MID-Tier Match Reviews: Triple H vs. Roman Reigns: WWE WrestleMania 32

WrestleMania 32 is still considered one of the worst entries in the event’s illustrious history. It stands as a terrific example of a company treating its audience as cash cows and not as actual people to be entertained. It started the trend of painfully long Big Four PLEs, a trend that would continue unabated until the COVID Pandemic. It featured some of the weirdest booking decisions imaginable, including a few that even the youngest or most casual of viewers would question. And it concluded with a main-event that only one person really wanted.

Triple H and Roman Reigns were put in the unenviable task of closing the show in front of a tired, annoyed, and in some cases frustrated live audience. Dave Meltzer accurately described the sentiment going into the main-event as “fruit after its expiration date”. Say what you want about the guy, from time to time his analyses do, in fact, hit the mark. This match did indeed leave a bad taste in many people’s mouths, to the point that many people left the show either disappointed or outright mad. But were they mad because the whole show was, top to bottom, long and filled with questionable storyline conclusions? Or was the main-event really as bad as the live audience, spoiled by what happened the night before at NXT TakeOver: Dallas, claimed it to be?

The Story

This rivalry was…weird.

Months earlier in November 2015, Seth Rollins was forced to vacate his WWE Championship due to a knee injury. A tournament was setup to crown a new champion and it was won by Roman Reigns, despite loud boos from vocal pockets of the audience. Those passionate Reigns haters left Survivor Series happy because Sheamus cashed in his MITB briefcase moments later to leave the show as World Champion. Reigns had a brief feud with Sheamus, his League of Nations allies, and both Vince McMahon and Triple H as the villainous authority figures abusing their authority to get their way. Some clichés just never die. Anyway, Reigns overcame the odds and won the title back, but before he could really get his celebration going, Vince McMahon announced that Reigns would defend his title inside the 2016 Royal Rumble match and that he’d have to enter as #1.

So Reigns fought through a variety of opponents (including a debuting AJ Styles) and lasted almost a full hour before being eliminated by, of all people, #30 entrant Triple H. And this wasn’t suit-wearing power-broker King of Kings Triple H but leather jacket-wearing sort-of-antihero Triple H. So even though he was a heel in most of his promos and angles opposite Reigns, here he was getting a babyface reaction the likes of which he probably hadn’t gotten since his return in January 2002. And when he eliminated Reigns (and did the DX crotch chop), he the crowd almost blew the roof off the arena.

This is where things got a bit more perplexing.

After HHH eliminated Reigns the only other man left in the ring was Dean Ambrose, a.k.a. Jon Moxley. Now, given how extensive the history was between Ambrose and Reigns, a WrestleMania match between those two former Shield stablemates would make perfect sense. But pressure from WWE management to present Reigns as an unyielding hero put a stop to that dream; after all, it was highly likely that Ambrose would be overwhelmingly cheered over Reigns if they were to face off one-on-one. Thus a SWERVE took place with Triple H also eliminating Ambrose and becoming WWE Champion.

But instead of going to the back of the line for failing to defend his title, Reigns bounced back almost immediately. At Fastlane Reigns beat both Ambrose and Brock Lesnar to earn another shot at the title. In the weeks that followed Triple H and Stephanie McMahon basically rehashed bits and pieces of Austin versus McMahon and The Authority versus Daniel Bryan and added elements of those rivalries into HHH vs. Reigns. And yet while HHH talked and attacked Reigns like a heel, audiences reacted to him like he was a babyface. And at times WWE didn’t even try to hide this; it was like tacit acknowledgement of this unintentional tweener/status of his.

With each passing week the exchanges and encounters between these two men got more heated. WWE tried everything in their power to make people believe that Reigns was an underdog facing the WWE machine but most people in the audience didn’t buy it. Reigns just couldn’t sell himself as an underdog in peril and anyone who followed WWE with the slightest bit of analysis could tell that he was going to get his crowning moment at WrestleMania, smarky crowd be damned. So the question on many fans’ minds going into the show wasn’t whether Reigns would win, but how badly would the crowd react to him getting the win they all saw coming a mile away.

