WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns made his latest title defense against Cesaro.
It happened at Sunday’s (May 16, 2021) WWE WrestleMania Backlash pay-per-view event. The match had a slow start but built over time like any other main event.
Throughout the match, Cesaro would have a moment of offense only to be cut down by Reigns, who worked over the right arm of Cesaro and at one point, he noted that was “DB style” (Daniel Bryan reference). Reigns won it with the guillotine choke.
Post-match, Seth Rollins came out to the ring and had a staredown with Reigns before he attacked Cesaro. Rollins has been feuding with Cesaro over the last few months.
Reigns previous title defenses came at WrestleMania 37 where he beat Daniel Bryan and Edge in a triple threat match. Then, earlier this month on an edition of SmackDown, Reigns beat Bryan in a match that had Bryan’s SmackDown career on the line. With him losing, Bryan was banished from SmackDown only for it to be revealed later that Bryan’s contract had expired with WWE.
Cesaro had interrupted Reigns, The Usos, and Paul Heyman in the opening segment of the throwback edition of SmackDown which led to Seth Rollins attacking him from behind. Cesaro defeated Rollins when they faced off at WrestleMania 37 last month and did so yet again on this throwback SmackDown.
Cesaro has been wanting a title match with Reigns for quite some time. Thus, Teddy Long announced if he defeated Rollins on this show then he would get a title shot.