5 Possible Culprits Behind The Roman Reigns Attack

It’s been a while since there was a good ol’ ‘Whodunnit’ angle on WWE TV, but on this week’s SmackDown, we got just that. As Roman Reigns was set to announce the opponent he is challenging for SummerSlam, suddenly parts of the stage set-up, as well as crates and other things, began to collapse onto Roman.

Forgive me if that description isn’t very specific, but because there were 10,000 camera cuts while this was happening, it was hard to make out what actually happened.

All of the goofy and hokey nature of this segment aside, it does leave us with a big question: who tried to kill Roman Reigns? There is one blatantly obvious answer to this question, but on the flip side, this could be used to elevate someone straight away into a feud with one of SmackDown’s top stars.

Being that it is still WWE though, I wouldn’t get my hopes up for the latter.

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Samoa Joe

Right, so let’s just get the obvious one out of the way first. Over the past couple weeks, we’ve seen a match between Roman and Joe, as well as two different brawls that took place on Raw.

The seeming outcome from this would be a match between the two at SummerSlam. And who wouldn’t want to see a rematch of that five-star classic they had at Backlash 2018, right?

While this is in my opinion the most likely outcome, it would also be the most disappointing. As good as Samoa Joe is, it’s clear that his role in WWE is one that likely won’t change, and this would end up being an easy win for Roman Reigns.

Hopefully, WWE has something more unpredictable in mind.

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Buddy Murphy

Since being drafted to the blue brand as part of the Superstar Shake-Up, Buddy Murphy has yet to even have a match on SmackDown. What better way to make an impact than attempting murder one of WWE’s top stars?

Buddy Murphy was spotted at the “crime scene” when Roman was attacked. Trust me, that wasn’t by mistake. The only question is whether WWE did that to show it was Murphy, or more likely, they put him in there to troll everyone.

Buddy Murphy was last seen during Shane McMahon’s SmackDown Town Hall Meeting. In this segment, Murphy took exception to Kevin Owens using his name in his feud with Shane McMahon.

So is it possible that by the command of Shane, Murphy attacked Roman Reigns? Could Buddy Murphy be pulled into the Omni-Shane vortex? Or could he have acted on his own in this attack of Roman? Hopefully the latter, because we don’t need anymore storylines revolving around Shane McMahon.

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Braun Strowman

Nope, he’s still not finished with Roman. Braun is a bit of an out-there prediction, but I can’t say I’d be disappointed by it. Braun and Roman’s feud from a couple years ago was very fun, and I would argue that Braun always looked his best when going against Roman Reigns.

Since Braun Strowman’s Last Man Standing match against Bobby Lashley at Extreme Rules, we haven’t seen much from him. However, if reports are to be believed, Paul Heyman wants to resurrect Braun Strowman into the monster he once was.

What better way to do that than to go back to what helped Strowman get as over as he was a couple years ago?

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Shane McMahon

 

Yes, I know this is a terrible idea, and if you hate me for even suggesting this, I don’t blame you. However, let’s be honest… would anyone be surprised?

The black mark on the Roman Reigns and Shane McMahon program is that Shane still holds the only singles victory of the feud. Would anyone really be that surprised if after SummerSlam, Shane is revealed as the attacker, and we get one more Shane vs. Roman match?

Thankfully, I don’t think this will ultimately be the direction they go to, as I assume that this angle will result in the attacker facing Roman at SummerSlam, where Shane is already scheduled to face Kevin Owens.

That does not necessarily mean that WWE won’t drag this story line out past then, but if this is the payoff, hopefully they don’t.

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Daniel Bryan

 

This may be my favorite possible outcome. In the past few weeks on SmackDown, we’ve been teased with a career altering announcement for Daniel Bryan, saying that he will do something he never has before. Could that something he’s never done before be attempted murder?

The announcement that Daniel Bryan has yet to make is at the point where it needs to go somewhere soon before people start to lose interest in it.

The history between Roman and Bryan is certainly there to make a compelling story. Back in 2014 when Roman Reigns won the Royal Rumble, it was when Daniel Bryan was at his most over, and everyone wanted him to win that match.

Doing a storyline where Daniel Bryan’s motive is that he never forgave Roman for taking the spot that should’ve been his all those years ago could be a very interesting and layered story line if handled correctly.

• Roman Reigns
• Smackdown
• SummerSlam
• wwe

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