St Petersburg, Florida – Tropicana Field
WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns, Jey Uso and Paul Heyman come out. Reigns stops on the ramp and raises the title as the pyro goes off. Greg Hamilton does the introductions as they march to the ring while fans boo.
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Cole and Graves hype tonight’s Gauntlet Match to determine Reigns’ Royal Rumble opponent with Sami Zayn, Daniel Bryan, Rey Mysterio, King Baron Corbin, and Shinsuke Nakamura. Reigns takes his time entering the ring and stops in the middle as more pyro goes off. A big “you suck!” chant breaks out before Heyman can speak. He hands the mic to Reigns and the boos continue. Reigns says there’s been a lot of talk about what they did to Kevin Owens last week. Reigns says Owens is a pain in his ass but he likes Owens. He respects someone as ambitious as Owens, one who keeps getting up no matter how often he gets knocked down. He says Owens is like a cockroach. Reigns never wanted anything bad to happen to Owens.
Reigns goes on and says he cares about everyone in the back, cares about their families, and this is why he does what he does. He’s putting food on everyone’s tables. But now Owens doesn’t have that opportunity, he can’t come to work anymore. Reigns says people are trying to blame him but it’s not his fault. Reigns says if you want to blame someone, point the finger in the direction of WWE official Adam Pearce. Fans boo again. Reigns tells Pearce to bring his ass out here. Heyman yells at the ring announcer to get Pearce out here. Pearce finally comes marching down the ramp and into the ring.
Pearce asks Reigns what can he do for him. Reigns tells Pearce to watch this nice clip they had done. A video package plays and shows highlights from two weeks ago, when Reigns retained over Owens in the Steel Cage. We also see how Owens talked Pearce into the match with Uso last week, how Owens defeated Uso, then the post-match attack on Uso that led to Reigns and Uso destroying Owens, ending the show by tossing him off the platform through the table. We come back and Uso is staring Pearce down. Pearce asks Reigns what he wants him to say. Reigns wants Pearce to be a man. Reigns goes on about the feud being done, and them moving on, but Owens went to his friend for another match. Reigns accuses Pearce of not making the right decision for the well-being of his friend. Reigns goes on and he’s not happy about tonight’s Gauntlet to determine his Royal Rumble challenger. Pearce says he’s just trying to put the best challengers in front of Reigns. Read more