Match Spotlight: Roman Reigns Vs. Daniel Bryan Vs. Edge, WWE WrestleMania 37

A little over a year after the world was forced indoors, made to stand at least six feet away from the nearest person, and sing "Happy Birthday" while washing their hands, the WWE Universe returned to a wrestling venue as WWE WrestleMania 37 emanated from the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay, Florida On April 10 and 11, 2021. While the venue wasn't exactly full due to it being capped at 25,000 fans for each night due to social distancing rules, it was just nice to hear an audience in full voice getting to enjoy some live wrestling again, and they most certainly enjoyed the match that closed the entire weekend.

Edge had only been back in action after a nine year medically enforced retirement for 15 months, but he managed to win the 2021 Royal Rumble match and bag himself a WrestleMania main event for the first time since George W. Bush was in office. He decided to go after Roman Reigns and the WWE Universal Champion, but this came at a time when Daniel Bryan was also pursuing "The Tribal Chief." Bryan had even got Reigns to tap out to the Yes Lock at Fastlane but the referee didn't see it, and with a little help from Edge, Reigns retained his title as the "Rated-R Superstar" wanted the champion all to himself.

However, Bryan went to "WWE SmackDown" General Manager Adam Pearce and convinced him that he should be given one more chance at the "Head of the Table," resulting in a Triple Threat Match between Reigns, Edge, and Bryan being booked for the main event of WrestleMania 37.

"The Tribal Chief" will be walking his 11th WrestleMania main event this year when he challenges CM Punk for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, and with that in mind, we thought it would be a great time to go back and witness the first time the current incarnation of Reigns headlined WWE's biggest show of the year. While it was far from his first WrestleMania main event (he had headlined four previous WrestleMania's), WrestleMania 37 was the first time Reigns walked into the event as "The Tribal Chief," and it was also the first time fans got to see the character in person as it was born in the warped hellscape that was the Thunderdome Era.

With all of that said, let's sit back, relax, and shine a spotlight on the WWE Universal Championship Triple Threat Match between Roman Reigns, Edge, and Daniel Bryan from WWE WrestleMania 37!

It feels weird to call a match this big and this good underrated, but due to it taking place at a point in time where many fans had tuned out of wrestling, primarily because wrestling with no crowds was simply too weird to stomach, this match doesn't get as much love as it should. That's a shame, because for my money, this probably ranks somewhere in the top ten when it comes to ranking the best WrestleMania main events in history.

Thanks to Triple Threat matches having no disqualifications, this match starts as if it's been shot out of a cannon. All three men bullrush each other, and when either Daniel Bryan or Edge land on the outside, Jey Uso is there to meet them with a Superkick. Roman Reigns and his main event-ready cousin direct traffic on the outside, and even though only minutes have gone by, the announce desk has been stripped, and the ringside area looks like a tornado just ran through it as bodies, chairs, and steel steps are spread out everywhere.

When the action does eventually get in the ring, all three men play their roles perfectly. It's hilarious to think that Bryan was so mentally checked out at this point in his WWE career that he felt so empty he thought he was going to die, because he is on fire in this match. Balancing the face and heel dynamic where he has the majority of the fans on his side while being vicious enough to get some heat in the process. Edge is the clear fan favorite, a sentence that's very strange to write all these years later, but the people really wanted him to a feel-good moment to close out the show.

However, it's "The Tribal Chief" that really steals the show for me. It obviously helps that he's in there with two guys who he has great chemistry with, but he really comes across as if he's reached his final form here. He bullies Bryan by throwing him around, Powerbombing him through the announce table in the back half of the match. His selling is also fantastic, particular in his exchanges with Edge as he looks genuinely terrified when he's locked in a Crossface with a piece of a steel chair in his mouth, and he sounds like he's going to cough up a lung after taking a Spear on the outside.

The interference from Uso in the closing moments does lead to the finish feeling a bit flat for the live audience, but this plays into what Reigns had talked about leading up to the show. Edge gave Bryan a Conchairto, Reigns gave one to Edge, and "The Tribal Chief" stacked both of his opponents' lifeless bodies on top of each other to get the emphatic victory. This match runs as fast as it can, and even though it's over 20 minutes in length, it flies by and is one of the most entertaining WrestleMania main events you'll ever see.

The importance of this match in the career of Roman Reigns really needs to be emphasized here. As mentioned earlier, "The Tribal Chief" character for as popular as it was online, had only existed in empty buildings until WrestleMania. WWE not having a live audience throughout the COVID-19 pandemic allowed Reigns to turn heel without the smart fans cheering him, and allowed the character to shine through in the more intimate moments of his matches. Just look at his early matches with Jey Uso where the dialogue is as important as the moves.

Then WrestleMania 37 comes along and Reigns has to go in front of a live audience that had booed him out of every building in the world for nearly six years. It made more sense to boo him in this match because he was the heel, but this was the first match where Reigns' character could command a crowd in a way he had never managed to achieve before. When the fans boo him, rather than doing what he did as "The Big Dog" which was just smile and carry on, he goes out of his way to tell the people "No. You will acknowledge me, and you will like it." 

Thinking back to the feeling surrounding Reigns' character after this show, fans actually started appreciating him for what he was, a great character. The only difference being that Reigns absolutely knew how great he was at this time, and didn't care about what the audience said to him because at the end of the day, they would all fall in line sooner rather than later. When The Bloodline eventually started performing in front of 100% capacity audiences, it's not really a surprise that Reigns was the biggest star in the company. He carried himself like a man who finally acted like the "Head of the Table," but that test run to see how he would cope happened here at WrestleMania 37, and he passed the test with flying colors.

Had this match gone a little differently, it's hard to tell whether Reigns would become the man he is today. "The Tribal Chief" character largely wouldn't have changed course, but wrestling is a medium where only the best know how to act in the face of an arena or stadium full of people. As "The Big Dog," Reigns was playing the role WWE wanted him to play, but as "The Tribal Chief," Reigns was playing the role he wanted to play, and while the word has been overused to the point of parody, his aura spills out through the screen when you watch him. Roman Reigns' new direction started in the dying embers of the previous summer, but he fully understood the assignment of how he needed to act when fans were let back in the building. I'm not saying WrestleMania 37 is the most important night of Reigns' career, but it was the show where everything fully clicked for a man now considered to be as big of a star as WWE always needed him to be.