Roman Reigns' Days as US Champion Are Numbered as Return to Main Event Looms

Angry tweeters, assume the position. Roman Reigns is well on his way back to the main event in WWE. 

The current United States champion, who was recently pulled from the rest of WWE's ongoing European tour due to family reasons, per Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t Raj Giri of Wrestling Inc), has been steadily gaining momentum ever since falling into somewhat of a slump after violating WWE's wellness policy. 

Despite a series of losses to the likes of Finn Balor and Seth Rollins and an apparent demotion to the midcard, Reigns has always felt like the most important WWE Superstar on Raw. WWE has a rich history of cooling off once-hot Superstars, and fan interest typically follows suit. When The Miz went from WWE champion to perennial midcarder, it took years before he was able to connect with fans the way he did in 2011.

Dolph Ziggler was the hottest WWE Superstar on the entire roster for about a month in 2013, but after losing the World Heavyweight Championship to Alberto Del Rio shortly after his memorable victory, he still struggles with fan apathy to this day.

Even when Ziggler received a WWE World Championship shot against Dean Ambrose at SummerSlam earlier this year, the live crowd wasn't with it. Said Jason Powell of ProWrestling.net, "This looked like a midcard match on paper and it was very appropriate that the it started at the midway point of the show." 

Reigns has been different. Even as a midcarder, the loud, impassioned reactions toward Reigns remain at a main event level. Despite dropping out of the world-title picture, Reigns' entrance is the most polarizing part of any live event, and it is impossible to deny that there is more emotion invested in the former three-time world champion than anyone else. 

Powell described this scene on ProWrestling.net during Reigns' Hell in a Cell match against Rusev, noting "there were some fans cheering once Reigns' music played, but there were more fans booing than cheering." Per usual, reactions became more evenly split throughout the match, with Powell describing "dueling chants" for Rusev and Reigns. 

Reigns' run as United States champion has been largely forgettable. Hardly the renaissance of John Cena's U.S. Championship open challenge, Reigns has spent his entire tenure feuding with Rusev. Before Reigns re-enters the Universal Championship picture, he'll have to lose the United States Championship, hopefully to a worthy up-and-coming contender, in order to mitigate lingering complaints of getting a "superman push."

WWE has been a little lackluster in its efforts to rebuild Reigns as a world-title contender through several title defenses over varied opponents. But it doesn't have to. 

Reigns is a main eventer whether he is a world champion or a cruiserweight contender. WWE seemed to realize this in September, when it positioned him at the beginning of an ill-fated Raw that went up against a record-breaking Presidential debate, per Steven Perlberg of the Wall Street Journal.

By wrestling Rusev to start the show, the former Shield member had the luxury of competing in a slot prior to the debate beginning, making him the beneficiary of 2.850 million viewers, per James Caldwell of PWTorch. This marked the largest audience of the night, as the second and third hours quickly evaporated to 2.381 million and 2.203 million, respectively, up against the first debate. 

With WWE teasing everything from a title vs. title match, which could pit Reigns against Kevin Owens at Roadblock, per Dave Meltzer of Figure Four Online, to a mini-Shield reunion, the Reigns man cometh. It might not even be fair to say that Reigns is back in the main event because it feels like he never left. 

Alfred Konuwa is a Featured Columnist and on-air host for Bleacher Report and Forbes. Like him on Facebook.