The start of 2024 will send us right into the Royal Rumble, which kickstarts the Road To WrestleMania, and the next milestone title defense for Roman Reigns! But who will his opponent be?

Roman Reigns’ historic championship reign is one that history will never forget, even if it can be polarizing for many fans online. Many of those fans believe it is a veritable lock that Cody Rhodes will get a rematch at WrestleMania 40 and unseat the longest reigning champion of the modern era. Doing so would be a major departure for WWE.

Only once in WWE history has the main event of WrestleMania been a rematch of the prior year’s main event: WrestleMania 29 saw John Cena defeat The Rock in a rematch of the prior year’s main event (which The Rock won). While there have been rematches at WrestleMania (including two famous trilogies featuring The Undertaker vs. Triple H and Steve Austin vs. The Rock), Cena-Rock is the only instance of a main event repeating in consecutive years.

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Could it happen this year? See what I think–here are your Top 5 WWE WrestleMania 40 Opponents For Roman Reigns!

5. AJ Styles

Recently making his return to WWE Smackdown, AJ Styles has been turning heads with his alignment. He seems to be a heel-leaning tweener, attacking LA Knight and not being buddy-buddy at all with Randy Orton. This is more of a vigilante AJ, one who is hell-bent on revenge on The Bloodline for taking him out. Many would expect his beef to be with Solo Sikoa, the man who put him on the shelf, but that was at the behest of The Tribal Chief.

I believe AJ will get his title shot, but I don’t expect it to be at WrestleMania 40. But if it were AJ Styles, the company would have no issue getting the match over, as AJ is one of the most beloved performers of this generation, and a WrestleMania main event would be quite the feather in the cap of an amazing career.

4. Sami Zayn

Sami Zayn is no stranger to the Premium Live Event main event, competing in multiple such matches in 2023–including the main event of night 1 of WrestleMania 39. He also challenged Roman Reigns for the Undisputed Championship in Montreal at the Elimination Chamber event, a night those in attendance–and Sami himself–won’t soon forget.

Sami Zayn is currently out of action, but a Royal Rumble return–and victory–would be a surprising development but would also make Sami an amazing babyface headed into a WrestleMania 40 showdown with Roman Reigns. It also follows the pattern of underdog babyfaces “on the 10s,” following Bret Hart (WrestleMania 10), Chris Benoit (WrestleMania 20), and Daniel Bryan Danielson (WrestleMania 30) challenging for the world title in the WrestleMania main event.

3. Cody Rhodes

You may be surprised to find Cody “so low” on this list, coming in at #3. As I listed above, it’s a no-brainer to so many people. History says it won’t happen, but it’s easy to ignore history when it doesn’t suit your narrative. WWE, on the other hand, loves history, especially making history.

And the company will never be this close again to having someone surpass Hulk Hogan’s 1474 day reign as WWF Champion. It’s now or never for that historical marker, and it makes perfect sense to do it with Roman. They should have split the titles in 2022 at Clash At The Castle (utilizing Austin Theory’s Money In The Bank briefcase and a wiseman in Paul Heyman smart enough to find a loophole that Theory could only cash in on one championship, thus when Drew McIntyre pinned Theory he only won one title–the WWE Championship). So if you assume Roman is breaking Hogan’s reign, it makes zero sense to have Cody lose AGAIN in the main event of WrestleMania.

For those of you who say “there’s no way Cody doesn’t win it at 40,” remember that you also said the same thing about WrestleMania 39. I do believe Cody Rhodes finishes the story–at WrestleMania 41 (potentially in London) when he is the man to finally take the title off of Roman Reigns.

2. CM Punk

Speaking of another guy looking to finish a story, CM Punk is on a mission to finally secure his WrestleMania main event (although his WrestleMania 28 title defense against Chris Jericho WAS considered a main event by WWE–but you know Punk and many others believing the main event is only the match that goes on last).

If Punk is going to get a show-closing match at WrestleMania 40, it’s likely going to have to be against Roman Reigns. You might think Punk vs. Seth Rollins is going to main event night 1, but there’s a small issue with that. WrestleMania 37 is the last “Granddaddy Of Them All” to have women in a main event match. I just can’t see Triple H being the guy to keep them out of that slot for a third straight year.

The only way CM Punk gets his WrestleMania main event at 40 in Philly is to win the Royal Rumble and challenge Roman Reigns. I don’t think that happens as I fully expect Punk vs. Rollins to happen, just with no championship involved.

Honorable Mentions – a few darkhorse/longshots to challenge Reigns in Philly include…

• GUNTHER.
• Seth Rollins
• A Bloodline 4-way vs. Solo Sikoa vs. Jimmy Uso vs. Jey Uso.
• Brock Lesnar.

Just kidding on that last one! 😁

1. Randy Orton

It’s crazy to think that Randy Orton was last in a WrestleMania main event at WM30–a full decade ago. Hell, Triple H has a more recent WrestleMania main event (WM32), along with Daniel Bryan Danielson (WM37). Orton has been white-hot since his return. He was also rumored to be Roman’s SummerSlam 2022 opponent before the injury (that turned into Roman vs. Brock Lesnar in the now-famous Last Man Standing Match that featured Brock nearly destroying the ringside area with a tractor).

It’s also crazy to think that the internet fanbase chooses to ignore Randy’s place in WWE history. A Royal Rumble win would make him only the second three-time Rumble winner, alongside “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Orton is also crazy over with the casual fanbase. And remember, THAT is the target audience, not us.

Daddy’s Back, he’s winning the Royal Rumble, and (unsuccessfully) challenging Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship in the Night 2 main event of WrestleMania 40.

What do you think of these potential challengers for Roman Reigns at WWE WrestleMania 40?