Vince McMahon's Ideas for Roman Reigns Next Title Defense Reportedly "Don't Make Any Sense"
Roman Reigns' next Undisputed WWE Universal Championship match won't be until the Night of Champions pay-per-view in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on May 27. That event will see Reigns' title run reach one thousand consecutive days and WWE will likely mark the event by giving him an impressive championship defense. It's unknown who that challenger will be, but Vince McMahon has reportedly been pitching some ideas to the WWE Creative Team recently. And, according to @WrestleVotes, they don't sound too great.
The insider told GiveMeSport this week, "I was told that Vince McMahon has pitched several ideas for Roman Reigns' next challenger. A few of them were even kind of scoffed at, like that doesn't make any sense." The decision apparently hasn't been made as of now, but fans will have a better idea of who it is following Saturday's Backlash pay-per-view.
The WWE just wrapped up the 2023 Draft, which not only reinforced the brand split between Raw and SmackDown by shaking up both rosters. A quick glance at SmackDown's new roster shows a few potential challengers:
- AJ Styles — if he's healthy enough. Styles popped up on SmackDown last week but still hasn't wrestled since December.
- Austin Theory — this could be one of the ideas that was scoffed at, but McMahon is clearly a fan of the United States Champion.
- Bobby Lashley — this feels like a match they'll get around to doing at some point.
- Brock Lesnar — he's a free agent and McMahon can try to brush aside that whole "no more matches between these two" stipulation from last year.
- Bray Wyatt — if he's back in time I sure they can come up with a reason.
- Edge — The WWE Hall of Famer and Reigns have already feuded twice since "The Tribal Chief's" run first began, but that hasn't stopped WWE before
- LA Knight — Yeah!
- Karrion Kross — stranger things have happened
- Sheamus — at least it'd be a banger (after banger! after banger!)
WWE Backlash 2023 Card
- Cody Rhodes vs. Brock Lesnar
- SmackDown Women's Championship: Rhea Ripley vs. Zelina Vega
- United States Championship: Austin Theory vs. Bobby Lashley vs. Bronson Reed
- Raw Women's Championship: Bianca Belair vs. Iyo Sky
- Bad Bunny vs. Damian Priest (San Juan Street Fight)
- Seth Rollins vs. Omos
- Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn & Matt Riddle vs. Solo Sikoa, Jimmy Uso & Jey Uso
