"The Tribal Chief" Roman Reigns is smashing records in his record-breaking WWE Universal Championship reign. Reigns defeated "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman in a triple threat match at Payback 2020 to kickstart his second run as WWE Universal Champion. Reigns has held the WWE Universal Championship for 1,137 days and counting which is the fourth longest World Championship reign in WWE history.
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Reigns is the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion as he beat Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 38 for the WWE Championship in a Winner Takes All match which has gone alongside his Universal Championship. Whilst, Reigns has engaged in some fascinating feuds with the likes of his cousin Jey Uso and Kevin Owens among others over the Universal Championship, there were some title feuds during his reign that failed to live up to the expectations.
8 Finn Balor
Roman Reigns feuded with the inaugural WWE Universal Champion Finn Balor over the championship in the fall of 2021. They were scheduled to face off at SummerSlam, but John Cena's return at Money in the Bank meant that he'd jump in the queue.
Reigns and Balor had an outstanding wrestling match on the September 3, 2021 edition of SmackDown. However, they had a rematch at Extreme Rules with Balor in his Demon gimmick. The match was good, but the finish left fans scratching their heads as the top turnbuckle broke, and Reigns retained the Universal Championship. They never explained why the turnbuckle broke, and the feud ended rather abruptly.
7 Rey Mysterio
Rey Mysterio is a three-time WWE World Champion, and he was looking to become the first man to win the WWE, World Heavyweight, and Universal Championships. Mysterio was one-half of the reigning SmackDown Tag Team Champions alongside his son Dominik, and he challenged Roman Reigns for the WWE Universal Championship in a Hell in a Cell match on the June 18, 2021 edition of SmackDown.
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Reigns and Mysterio's match should have taken place at the 2021 Hell in a Cell premium live event instead of SmackDown. Their feud had the potential to be better, but it was short with Reigns defeating Mysterio to continue his run as the WWE Universal Champion.
6 Cesaro
Cesaro defeated Roman Reigns' former tag team partner Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 37 which is a big deal, and Cesaro found himself challenging Reigns for the WWE Universal Championship at WrestleMania Backlash 2021. This was the moment that fans had been waiting to see for a long time with the Swiss Superman in the main event scene.
The former multiple-time WWE Tag Team Champion pushed Reigns to his limit in a hard-fought battle. However, Cesaro came up short with Reigns retaining the title. Cesaro's run in the main event scene fizzled out rapidly, and he departed WWE in 2022 after he went back into the tag team scene.
5 Matt Riddle
Matt Riddle began feuding with the Bloodline after the Bloodline took out Riddle's tag team partner Randy Orton. The former WWE United States Champion challenged Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, which was Reigns' first title defense in two months in June 2022.
They had a competitive match which wasn't plain sailing for Reigns. The Original Bro gave a good account of himself here but Reigns retained the championship, and Riddle's one-time challenge for Reigns' Undisputed WWE Universal Championship was the closest he got to becoming a World Champion in WWE.
4 Logan Paul
Logan Paul gets a lot of hate from the WWE Universe because of his personality away from the squared circle. However, there's no denying that Paul is a fantastic in-ring competitor. Paul challenged Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at Crown Jewel 2022.
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They hit a home run in an outstanding wrestling match, and Paul tore his ACL, MCL, and meniscus in his match with the Tribal Chief. This feud felt like it was a stopgap and it was unquestionably a high-profile match that the Saudi Arabian crowd witnessed with Reigns managing to retain his Undisputed WWE Universal Championship by the skin of his teeth.
3 Sami Zayn
Roman Reigns' rivalry with Sami Zayn in 2023 was outstanding, but Zayn first challenged Reigns for the WWE Universal Championship in 2021. Reigns' rival Brock Lesnar gave Zayn a beatdown, and Reigns preyed on Zayn like he was a wounded animal.
The Tribal Chief made short work of Zayn in just 15 seconds in his easiest and most underwhelming Universal Championship title defense to date.
2 Braun Strowman
Braun Strowman was involved in the triple threat match at Payback 2020 when Roman Reigns won the WWE Universal Championship, but Reigns and the Monster Among Men were no strangers to feuding against each other. They feuded over the Universal Championship in 2018, and they rekindled their feud in 2020 with Reigns as the heel and Strowman as the babyface.
Reigns and Strowman battled over the Universal Championship on the October 16, 2020 edition of SmackDown. This was a boring match, and there was no way that Reigns was going to drop the title in the early stages of his title reign.
1 Goldberg
Roman Reigns was scheduled to beat Goldberg for the WWE Universal Championship at WrestleMania 36, but the COVID-19 pandemic had other ideas with Reigns opting to pull out of their match and stay at home for a few months. Nevertheless, two years later, fans got to see the Tribal Chief and Goldberg slug it out for the WWE Universal Championship at Elimination Chamber 2022 in Saudi Arabia.
There's no surprise that it was one of the worst premium live event matches in 2022, and it was a short match which is customary for Goldberg's matches. They opened up the show in a six-minute battle, and Reigns choked out Goldberg with the Guillotine in a successful WWE Universal Championship title defense in Goldberg's final WWE match to date.
