Great Balls of Fire saw a post-match attack by Reigns after he lost an ambulance match to Strowman, which was widely described as the protagonist Reigns attempting to murder the villainous Strowman. As a result, there has been some speculation on whether or not this angle was a double turn (where Reigns and Strowman swap roles as the hero and the villain), with Reigns being described as a "sore loser" attacking Strowman, who won fairly to the stipulation, to the point of attempted murder. However, nothing of this sort ultimately came to fruition and Reigns was even awarded a WWE Universal Championship shot at SummerSlam with speculation that the plans for Reigns to face Lesnar at WrestleMania 34 had been changed. At the event on August 20, Lesnar retained the title by pinning Reigns in a match also involving Strowman and Samoa Joe. Meltzer claimed that the plans for the Lesnar–Reigns match at WrestleMania 34 were scrapped, but after seeing Reigns get pinned by Lesnar, he stated that the plans might still be in place. In September on "Raw", both (storyline) general manager Kurt Angle and commentator Corey Graves described Reigns as a wrestling "icon". At No Mercy, Reigns defeated John Cena, seemingly ending Cena's full-time wrestling career as this was seen as a "passing of the torch" moment in which Reigns had indeed replaced Cena as the face of the company. During the match, Reigns was booked to kick out of four "Attitude Adjustments" (one of which was off the top rope) and then defeated Cena with two spears. In October 2017, Reigns was revealed as the highest rated wrestler in the "WWE 2K18" game. GamesRadar+ wrote that "this is likely a call made by WWE ... rather than [game] developer 2K" and that by ranking Reigns higher than historic wrestlers "in their prime" like the 1997 version of the Stone Cold Steve Austin character, Reigns is being treated as the "greatest wrestler of all-time".