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He may not be winning any popularity contests in a hurry, but being on the receiving end of a relentless push from WWE has seen Roman Reigns put together a fairly impressive in-ring resume.
He’s managed to lay claim to a bunch of records in a relatively short space of time, some of which sound perfectly legitimate, as well as others which seem to have been fudged a bit (main eventing a WrestleMania that allegedly drew more than 100,000 fans being a prime example of the latter).
But in amongst those records, there are a few so remarkable, so convoluted, or simply now logistically unattainable, that they could easily stand the test of time and never be topped by anybody.
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From Royal Rumble trivia to WrestleMania landmarks, Reigns finds himself in some fairly elite company when we look back through the record books with a fine-tooth comb, as we’ll shortly see over the course of this list.
#1 Royal Rumble Eliminations
In his Royal Rumble debut in 2014, Roman Reigns set the record for the most eliminations in a single Rumble match. Kane had previously topped the charts with his haul of 11 from back in 2001, but Reigns eclipsed that to make it a round dozen when he sent Sheamus packing deep into the match.
If we’re getting fancy, that equates to more than 40% of the total field, but what really makes this record even more impressive—on paper, at least—is that calibre of guys that Reigns took out.
While Kane eliminated just one former world champion, Reigns’ tally included five former and two future winners of the company’s top title. Granted, the Great Khali and a retired Kevin Nash were amongst those names but hey—a former world champion is a former champion.
Realistically, it’s difficult to see anyone topping that in the future, partly because one man tossing out 13, 14 or even 15 guys would effectively bury half of the whole roster.
#2 Survivor Series Eliminations
Two months prior to writing Rumble history, Reigns was setting another elimination record, this time at the Survivor Series pay-per-view.
At the 2013 show, he helped himself to a WWE first when he became the only man in history to pin four opponents in a single Survivor Series elimination match. Jimmy Uso was the first to go, shortly followed by Cody Rhodes. And while his partner Seth Rollins then took out Jey Uso, Reigns once again assumed the driver’s seat to pin Goldust and Rey Mysterio and almost single-handedly earn his team the win.
Only one other performer in history has been able to match the four-elimination haul—Aja Kong did so in 1995 when she steamrolled her way through Team Blayze—but nobody’s been able to actually trump that figure.
And again, it seems unlikely that this tally will ever be topped as it would be an outright burial to see one guy eliminate all five members of a single team.
#3 Consecutive appearances in the Royal Rumble's Final Three
Switching back to the Royal Rumble match, and Reigns has since notched up another Rumble record for his back-to-back appearances in the match’s final three.
Reigns has been a part of the Royal Rumble's final three in each of the past four years, having twice been the runner-up in 2014 and 2017, the outright winner in 2015, and then finishing second-to-last in 2016 after entering the match at number one.
As a point of comparison, others have managed three successive final three appearances, including Shawn Michaels (1994-96), Stone Cold Steve Austin (1997-99) and Sheamus (2012-14), but nobody other than Reigns has done so four times in a row. And while a guy like Randy Orton has five final three appearances to his name, they were rather more sporadic and, unlike Reigns, he never managed more than two final three finishes in a row.
The only way you could envisage this kind of record being beaten is if the company became almost blindly invested in someone regardless of fan sentiment or business indicators. Or in other words, a Roman Reigns.
#4 Three successive WrestleMania main events before turning 32
Most guys will be lucky to get even one WrestleMania main event under their belt, and yet here’s Roman Reigns with three successive show-closing matches on his resume already. And not only that, but he’s racked up that hat-trick before the ripe old age of 32.
Reigns' first main event came in 2015 when he squared off against Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship, and he was again in title action the following year versus Triple H before his meeting with the Undertaker went on last at this year’s show.
Others have managed more main events at the biggest show of the year, but crucially very few did so in successive years. And those who did, such as Hulk Hogan, were older than Reigns at the time.
There is one man who's managed to equal the feat—Reigns’ cousin, the Rock (in fact, Rock was slightly younger than Reigns). However, his case is made weaker by the fact that one of Rock's main events was the WrestleMania 2000 Fatal 4-way. A multi-man match like that isn't quite as impressive as singles bouts vs. Lesnar, Triple H and the Undertaker, so if we're talking exclusively about one-on-one action—which apparently we are now—it's Reigns who gets the nod on this one.
#5 Only man to beat Triple H and Undertaker at WrestleMania
Sticking with the theme of WrestleMania main events, and there are two outcomes in particular that put Reigns in a class of his own.
As touched upon earlier, Reigns beat Triple H at WrestleMania 32 before overcoming the Undertaker the following year, and that makes him the only man in history to beat both of those names on the company’s grandest stage.
Brock Lesnar would’ve been the only man capable of matching that feat, as he of course beat ‘Taker at WrestleMania XXX, but Lesnar’s never been able to beat Triple H at the event. In fact, he lost to him back at ‘Mania 29. And conversely, while plenty others have been able to defeat Triple H—10, to be exact, if my humble calculations are correct—crucially none of them have scored that rarest of wins over the Undertaker at the show.
With ‘Taker now seemingly retired, and Triple H not far off himself, that means that Reigns is all-but-guaranteed to go down in history as the only guy to beat two of the company's most massive names at its most massive event of the year.
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