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WHAT ARE THE ODDS ON ROMAN AND HHH HEADLINING WRESTLEMANIA?

With all eyes on Dallas, Texas this Sunday, there's quite the possibility that Roman Reigns is about to be, win or lose, drummed out of AT&T Stadium when he faces WWE World Heavyweight champion Triple H.  However, a more interesting discussion is whether Triple H, the top title holder for the company will close the biggest show of the year or will that slot be bestowed upon Shane McMahon, wrestling his first WWE match in seven years, when he steps into the Hell in A Cell structure against The Undertaker.

It's a pretty interesting debate, because historically the WWE championship has always been held up on a pedestal as the most important thing within professional wrestling, but given the way the audience has revolted against Reigns as the company's hand-picked challenger and WrestleMania main eventer in recent months, the threat of the show ending flat is something WWE has to consider, because the last thing management wants is 100,000 fans leaving no doubt to a global viewership that Reigns, despite his best efforts, is anything but the company's newest superhero.

Even the odds are against Reigns.  As of this week, while WWE.com promotes the idea that The Roman Empire is about to take over WWE's championship scene, it appears Roman Reigns currently has 3/7 odds of winning the WWE World Heavyweight championship at WrestleMania 32 in April." The crowd reaction has caused ripple effects where the flat out rejection looks to taking what once appeared to be his inevitable championship win and instead potentially changing those plans into one where not only could he not stand triumphant in the championship match, but he might not even be the one standing there in the main event segment of the show!   It's a classic tale of the snake eating it's own tale. 

So with Reigns in that unenviable position, the idea of placing Undertaker, the company's longest running star back into the main event position looks all that more promising but the message that is sent by placing Shane McMahon into a WrestleMania main event - and one he literally walks into without having worked for the company for seven years - could have negative repercussions for a locker room that has worked all year only to see the top spots for WrestleMania log jammed.

The Hell in A Cell match, by virtue of the carnage, drama and sheer spectacle that it promises on name value alone, also provides yet another headache for WWE.  By placing that match underneath Reigns vs. Triple H, they run the risk of outshining the heir apparent to WWE's throne on the biggest show of the year and forcing him to go out and perform before an audience that is burnt out by McMahon's antics and the emotional roller-coaster that comes with whether McMahon gains control of Raw and whether Undertaker will have finally seen his final WrestleMania Sunday.  But, by replacing them with Undertaker vs. Shane, it sends the message that Roman is second-tier, the exact opposite of the narrative WWE management has been trying to drive home to their audience every week.

It's the type of story that keeps wrestling fans talking.  Certainly, history has proven that anything can happen at WrestleMania, but real life often gets in the way of WWE vaunted storylines.  This isn't the the story you're going to see covered on WWE.com, but it's the one fans will be dissecting and debating until bell-time on Sunday April 3rd.  Just as the odds for Roman keep changing, so does the landscape of WrestleMania 32 and beyond.

It's the type of stories that can't be written and continues to be beyond fascinating.  It's a great time to be a WWE fan.

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