The WWE World Heavyweight Title match at Wrestlemania 32 will pit the champion, Triple H, against the challenger, Roman Reigns.
This is the second consecutive Wrestlemania where Reigns’ will be in the main event challenging for the title.
At Wrestlemania 31, the original plan to have Reigns pin Brock Lesnar to win the title was changed, with Seth Rollins cashing in Money in the Bank and pinning Reigns to win the title.
This year, there is no Money in the Bank briefcase floating around, and the last storyline possibility for a change at WWE Roadblock 2016 left HHH still as the champion. The most likely outcome is that Roman pins Triple H after the spear and/or Superman punch to win the title. However, it’s largely expected that the Wrestlemania crowd will roundly boo Roman, making for a bad spectacle.
However, creatively, a heel turn makes things much easier.
The turn makes sense, given his biggest money adversaries, John Cena, Brock Lesnar, Undertaker, Dean Ambrose and perhaps a returning Seth Rollins, would be faces against him, while the heel side looks bleak without him there. Reigns vs. Bray Wyatt had been set up for a program for later this year.
There have been a few signs pointing to a heel turn. Roman has stopped coming out through the crowd for his entrance, switching to the normal stage over the last 2 weeks. In addition, Paul Heyman in a promo a few weeks ago said “Roman Reigns” in such a way as to solicity boos from the crowd, whereas he had been previously protecting Roman.
In an interesting twist, some reports from the Smackdown tapings report that Roman Reigns was largely cheered in the arena. These reports claim that then WWE piped in additional boos.
Vince McMahon is said to still be steadfast about Roman being the babyface of the company. It’s said that Vince McMahon is less likely to change his plans and vision because the economic fear nor incentive to do so isn’t there. With Wrestlemania business through the roof, it’s tough to argue on that point.
While the plan is still to go through with Roman winning and not turning, there still is over a week before Wrestlemania 32. With ratings on a downward trend, Vince might decide to pair a Roman heel turn with a brand split or some other major shakeup.
