In a surprise, WWE has decided to not have Roman Reigns defend the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at next week's WrestleMania Backlash pay-per-view.
Reigns defends his title at practically every WWE pay-per-view, and it looked like the company was building towards a match with Drew McIntyre for WrestleMania Backlash. Instead, Reigns and The Usos will face McIntyre and RK-Bro in a six-man tag team match at the May 8 event in Providence, Rhode Island.
The previous plan was to have RK-Bro face The Usos in a tag team titles unification match, but that stipulation was scrapped with Reigns and McIntyre now being added to the bout.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio (h/t Ringside News), Dave Meltzer suggested that WWE may have decided to save Reigns' title defenses for stadium events. This would include Money in the Bank 2022, SummerSlam 2022 and Clash at the Castle.
"That’s really interesting," Meltzer explained. "That really weakens the card, because I thought the unification was the strongest thing they had on the card. Really, now, that would put Charlotte and Ronda…Roman and Drew I guess would then be to set up for the stadium pay-per-views, then. If you do a single champion, then you’re doing the pay-per-view without a title match, you’re basically just saying, 'We don’t see this pay-per-view as a big deal at all.'"
Money in the Bank 2022 will be held inside the massive Allegiant Stadium (home of the NFL's Las Vegas Raiders) in Paradise, Nevada on July 2. SummerSlam will take place four weeks later inside Nissan Stadium (home of the NFL's Tennessee Titans) in Nashville, Tennessee on July 30.
WWE announced on Friday that the Sept. 3 pay-per-view at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales will be named "Clash at the Castle." This will mark WWE's first PPV event in the United Kingdom since SummerSlam 1992, which was held in London, England.
A Very Interesting Call By WWE
Reigns has been the main headliner of WWE pay-per-views during his run as a villainous character. Perhaps we'll learn more information as to why WWE decided not to place him in a singles match for WrestleMania Backlash. But as Meltzer explained, it feels as though WWE doesn't consider WM Backlash "a big deal." The call to scrap the unification stipulation for RK-Bro vs. The Usos was also utterly surprising.
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