Backstage News On Plans For The WWE Universal Championship At WrestleMania (Spoilers)

As seen at the Royal Rumble, Kevin Owens beat Roman Reigns to retain the WWE Universal Championship following outside interference from Braun Strowman.

It was first reported last week that a program between Reigns and Strowman was in the works after the Royal Rumble since they are scheduled to wrestle each other at Raw live events heading into WrestleMania 33. It was also noted that Kevin Owens will be facing Sami Zayn at those shows.

The matches between Owens and Zayn matches will be for the WWE Universal Championship, but Reigns vs. Strowman matches will be headlining those shows (according to Dave Meltzer on the post-Royal Rumble edition of Wrestling Observer Radio. While Reigns and Strowman will be wrestling each other at live events, WWE plans to have Reigns face The Undertaker at WrestleMania, which was teased during the Royal Rumble Match.

Meltzer also noted that the plan for the next Raw pay-per-view, WWE Fastlane on March 5, calls for Goldberg to challenge Kevin Owens for the WWE Universal Championship. Meltzer indicated that Goldberg will win the WWE Universal Championship, so his long-planned match against Brock Lesnar will have the title on the line.

This fits with Meltzer’s report last week in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that neither Owens nor AJ Styles will be champions going into WrestleMania.

Meltzer also points out that this would mean the Universal Championship will not be on the road with Raw live events heading into WrestleMania, something which is becoming standard operating procedure. In three of the past four years, the top prize from Raw (or all of WWE, pre-brand split) has been brought to the show on the shoulder of a part-timer: The Rock in 2013, Lesnar in 2015 and Triple H last year.