Last-Minute Decision Led To Roman Reigns Losing WWE Title

A last-minute decision made by Vince McMahon saw Roman Reigns have one of his first WWE Title reigns cut short.

During his legendary WWE career, Roman Reigns is a 6-time WWE World Champion who has held the traditional WWE Title four times and the Universal Title two times.

Reigns was so dominant as the Universal Champion, who held that title for 1,316 days, that the company retired the title when it was merged with the WWE Championship.

The first time Roman Reigns won the WWE Championship was at Survivor Series in the finals of a tournament after the title was vacated. Reigns beat Dean Ambrose, his ally from The Shield, in the finals of the tournament.

Immediately after the match, Triple H’s music hit, and he walked out to congratulate Reigns. Hunter raised Roman’s arm and then wanted a handshake. Reigns didn’t want that to happen, so he hit a Spear on Triple H.

When Reigns turned around, Sheamus was there to drop him with a Brogue Kick. Sheamus cashed in the Money in the Bank briefcase and hit another Brogue Kick to leave with the WWE Championship. After the win, Triple H hugged Sheamus. Sheamus posed on top of the fallen Reigns in the ring.

Sheamus Reveals When He Found Out About Money In The Bank Cash-In On Roman Reigns

While speaking to Insight’s Chris Van Vliet, the “Celtic Warrior” Sheamus revealed that it was decided that day that Sheamus would cash in Money in the Bank on Reigns to leave with the WWE Title.

“Happened on the day again, that was the day of, that wasn’t the plan. We were in Atlanta at the time, and then they obviously Seth got hurt on the European tour, hurt his knee, and then I’d won the Money in the Bank, and then they’re obviously having that tournament. Then that was the final, it was Dean against Roman.

So obviously, that was to prolong that kind of thing, to make Roman really try to earn that time, have him be so close and then get taken away from him. So that was again, the same day in a room discussing it. And it happened like two hours [before] because I had a match.

We had a Survivor Series match where I think it came to me versus three other guys. I got Powerbombed a couple of times by Ryback. Ryback loves Powerbombing people man, Power Bombed me out of my shoes. And then that was it.

And then, of course, I came back at the end. That was awesome too. That was a great moment. People hated Mohawk Sheamus. They absolutely hate it. Like, really, my mother called me crying when she saw the pictures of me with a mohawk on, literally crying. ‘What have you done to your hair?’ It was a fun time. I had so much heat, man, like I’d so much heat as Mohawk, Sheamus, people hated me.”

That title reign for Sheamus only lasted 22 days because Reigns won the WWE Title back on the December 14, 2015 edition of Raw.