The Match

This took place on April 3, 2016. It was rated ***1/4 out of five by the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer.

We get this absurd Mad Max: Fury Road inspired video at first, complete with Stephanie McMahon doing one of the most melodramatic promos of her life and think about the material that covers. HHH does his proper entrance and marches down to the ring flanked by Stephanie and a bunch of dudes wearing skull masks carrying replica WWE belts. That visual automatically makes the belt around HHH’s waist less special. Still, HHH gets a decent reaction. Then Reigns comes out and he gets more boos than cheers.

The bell rings and the action starts with some basic moves. HHH switches from a headlock to a hammerlock and painbrushes Reigns’s head for an early light pop. Reigns answers with a shoulderblock for more boos. Both guys block a hiptoss and HHH dumps Reigns to ringside which leads to another big pop and some “Roman sucks” chants. HHH works Reigns’ left arm but Reigns punches back. We get some staring and trash-talking followed by some struggling against the ropes. Reigns blocks a cheap-shot and reverses a corner whip. HHH dodges a corner charge and hits a clothesline to the back of Reigns’ head.

HHH lands more shots to Reigns’ head and neck but Reigns hits back with punches and clotheslines. Reigns hits a running hotshot from the corner and a drive-by kick for a one-count. As Reigns lands a corner clothesline barrage Stephanie distracts the ref long enough for HHH to land a low blow, which gets a pop. HHH follows with two Manhattan drops for a two-count as Reigns continues to sell the nut shot.

HHH expands his list of targets by attacking Reigns’ surgically-repaired nose as well. Another strike exchange ends with a spinebuster from HHH that gets two. HHH dumps Reigns ringside and smashes him into one of the remaining announce tables until Reigns counters. HHH answers by launching Reigns over that table. Another strike exchange ends when HHH lands a running neckbreaker that sends Reigns from the table to the floor.

HHH places Reigns through the ropes, kicks his chest, and hits a diving kneedrop to the back of Reigns’ head for two. He tries repeating that spot for this time Reigns hits first with an uppercut. Reigns lands a few more clotheslines followed by a Samoan drop for two. HHH rolls to ringside to avoid a Superman punch so Reigns stalks him from another side of the ring and lands a big leaping clothesline from the steps. Reigns sends HHH into the steps a few times but then HHH does the same in return. HHH sends Reigns over the announce table again but this time Reigns fights out and spears HHH through a part of the barricade.

Reigns drags HHH into the ring to avoid a count-out and both men recover for a bit, worn down from the impact with the barricade. Reigns charges for a Superman punch. HHH counters with a Fujiwara armbar. Reigns gets a ropebreak. HHH pulls him to the middle of the ring and reapplies it. Then HHH traps the other arm and locks in a double armlock that one would usually find in a Zack Sabre, Jr. match. Reigns resists and pushes out with all his might. He rolls out as HHH adjusts his position but HHH counters with a grapevined armbreaker. Yet still Reigns answers with a one-arm powerbomb for a near-fall to break the hold.

HHH goes for a standard cross armbreaker but again Reigns answers with raw power to escape. Reigns goes for a spear but HHH blocks and tries a Pedigree. Reigns launches HHH over the rope and to the floor, to which the audience responds by singing something. Reigns teases a suicide dive. HHH hits first from the apron. Reigns ignores this and lands a spear. The ref starts counting but then Stephanie pulls him out. He ignores her and goes back to count again but it’s a two-count. Shouldn’t that count as three anyway since HHH still didn’t lift his shoulder up while the ref was distracted?

