WWE Roman Reigns - Iconic Matches

Well, this is a fun little disc, a low budget Roman Reigns compilation that the WWE have put out. It's not a huge collection, clocking in at just over an hour, but it's decent value at £5, and contains one cast iron classic match.

Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins vs Kane & Daniel Bryan

Texas Tornado match for the tag team titles held by Team Hell No. Really fun little sprint here, with the team prevailing being the one who ultimately were a more concise unit. Loved some of Roman’s strikes here, nice body shots on Kane. The Shield have a wise gameplan here, isolating the members of Hell No, and double teaming them in turn. Bryan reverses a top rope powerbomb from Reigns into a rana to turn the tide and we get a fun little chain of finishers. This ends with all four guys down, but with Rollins down outside the ring. This means Roman has to weather the storm 2 on 1, looking like a beast in doing so. The end sees Reigns spear Kane and get Bryan in a torture rack for to hit a top rope stomp, giving the Shield the titles in a clean win.

Roman Reigns vs Mark Henry

Only goes 5 minutes, but this was fun. Reigns is selling injured ribs from the previous Raw, so Henry zones in on them with big clubbing blows. Reigns’ selling is really on here, as he’s not even able to gain an advantage when he hits a flying clothesline due to the pain. However, Henry makes a mistake in trying to hit a Vader Bomb too soon, with Roman able to get to his feet and hit a massive Samoan Drop. Really impressive power move. Spear gives Reigns the win.

Battle Royal

This is a Money In The Bank Qualifier. Even before the match, you’d probably be safe in guessing Los Matadores or Titus O’Neill weren’t going to win. Not really much to this one, though one Matador, Sin Cara and Fandango all take big bumps on their eliminations. There’s not even a gimmicky Kofi Kingston attempt to escape elimination. Reigns gets a small mid-match flurry where he hits a few moves on different guys to pop the crowd, but it’s not terribly exciting. Bo Dallas eliminating RVD is quite the turn up for the books, and the crowd do admittedly go nuts for the final two face off between Reigns and Rusev. Both were heavily pushed at the time, so this was a real clash of the Titans. Reigns gets the win with the Superman Punch.

Roman Reigns vs Bray Wyatt

Another short TV match, but to be fair they wrestle it like two guys who know they’ve only got 5 minutes, so they’re not going to take it easy. Big, hard hitting blows from both to start, and I love the way Roman hit a range series of blows to different parts of the body to escape a headlock. Bray is at his best using his body as a weapon, hitting the big crossbody and massive senton in quick succession. Nice little sequence outside the ring sees Reigns duck a Luke Harper clothesline and nail Bray with the Drive-By in one fluid motion, but the Wyatts get involved for a DQ ending

Roman Reigns vs Daniel Bryan

From Fastlane 2015, with the winner facing Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania. Really great match, probably Reigns’ best singles match to this point. This felt really competitive throughout, with the early battle over a surfboard attempt setting the tone. Loved how early on Bryan realised Reigns was too powerful for him, so started to work on the leg of Reigns, and how Reigns in turn got out of a leglock by just bludgeoning Bryan in the face with forearms. Bryan manages to gain control with some nasty shots, kicking the turnbuckle viciously when Reigns has his head set on it, and then just pelting Reigns with a kick to the liver. The commentary plays up how Reigns is returning from a hernia operation, and Reigns certainly sells the blow as death. Lovely little bit where Bryan gets two from a top rope back suplex, Reigns instinctively rolls to his front to avoid being pinned, but gets put into the Yes Lock instead. Bryan hits two dives, but gets caught on a third with a sick overhead belly to belly on the floor, but Reigns misses a charge and just EATS the steel steps in a massive collision. He only narrowly beats the count out, really effective spot. Loved the spear into a small package for the nearfall, as well as Roman kicking out last second after Bryan hits Knee Plus. They again exchange some brutal blows, with Bryan hitting big kicks and Roman getting massive forearms, before Reigns hits the spear to win. Really excellent match.