>>795438Sami or Balor for WM40.
Either story writes themselves considering both of their histories with Reigns and the latter’s history with the Universal title. This also fills the requirement of landmark manias having a smark favorite manlet making a dominant champion tap out. That said, even though I’m calling Sami or Balor, selfishly, I’d prefer Chad Gable to be that guy. I’ve no idea what another year of Roman looks like though. Still, if they want to be able to mindlessly shout “historic” every time Roman comes out, they’ve only got about another year of accolades they can run through before needing to wait several years for the next.
Beating Pedro’s reign means 217 more days which is June 2023. Doable since I don’t believe Cody is winning the belt at Mania at all.
Beating Sammartino’s lesser reign means 417 more days which is January 2024, right in time for that year’s rumble actually.
Beating Hogan goes beyond WM40 and requires Reigns to be champion all the way to Sept 2024.
That said, I think that yet another year of Roman holding everything and only the bloodline being allowed to matter is going to hurt tremendously in the long run. But maybe doesn’t matter at this point. WWE is sold on name and nostalgia alone and numbers are all the fans ever discuss.
