Paul Heyman was the first one out on the January 10 episode of SmackDown and declared what lies ahead for Roman Reigns after reclaiming The Ula Falla. He revealed that The OTC is targeting a 12-time champion for WrestleMania 41. This would be the current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes.
Roman Reigns will enter the Royal Rumble match for the first time in over five years. He last won ten years ago and has been the runner-up every year or two between 2016 and 2020. He was the runner-up to Randy Orton in 2017, Shinsuke Nakamura in 2018, and Drew McIntyre in 2020.
Paul Heyman called out The American Nightmare, who holds the title that Roman Reigns wants. The Wiseman told him that Reigns intends to win the Rumble and run it back for the third time against Cody at WrestleMania 41. Rhodes is an eight-time tag champion in addition to being the inaugural Men's Crown Jewel Champion as well as a two-time Intercontinental Champion.
It's going to be interesting to see how things play out in the coming few weeks. Reigns will be on the final RAW before the 2025 Royal Rumble - and it is expected that he will be the cover star of WWE 2K25.
It isn't known whether he will be on SmackDown this month.
Instead, we could just be seeing The OTC on RAW on Netflix in the build-up to Royal Rumble.