Roman Reigns doesn’t need to be the champion. He doesn’t even need to be on the show. The entire WWE revolves around him.

Ironically, Roman’s status as the Most Influential Wrestler of 2024 didn’t start until he lost the WWE title to Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania XL.

Reigns went away for a few months, and everyone began assessing the damage from his nearly four-year reign over WWE.

BECOMING A FIEND

Reigns came out of the pandemic with Paul Heyman as his new manager. He quickly won his second WWE Universal title at Payback 2020 in a Triple Threat match against Braun Strowman and previous champion “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt.

Reigns assembled perennial tag team champions Jimmy & Jey Uso as his henchmen, forming the Bloodline faction. Sami Zayn became an unlikely fourth member of the group.

With the Bloodline backing him, Reigns turned back all challengers in a dominant, Hulk Hogan-like championship run.

He won his fourth WWE title at WrestleMania 38 by defeating Brock Lesnar and emerging as the undisputed champion.

Reigns was so dominant that WWE eventually introduced the World title on Raw and kept the Reigns juggernaut confined to Smackdown.

Cody Rhodes won the 2023 Royal Rumble but failed to dethrone Reigns at WrestleMania 39.

One year later, Rhodes won the Rumble again and finally knocked off Reigns.

THAT’S NOT ALL

Reigns returned at SummerSlam in Cleveland and eventually teamed with Rhodes. This ignited the current feud between Rhodes and Kevin Owens, one of the long-suffering victims of Reigns’ Bloodline.

Drew McIntyre is another victim out for revenge, as he has targeted The Usos, Zayn, and even Solo Sikoa.

That’s right. Solo started his own Bloodline and will challenge Reigns for the undisputed title of Tribal Chief of the Samoan wrestling dynasty.

Dominance, revenge, and even imitation are hallmarks of Roman Reigns’ enduring influence in WWE.