Stephanie interjects herself into the match and admonishes the referee some more. This leads to a convoluted and obvious setup sequence that leads to the referee Stephanie getting speared by Reigns. Okay, that was a bit unexpected. But HHH doesn’t notice this yet and lands a Pedigree. One, two, and – Reigns kicks out. More punching. HHH lands a facebuster and Reigns hits a Superman punch. Reigns charges for another spear. HHH answers with a jumping knee for two. HHH crawls to the apron where Stephanie hands him his sledgehammer. Michael Cole reminds us that if HHH gets disqualified he will lose the title. Well why then were you ok with your wife touching the referee? Anyways, Reigns hits two Superman punches and charges for a spear. He ducks a sledgehammer shot and connects with the Spear. One, two, and three! Reigns wins and gets a pretty decent pop for winning as well.

Winner and NEW WWE Champion after 27:10: Roman Reigns

Review

I remember hating this match when I watched it live, mainly because the show was so fucking long and bloated. There was so much filler before this that I couldn’t enjoy this match for what it was and I’m sure there are MANY people, both who watched it from home and in the building that night, that felt something similar. That’s one of the reasons I review these matches long afterwards and one at a time: the viewing experience isn’t tainted by something else overshadowing the match in question. So with that being said…this match was nowhere near as bad as most people made it out to be in the moment and in its immediate aftermath.

Most of the match was okay. Not excellent, not awful, simply, as MJF would say, MID. Triple H tried cosplaying as Ric Flair once again by carrying Reigns to a passable match. Unfortunately he didn’t succeed because he came across as the better wrestler here. He had much more personality and animation. He was a better storyteller. He did some surprisingly athletic and technical stuff for a guy who wasn’t known for matwork or deeply scientific wrestling. It’s no wonder so many people cheered for him during the match; they weren’t just doing so because they were nostalgic for him or because it was the cool ironic thing to do, but because HHH kept out-wrestling Reigns at every turn.

And yet the match was filled with perplexing moments. Reigns sold a low blow like someone who got legitimately kicked in the balls yet the referee couldn’t figure that part out. That whole mess with Stephanie and the referee didn’t make sense and just came off as an easy way to shoehorn her into the match so that Reigns could get a cheap pop by spearing her (which didn’t have the excitement or satisfaction one might expect). Reigns’ comebacks were slow, overly simplistic, and not particularly exciting. He was a more glaring example of a Five Moves of Doom wrestler without the charisma needed to pull that kind of repetitive wrestling off properly.

But worst of all was the pacing: the match proceeded at such a snail’s pace that you’d almost have to either skip ahead or change the speed setting to get through it without feeling frustrated. There was no need for this to go over 27 minutes. There were so many unnecessary stare-downs, repeated spots, and stretched out sequences that simply padded the match’s length. They could’ve had the same match with an almost identical story and the same conclusion but with a fifteen-minute runtime and the match would’ve been even better. But because these guys went long just for the sake of doing so, they ended up getting a less impressive pop at the end.

Final Rating: **1/2

This match had a bunch of decent elements in it but they just couldn’t come together here. Triple H did a great job trying to be the heel and setup roadblocks for Reigns to overcome. Stephanie did a passable job as the annoying ringside manager, which is probably the nicest thing I have ever written about her on-screen character. And for the most part the wrestling was okay…when Triple H was in control. But Reigns was ice cold as a babyface and unfit to be either John Cena’s replacement or WWE’s desperate attempt at a 1970s/80s traveling world champion. The Reigns character in from 2015-18 was cast in the wrong role; as we’ve all seen since 2020, he’s much better suited to play something else entirely.

Though this isn’t a great match by any means it’s not as dreadful as many people made it out to be when it first happened. I understand feeling tired or disinterested in the final match of the night after a long show; I was at AEW Forbidden Door 2022 in Toronto and wanted to enjoy Danielson/Okada as much as possible but I and almost everyone in the arena was dead tired because the show was so long and because Omega and Ospreay had drained every last bit of energy out of the arena. So it’s no wonder that those who were either in this venue for, what, ten hours, or those watching from home couldn’t help but feel frustrated once this match got underway, especially since the action wasn’t enthralling enough to compensate for everything else that took place before it.

Thanks for reading.