WrestleMania season is the time of year where many casuals jump back into WWE, but are completely lost about what is going on. While some start rewatching around Royal Rumble and take part in the entire Road to WrestleMania, others need more of a crash course to cram at the last minute. Hence, we’re in the March to WrestleMania, and I’m here to give you a tl;dr recap of what you need to know.
This first edition will focus on the four world championships.
The WWE Championship / Universal Championship Scene
As it stands, Brock Lesnar is holding the WWE Championship and will face Roman Reigns, the current universal champion, in a Winner Take All match with both belts on the line.
That sounds crazy if you haven’t been following things for the past few months. Frankly, even if you have been following, it’s still been absolutely chaotic. It will be a challenge to condense this recap, particularly as it dates back to 2014.
- WWE was setting up Roman Reigns to be the next top guy in 2014. He was the runner-up in the Royal Rumble (which Batista won, even though everyone wanted Daniel Bryan that year and he would go on to win the title at WrestleMania, anyway).
- WWE naturally assumed people would be on board with Reigns the next year, as he was cheered over Batista in the Royal Rumble. They were wrong. People still wanted Bryan, so Reigns was booed out of Philadelphia. I was there, rooting for Reigns. The crowd hated it.
- All the build of Brock Lesnar as champion coming out of ending The Undertaker’s undefeated streak at WrestleMania was put into Reigns being the one to benefit, but it didn’t happen. Instead, Seth Rollins cashed in Money in the Bank and stole the title at WrestleMania 31.
- Years later, at WrestleMania 34, we were back at the same thing. Goldberg had beaten Kevin Owens at Fastlane just to hold the Universal Championship so he could drop it to Lesnar at WrestleMania 33, with the idea in mind that Reigns would finally be the guy to beat Lesnar and get that major push the next year.
- Again, it didn’t happen. Lesnar just won. Ha ha. Swerve!
- But they fought again a few weeks later in Saudi Arabia at Greatest Royal Rumble…which ended in shenanigans. Gotcha! Swerve!
- A few months later, at SummerSlam, Reigns finally dethroned Lesnar, and it seemed this feud was over.
- Sadly, Reigns had to vacate the title due to leukemia, and at Crown Jewel, the belt went back to Lesnar.
- Fast forward through Seth Rollins, Kofi Kingston and Drew McIntyre, we get to Paul Heyman eventually joining Roman Reigns as his new manager (the wise man to The Tribal Chief).
- Lesnar fought Reigns again at Crown Jewel 2021 and came up short, with Heyman’s allegiance called into question.
- All that amounted to essentially nothing. It was supposed to factor into WWE Day 1, but Reigns was unable to compete due to COVID. Instead, WWE decided to put Lesnar in the WWE Championship match arbitrarily and give him the title, dethroning Big E.
- At Royal Rumble, Bobby Lashley defeated Lesnar to win the WWE Championship due to some interference from Reigns and the affirmation that Heyman was back by his side, so all that teasing for weeks about a split was just circling back to square one.
- Unfortunately for Reigns, Lesnar entered the Royal Rumble, won it, and picked Roman for WrestleMania.
- However, Lesnar had been mentioning a “title for title” match for weeks and managed to convince Adam Pearce to be in the Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Championship.
- He emphatically won that, regained the WWE Championship, and once more, everything reset itself. Both belts are on the line.
- Most recently, WWE made a big deal out of Reigns attacking Lesnar at a house show in Madison Square Garden, despite how fans were pissed all this hype only amounted to a title defense against Austin Theory and a beat down that has been replayed all week.
That’s what you need to know. Reigns has The Usos and Heyman in his corner, while Lesnar is all alone. Whoever wins at WrestleMania will hold both championships and WWE will likely do something to undo that soon after, as it’s unlikely there will be just one champion across both brands for long.
Click on the next section for a breakdown of the women’s world titles from Raw and SmackDown.
