In a surprise, WWE has decided to not have Roman Reigns defend the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at this Sunday's WrestleMania Backlash pay-per-view.
Instead, Reigns and The Usos will go up against Drew McIntyre and RK-Bro in a six-man tag team match. Previously, the plan was for The Usos and RK-Bro to square off in a tag team titles unification match. But it will just be a standard six-man tag team match with no special stipulations.
McIntyre and Reigns have squared off at several untelevised events in recent weeks. So why hasn't WWE booked any televised championship matches between the two?
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio (h/t WrestlingNews.co), Dave Meltzer suggested that WWE prefers to wait until the upcoming stadium pay-per-view shows to run McIntyre vs. Reigns. The limited number of potential opponents for The Tribal Chief could also be a factor in WWE's decision to delay the feud.
"They need something big," Meltzer said. "They don’t have that big match and I guess Roman…Roman’s the biggest star and his biggest opponent right now is Drew so they’re saving that for quote ‘a bigger show than this one’ because this one is whatever. It’s still a pay-per-view and all that."
It looked like Reigns would enter a feud with 2018 men's Royal Rumble winner Shinsuke Nakamura following the Apr. 8 edition of SmackDown. That night, Nakamura came out and confronted The Bloodline, suggesting that he was next in line to challenge Reigns.
But WWE never followed up on that segment, and so it looks like McIntyre will be Reigns' next long-term challenger. Meltzer recently suggested that WWE may look to rekindle The Tribal Chief's feud with Brock Lesnar, who hasn't been on WWE programming since his loss to Reigns at WrestleMania 38.
Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre Is Long Overdue
Reigns and McIntyre put on a legitimate match of the year candidate at Survivor Series 2020. Because McIntyre was a Raw superstar and the WWE Champion at the time, there wasn't a path for WWE to continue the feud. Now that he's working on SmackDown, however, it's the ideal time for McIntyre to get slotted in as Reigns' long-term challenger.
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