Roman Reigns is the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion starting with Wrestlemania 38 where he defeated Brock Lesnar to earn the accolade. With that, WWE Raw and Smackdown brands have only one top champion. As expected earlier, the dual title-holder is obliged to make appearances on both the shows while originally, he belongs to the Smackdown roster.
Back in the fall of 2021, WWE Draft was hosted where Roman Reigns, the then Universal Champion was the top pick for the Smackdown brand. But as time progressed, WWE failed to keep the barrier intact between the red and the blue brand.
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There have been some crossovers over the past few months and especially, Roman Reigns had to grace both the shows as the top champion. However, he was never considered to be a permanent trade to Raw.
In a past interview with Bleacher Report, Roman Reigns set the record straight about him staying on the blue brand. He made it clear that there was no consideration about him moving to RAW during the Draft. FOX officials invested a lot of money on SmackDown and thereby on him being the face of the brand. Hence, they always wanted the top superstar to stick around Friday nights.
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“I don’t think it was a hope; it was more of a demand. What we’re doing and the character falls very closely to real-life with us and what we do, and I don’t think Fox would have had it any other way,” Roman Reigns continued.
“They’ve invested a lot of money, and they want the very best representing their network, and who better to do it for WWE than me? Because I’m in the thick of it, because I’ve put in all this work on the blue side for SmackDown, it would have felt really weird to just be uprooted and try to transition it to Raw. And this is coming from a Raw guy.”
While Roman Reigns, Charlotte Flair, and Drew McIntyre were the top draws for the Smackdown brand in 2021, the likes of Seth Rollins, Bobby Lashley, and WWE Hall of Famer Edge were picked by Raw as top picks.
Going by the recent updates, the 2022 edition of Draft is internally scheduled for later this year where there should be some major changes on the roster. But for the time being, The Head of the Table will continue to rule the roost in the WWE.