Why Isn't WWE Running Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania Backlash?

Roman Reigns will team with The Usos to face Drew McIntyre and RK-Bro in a six-man tag team match at WrestleMania Backlash this Sunday in Rhode Island. And while the initial match of Usos vs. Riddle and Randy Orton was supposed to unify the Raw and SmackDown Tag Team Championships, there's no indications that any championships are on the line at this point. This will mark the first traditional WWE pay-per-view (excluding Survivor Series) to go without a world championship match since March 2020 and once again stops short of giving McIntyre a shot at "The Tribal Chief." The former WWE Champion seemed like the next man up to face Reigns once he was drafted to the Blue Brand late last year, but between a minor injury and a long feud with Happy Corbin and Madcap Moss, he's only recently been freed up to pursue a title match. 

But when the cameras aren't rolling, McIntyre has challenged Reigns for the Universal title 12 times at live events, consistently coming up short. Dave Meltzer noted on a recent Wrestling Observer Radio that WWE is deliberately holding off on the match on pay-per-view until a bigger event, presumably one of the handful of stadium shows that are on WWE's calendar for the rest of the year. That includes Money in the Bank in early July (Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas), SummerSlam in late July (Nissan Stadium in Nashville), Clash at the Castle in September (Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales) and the second Saudi Arabia event of the year in October. 

McIntyre recently spoke with ComicBook about the Cardiff pay-per-view, saying it would mean more to him to go after Reigns' title rather than have his grudge match with heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury. 

"Yeah, I get it on a daily basis basically, 'When are you going to get that title back? You're the only person that had the WWE Championship two times, 300 days with no fans and attendance. So when are you going to get it in front of a live audience?'" McIntyre said. "Roman's had the Universal Title for about six billion days now. He's just taken the WWE title. Someone needs to take him down. Why not this guy?

"When it comes to Tyson (Fury), I see the ball is in his court," he added. "You've got our number, give us a call, we'll figure it out because I ain't waiting for you and my attention's fully straight ahead. My attention's on the championships. My attention's on Roman. And realistically, if I had a dream scenario, it would be fighting for the title in the UK, in a stadium, the show that I've been dreaming about and pushing for years, and it's actually freaking happening. And the tickets are fighting off the shelf, so get them soon."