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How Many Times Did Fans Think Roman Reigns Would Actually Lose During His Original 1,316-Day Title Reign?

Image created using AI – Roman Reigns wins against multiple opponents

Roman Reigns is back on top of WWE. He returned to the world championship scene at WrestleMania 42 back in April when he defeated CM Punk to claim the World Heavyweight Championship in Las Vegas. In the six weeks since then, the OTC has already defended the title twice, knocking off real-life cousin Jacob Fatu at both Backlash and Clash in Italy. The Samoan Werewolf has since acknowledged Reigns as his Tribal Chief, but the OTC's title reign is already suffering similar problems to his initial record-breaking 1,316-day Undisputed WWE Universal Championship reign. 

Tried and Tested or Tired and Tested? 

The iconic trailer promoting WrestleMania 42 ended with a poker chip dropping onto the Las Vegas logo and the words "It's anyone's game" appearing on screen. It was a brilliant piece of marketing that called on casino gaming prowess and the fairness of skill-based contests like poker. It was also, if history is any guide, a lie. 

For context on what a genuinely open game looks like, consider Ignition Casino's Zone Poker format, where players are whisked to a brand-new anonymous table the moment they fold, keeping the action relentless and the competition perpetually fresh — every hand is a clean slate, every pot genuinely up for grabs. Ignition also runs Jackpot Sit and Go tables, where a random multiplier can turn a modest buy-in into a prize pool worth up to 1,200 times the entry fee, a format that lives and dies on genuine uncertainty.

These are games that are truly “anyone’s.” They’re based on the players’ skills, their ability to read others and conceal their own hands, their understanding of table nuances, bluffing, positioning, and more. Ignition rewards all of those elements and ensures that it really is the strongest player who wins – something that makes these games enjoyable, because nobody can predict the outcome. Roman Reigns' 1,316-day Universal Championship reign offered none of that uncertainty. 

Challengers came and went with regular aplomb, each of them fed to the Tribal Chief with fans knowing full well that the title wasn't going to change hands. Now, Reigns is champion again, and not a single fan on the planet thought that he would drop the gold to Fatu at either Backlash or Clash in Italy. If WWE continues with such booking throughout the rest of the year, the OTC's reign could turn stale in record time. 

That was something that happened throughout the final year of the Tribal Chief's epic 1,316-day title reign spanning August 2020 to April 2024. But there were a handful of Reigns' 27 title defenses where fans genuinely didn't know the outcome. Here are the three most memorable of them.

WrestleMania 37 Triple Threat 

Back in April 2021, Reigns' title reign was still somewhat in its infancy. Global events meant that WWE had to hold their shows in front of precisely zero fans, and as such, the company had no idea what the response to the newly heel Reigns would truly be. Before transitioning to his now iconic Tribal Chief character, Reigns was hated by WWE fans for being somewhat pushed down their throats as a hero, something fans never bought into. 

Both the veteran Edge — that year's Royal Rumble winner — and the genuinely beloved Daniel Bryan were red hot at the time, and both of them would challenge Reigns at Mania in a triple threat match that no one could call. To return to casino poker terms, the kicker was that fans would finally be in attendance for the first time in well over a year. And when Reigns made his entrance, it was clear that they were on board with the newly minted Tribal Chief. 

Perhaps we should have known from their reaction that Reigns would successfully defend the title. Truth be told, though, we didn't. No one did. Either Edge or Bryan winning the title in Tampa Bay was certainly a conceivable notion. More than. But in the end, Reigns would leave Florida with the title and with a statement-making victory. He stacked both Edge and Bryan on top of each other, pinning both and successfully defending his title, just as he said he would. 

Defeating Drew McIntyre in the UK 

After such a statement-making win, it took quite some time for fans to genuinely believe Reigns could be dethroned. An argument could be made that fans thought Brock Lesnar would defeat him for the title at Crown Jewel 2021, but he didn't, and from that moment on, no one thought the Beast Incarnate would beat Reigns in either of the two matches that followed. Once again, he didn't. 

But by the time that Clash in the Castle rolled around in September 2022, everyone thought that Reigns' stranglehold on the title scene was in real jeopardy. The stars had seemingly aligned. He was facing a red-hot Drew McIntyre, and he was doing so in the UK, McIntyre's nation of birth — albeit Wales, rather than Scotland. WWE continues to replay the British Bulldog's victory against Bret Hart at Wembley Stadium in 1992 on video packages to this day, and many thought that McIntyre would have his feel-good moment in Cardiff. 

Just like Lesnar, though, he didn't. Solo Sikoa debuted at the Principality Stadium, distracting McIntyre and helping Reigns retain the gold. We would have to wait seven months for the next time a title change seemed conceivable. 

Cody Rhodes Fails to Finish the Story 

When Cody Rhodes won the 2023 Royal Rumble, it seemed a nigh on certainty that he was the one to end Roman's reign of terror. He was undefeated since returning to the company a year prior, and it was clear that WWE brass was big on the American Nightmare. Rhodes repeatedly declared that he would "Finish the Story," and at WrestleMania 39 in the stunning SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, he would get his chance. 

As we all remember, though, Rhodes wouldn't get the job done. After one of the greatest WrestleMania main events of all time, Solo Sikoa would once again aid his Tribal Chief, drilling the challenger with a Samoan Spike before Reigns hit the Spear and secured the pinfall win. Fans left Tinseltown in disbelief, and they would have to wait a full year before genuinely thinking that Reigns would actually lose. That moment came at WrestleMania 40, with Rhodes finally finishing the story at the second time of asking.

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