WrestleMania 35 - Roman Reigns versus Drew McIntyre

[FunKay]

Roman Reigns really kinda shouldn't even be here. He's just overcome a fight with a life-threatening disease and is ready for a prime slot on WWE's biggest card of the year. He won't main event for the first time since 2014, but his being here alone is a victory, and it's great to have the "Big Dog" back. What makes it all the better is he's opposite one of the most intense and legitimately imposing villains on the WWE roster; Drew McIntyre. The "Scottish Psychopath" had a weird winter. He was protected extremely well during his partnership with Dolph Ziggler, looking like a bruising enforcer while Ziggler took the bumps and pins. The their relationship dissolved and McIntyre has sorta just been there. He was Baron Corbin's associate for a bit and suffered losses to Finn Balor and an elimination from the Royal Rumble by Ziggler of all people. The last month though...

Since March began, McIntyre has defeated Dean Ambrose three times, including two hardcore-esc victories which were not only emphatic but brilliantly showcased his expert villainy. He's pinned Seth Rollins (mostly) clean via his finisher; The Claymore. And, he's left Roman reigns laying on two separate occasions, all while looking deeply evil, but never stereotypically cowardly. He even issued the challenge for this match, which Reigns accepted this past Monday. And now, two of RAW's thoroughbreds are gonna rip into each other in what may well be the sleeper hit of Mania 35.

________________

This should be a lot of fun. McIntyre has been utterly delightful in his role as a nasty bastard who can back it up on every level the last little while. Reigns is primed perfectly as the returning, conquering hero. I'm so down for this, it's not even funny. Roman winning is pretty much a lock, but it's the journey there I'm interested in.

[Y 2 Jake]

I don't think McIntyre is as over as he should be for this match, but I appreciate them trying to give him the rub. For one reason or another, likely being paired with Ziggler in mid-card situations for months, he just hasn't come across as as much of a force has he should. They've tried to rectify that in recent weeks but it's a bit late for this show.

Personally I would've held off Reigns' return. I thought it'd have been a nice touch if The Sheild reunited after Rollins won the Universal title. Ambrose makes amends with Rollins after a post-match beat down, Reigns appears after, they all fist bump. Have Reigns announce he's cleared to return on Raw the next night.

[BestSportsEntertainer]

I love how Drew is viewed as a monster for beating Ambrose, the same guy who turned on his best friend the same night their other friend announced he had leukemia...

Looking past that, this has had one of the best builds, and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing it. The ending may be obvious, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

[Jack-Hammer]

I do like the fact that they haven't had Reigns come off exactly looking like his old self. What I mean by that is WWE often will have its top babyfaces return if they've had a lengthy absence and basically portray them as Superman by having them just kick the living crap out of anyone put in front of them. They've done it with numerous times in the past, including Triple H when he returned after healing up from tearing his quads or Cena...well they've just done it with Cena so much anyway that it became almost a parody of itself.

At any rate, the fact they haven't gone the typical route has made me interested in this match. McIntyre comes off like an evil prick rather than some cowardly bitch and that's a huge plus for me. While I'm glad to see that Reigns has made a recovery, I have a feeling his return is going to put a huge crimp in McIntyre's big push unless one of them winds up going to SmackDown during the Superstar Shakeup.

It should be a competitive match, just let them go out there and beat the crap out of each other, give each other everything they've got and, my guess, Reigns hits the spear out of nowhere for the victory. I hope this isn't a match where they hit each other with their finishers two or three times, but it's WrestleMania and you know there are going to be at least a couple of matches that feature exactly that.