What if Zack Ryder had won the WWE Championship?

#1 The Roman Empire Deferred

Zack Ryder's success may have impacted Roman Reigns' prospects.

The consensus is that Vince McMahon decided early on Roman Reigns was his next, and quite possibly his last chosen one to represent WWE as the face of the company. Zack Ryder’s window to become a main event guy transpired just as Reigns was debuting on the main roster, and long before he broke out as a singles wrestler—thus the two reigning as world champions might have happened in adjacent eras, and not been mutually exclusive.

However, if WWE had committed to having Ryder on top, it might have been emblematic of a cultural shift to catering toward hardcore fans, rather than focusing on the more casual base and continuing to try to draw in the mainstream.

As such, a muscle-bound hero like Reigns may not have been the direction the company opted to go in, focusing more on talents like Daniel Bryan, Dean Ambrose, or Finn Balor in the years ahead—or perhaps other guys with the Internet entrepreneurial spirit of a Xavier Woods.