to have an opportunity to reclaim the Universal Championship.
Having Reigns beat Goldberg and reclaim the Universal title would be the perfect end for what has been an emotional climb back to the top of the WWE ladder for The Big Dog over the past year.
Bring Goldberg’s reign to a quick end
As soon as Super ShowDown finished in Saudi Arabia last week, it was clear by the reaction online that WWE fans were not happy with Goldberg being Universal Champion.
Despite this reaction, WWE still, seemingly arrogantly, rolled out the WCW icon as a babyface on SmackDown last week to commence his next feud.
With fans claiming to be cancelling their network subscriptions as a result of WWE’s booking, the wise thing for the company to do would be to not drag out Goldberg’s Universal title reign longer than what it needs to be.
That means no repeats of what happened between Reigns and Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 34. The Big Dog must beat Goldberg cleanly at WrestleMania 36 and bring his second Universal title reign to a quick end.
Become the undisputed top face on SmackDown
Over the past couple of months, since the brand split has been reinforced, Reigns has slowly become the top babyface on SmackDown.
A few superstars, such as Daniel Bryan and Kofi Kingston, have pushed to be the top babyface on the brand over the past couple of months as well.
However, The Big Dog’s feud victory over King Corbin at Super ShowDown has shown WWE fans that he’s the top-dog on the blue brand, and why he should be the number one contender for the Universal title.
Booking Reigns to defeat Goldberg at WrestleMania and win the Universal Championship will establish him once more as the undisputed top babyface on SmackDown.
Kick off a storyline with The Fiend
Prior to Super ShowDown, WWE fans had been excited for the potential feud between ‘The Fiend’ Bray Wyatt vs Reigns for the Universal Championship at this year’s WrestleMania.
However, those plans were thrown up into the air when Goldberg pinned The Fiend at Super ShowDown to capture the Universal title.
A feud between The Fiend and The Big Dog is now on hold until after WrestleMania, and while Reigns doesn’t need to win the Universal title in order for this feud to happen, it would make the storyline even sweeter.
The feud doesn’t need to happen straight away. They could just tease it and not have any matches between Wyatt and Reigns for months, but a Universal title win for The Big Dog gives another reason for The Fiend to hunt Reigns after WrestleMania.
Capitalise on the fan-backing potential
For years, WWE has been trying to push Reigns as their top guy, but for most of his push, he has received boos and an overall negative reaction despite being a babyface.
Fast forward to now and WWE has the perfect opportunity to try this once more since The Big Dog is facing Goldberg, who the fans currently have animosity towards following his win vs The Fiend to capture the Universal title at Super ShowDown.
Despite his fantastic efforts in the ring, some fans will just never cheer for Reigns. Give them a reason to do so, such as seeing him beat Goldberg, and you have fans cheering for him as WWE wanted them to years ago.
This fan-backing potential could carry on throughout the rest of 2020, if WWE books The Big Dog correctly, or at least until a feud with Wyatt begins. WWE knows they’ll have a hard time forcing fans to boo The Fiend, but they’ll be happy they’ve managed to convince fans to at least back Reigns.
All of this can happen, so long as WWE does the right thing and have Roman Reigns defeat Goldberg and win the Universal Championship at WrestleMania 36.