Roman Reigns was the Undisputed WWE Universal Heavyweight Champion for 1,316 days. Do you know how many of those days could be called "dry" or "insignificant"? None. Despite effectively being the WWE's frontrunner for over three and a half years, Reigns' time as champion was marked with exciting title defenses, memorable feuds and promos, and genuine anticipation.
Anyone with half a brain knew Reigns would be fed to Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 40. Even knowing he'd win up to that point, anything Reigns touched turned to gold. He was that transcendent as a villain. Without cheating, I can name you five notable Reigns feuds.
Jey Uso. LA Knight. Drew McIntyre. Kevin Owens. Sami Zayn. In defeat, each and every one of those names were elevated after feuding with the Bloodline's Tribal Chief. It helps that the Bloodline had a revolving door of credible challengers and infighting worthy of primetime television.
Leading up to WMXL, Cody Rhodes was the perfect good guy to topple Reigns. He proved he belonged with wars against Seth Rollins and Brock Lesnar. Rhodes has "Affable Underdog" written all over him!
So why has his WWE title reign so far been so terribly boring?
Cody Rhodes Needs Memorable Feuds To Legitimize His Title Run
To be fair, it hasn't been three full months yet. But the most telling thing about Rhodes' title reign is that I completely forgot about the Logan Paul feud, and it basically just happened. For someone the WWE wants to be a premier star on the roster, that's not good.
So, now, the WWE has to start planting the seeds for their next "Big Four" event, SummerSlam. One of the issues with Rhodes' reign is that there's no history or oomph behind his scuffles with Logan Paul and AJ Styles. He's been in the WWE long enough that he should start seeing some familiar faces in his title defenses.
Since it seems like The Rock and Roman Reigns are off the table, how about Randy Orton? Or LA Knight in full villain mode? ...How about Gunther? If we can't have the personal history feud, then just give Rhodes a real brick wall to overcome.
But, please. Contrary to what I said in the headline, please don't have Rhodes perpetually entangled with Solo Sikoa and the Reigns-less Bloodline. Let that stable benefit from a different good guy overcoming it. ...Maybe a returning Roman Reigns, perhaps?
