Word went around yesterday that Roman Reigns recovery from a viral infection might not be going as well as hoped. When Raw revealed that Jason Jordan would get the final spot on Kurt Angle’s five man Survivor Series elimination tag team, it looked like those reports were right.
It’s possible they still are, despite WWE saying Reigns will return to television next Monday. Because while creative does line up for Roman to rejoin Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins to give us The Shield reunion we’d been promised for TLC, now against a somewhat more logical opponent in The New Day, the hype for The Big Dog’s comeback has been decidedly low key.
The company’s gone out of their way to call attention to Brock Lesnar’s appearance in Atlanta on the ‘go home’ show, while what will be the first Reigns sighting in nearly a month is mentioned in passing. That’s how Michael Cole covered it during the Nov. 6 broadcast. WWE.com has one phrase referencing him in their write-up of Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins’ tag title defeat...
“With Roman Reigns slated to return next week, The Hounds of Justice will have plenty of business on their plate.”
And he’s even a footnote in the one tweet from Raw that includes his name:
#RAW #TagTeamChampions @WWERollins and @TheDeanAmbrose are on their way...and they'll reunite with #TheBigDog @WWERomanReigns NEXT WEEK! pic.twitter.com/d9rYT8oip5
— WWE (@WWE) November 7, 2017
PWInsider, who first reported that Roman might miss Survivor Series, is now saying that Reigns will be on the Nov. 13 Raw, but they don’t know how he’ll be added to the plans for the pay-per-view (PPV).
It seems that, like the casual announcement of his return, the booking from last night covers WWE for the possibility The Guy isn’t medically cleared for action by Nov. 19. If he is, they can have a trios match between the most dominant faction in the history of the company and their longest reigning tag champs. If he’s not, they can have Seth and Dean face two-thirds of The New Day.
They could also run an angle where a spot opens up on Team Red, and they revert back to their originally rumored plan to have him lead the charge for Raw.
We’ll know more next week. For now, signs are looking up for The Big Dog to return... even if WWE is hedging their bets.