Roman Reigns might have already lost the Universal Championship due to forgotten botch 814 days back that WWE ignored

Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns has not been seen on WWE TV much for some time now. His absence has been noted, but despite that, he holds the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship.

At the moment, The Tribal Chief is ready to break records with his reign as the champion, but there might be other issues to address. In fact, even considering his almost 1000-day dominant run as champion, the question arises: should his reign have ended a long time ago?

At Royal Rumble 2021, Roman Reigns faced Kevin Owens in a Last Man Standing Match. The way things played out, Kevin Owens should have legally been the champion, following the company's rules. However, WWE pulled mental gymnastics to convince themselves and everyone else that the only winner from the night was Reigns.

But what exactly happened on the night? Let's take a closer look at the situation.

At one point, Roman Reigns was handcuffed to the light fixtures in the Last Man Standing Match. Something had gone wrong with the handcuffs, and even with Paul Heyman's help, they were almost unable to free him from the cuffs. This came after he had already taken out one referee.

The second referee was out and counting, but when he noticed that Reigns could not get free, he stopped counting at six. After what was much more than a four-count, Reigns finally got to his feet. However, he could only get up to a squatting position. The commentary team argued that he was on his feet, but even if that was the case, it was also true that it had been up after what was an obvious ten count with a referee present.

The referee had just been standing around awkwardly, trying to ignore the fact that Reigns had obviously just been down for a ten-count, but he had just not counted. Not that he had been taken out and could not count, but that he had just stopped counting.

Following WWE's own legacy of referees calling matches by preserving their own images and the legality of the company's rules, Reigns should have lost the title then and there. However, the company chose to ignore that, and after Reigns was freed, he took out Owens and won the match.

The company has glossed over this ending, and most fans have forgotten the botch itself. All told, if WWE had followed their own rules, then Roman Reigns' Universal Title reign would have been significantly shorter today, even if he had won his title back from Owens later on.

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Roman Reigns is now on the verge of 1000 days as Universal Champion

Roman Reigns has now crossed more than 967 days as the Universal Champion. Soon, he will cross that record as well if things continue to go his way.

Given how WWE has booked him, it seems impossible for him to lose the title before that.

Now, the question remains, who will finally dethrone the champion? Whoever it is, defeating Reigns will be one of the biggest moments in WWE history, thanks to the impact his reign has had so far.

It remains to be seen whether The Tribal Chief will defend his title at Night of Champions as he has not been present during the build-up to Backlash.