It turned out that The Bloodline would fall in Sunday night’s “Bloodline rules” match between Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes for the Undisputed Universal Championship at WrestleMania. But there was far more to that fall than Cody Rhodes’ story. Reigns dominated “The American Nightmare” much in the same way he did last year at WrestleMania 39, save for some typical Cody comebacks that would inevitably lead to nearfalls. As we’ve learned over the past 1,316 days, it would take far more than conventional means to keep Reigns down for the count.

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Following the parallels that have been drawn between The Bloodline-Cody Rhodes saga and the “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame” epics, Rhodes came prepared with his own backup troupe to even the odds. Ghosts of WrestleManias past returned to haunt Reigns, including John Cena and The Undertaker, as well as those who have long served as allies to Rhodes: chief among them, Seth Rollins. Fresh off his own title loss earlier in the night, Rollins emerged after the Lincoln Financial Field was filled with the familiar music of The Shield, and Rollins appeared wearing his old Shield gear, his hair half-dyed blonde. Alas, of all the cameos in that main event, it was his former fellow hound of justice that Reigns had telegraphed, delivering a Spear to remove Rollins from the equation — or so it seemed.

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What happened next has to be one of the greatest pieces of long-term storytelling WWE, if not wrestling overall, has ever produced. Reigns, given a choice of whether to strike Rhodes with a steel chair to surely retain his title, suddenly became enamored instead with striking Rollins, who was struggling to his feet. Reigns saw the opportunity to undo the injustice of 2014, when Rollins drove a chair through the heart of The Shield, splintering what was then considered the most dominant stable of the modern era. Reigns got his revenge, but it ultimately cost him everything he had built over the past four years. He’s tried to bury his past ever since returning as the “Head of the Table,” but he has never truly been able to shake it; his past followed him into his Universal title bout against Rollins at Royal Rumble 2022, where his anger cost him the win, but not the title. He denied Rollins his due rematch out of sheer malice and spite for his former brother, and in doing so drove him to Rhodes’ side. Ultimately, Rollins cost Roman Reigns everything, again, 10 years after he had done it for the first time. And the wheel turns again.

Written by Max Everett