Roman Reigns will defend his Universal Championship against Daniel Bryan on this week's episode of SmackDown — with one major stipulation.

If Reigns defeats the WWE legend, Bryan will be forced to leave SmackDown.

It's worth noting that the Bryan's WWE contract is set to expire soon, and he has expressed an interest in wrestling for other companies.

A Reigns victory feels very likely here, considering WWE's commitment to pushing him as the top star on SmackDown. On top of that, Reigns hasn't lost a singles match cleanly ever since he debuted his villainous persona at SummerSlam, and that's probably not going to change any time soon.

And finally, WWE has already started building up Reigns' next feud.

Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio (h/t Felix Upton of Ringside News), explained that the upcoming Reigns-Bryan match will lead to a future program between the Universal Champion and Cesaro.

Meltzer also discussed several possibilities in regards to how WWE could set up the Reigns-Cesaro showdown.

"So I guess the deal, in theory, what it looks like is that Bryan will lose and that is what helps set up Reigns vs Cesaro, but perhaps Cesaro comes down and he gets Reigns mad enough and that what get him to face Cesaro. Obviously, they’re going with Reigns vs Cesaro at some point. It could be that Bryan wins, Bryan loses to Cesaro and it leads to Reigns and Cesaro. I don’t expect Bryan to win, but they could do it."

Bryan endorsed Cesaro during last week's episode of SmackDown, and he dared Reigns to give him a Universal Championship opportunity.

RELATED: Paul Heyman Promises That Daniel Bryan Will Be "Gone" From SmackDown

In the closing segment of the show, however, Reigns offered Bryan the shot at the title. At Cesaro's insistence, Bryan accepted the challenge.

WWE has given Cesaro a strong singles push here in 2021. He picked up clean wins over Bryan on the Jan. 15 and Jan. 22 episodes of SmackDown, and at WrestleMania 37, Cesaro defeated Seth Rollins for his first singles match win at the "Show of Shows."

Cesaro's Main Event Push Is Long Overdue

Cesaro has been a fan favorite ever since he joined the main roster, but the company has been hesitant about giving him a main event push. Cesaro is an elite in-ring worker who could easily flourish in the Universal Championship scene. Fortunately, it looks like WWE is about to finally give him the main event push he deserves. It should have happened some years earlier, but it's better late than never.

NEXT: John Cena Says Roman Reigns Is The Best He's Ever Been