In the main event of WrestleMania 39 Night Two, Roman Reigns defeated Cody Rhodes to retain the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. It was rumored that his next title defense would go down at the Night of Champions premium live event in Saudi Arabia on May 27th but that wasn’t the case as he simply featured in an undisputed tag title match against Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn to come up short.
Meanwhile, it was on that same night, Roman Reigns also completed 1,000 days as the WWE Universal Champion to set a record in the modern era. According to the reports of Andrew Zarian, WWE wants to update their record books of the longest World Championship reigns, and hence this ongoing Universal Title reign won’t come to an end even on the grandest stage of WrestleMania 40,
“I have been told numerous times that WWE wants to update its history books and needs longer title reigns.”
Summerslam 2023: Big Match Featuring Becky Lynch Canceled From WWE PLE
Zarian’s reports do make sense as WWE did update their records with the other titles on the roster as well. GUNTHER became the longest-reigning Intercontinental Champion of the modern era while Bianca Belair became the longest-reigning WWE Women’s Champion of all time in the modern era.
Roman Reigns Vs. Cody Rhodes Mega WWE Feud Far From Over
Roman Reigns expected to surpass three previous world title reigns by 2024
As for Roman Reigns, he’s expected to stop only after surpassing three legendary former champions, next year. You can check out the list of the longest World Title reigns in WWWF/WWF/WWE history (including WWWF/WWF/WWE Championship, World Heavyweight Championship & Universal Championship):
1. Bruno Sammartino (2,803 days)
2. Bob Backlund (2,135 days)
3. Hulk Hogan (1,474 days)
4. Bruno Sammartino (1,237 days)
5. Pedro Morales (1,027 days)
6. Roman Reigns (1000 days and counting)
The current speculation is Roman Reigns will at least break Hulk Hogan’s record of being the WWF champion for 1,474 days before dropping the title for good. If that’s the case then he will break that record on September 13th, 2024. This does mean that there are plenty of chances that he will not lose his title at WrestleMania 40 in Philadelphia during next year’s April.
Wrestlemania 40: Update On The Rock’s Status For Next Year’s Grand WWE PLE
Rematch on the table for Wrestlemania 40 main event
This is also one of the reasons why Triple H introduced the World Heavyweight Championship for Raw so that Roman Reigns can continue with his lengthy title reign on SmackDown. According to WrestleVotes via GiveMeSport, the highly-anticipated rematch between Cody Rhodes and Reigns is also “on the table” to be the main event of WrestleMania 40. However, things could change in this unpredictable world of professional wrestling.
“We’re About To Walk Into Our 40s,” Nikki Bella Opens On Post-WWE Career