Roman Reigns has confidently predicted he will defeat Cesaro and leave WrestleMania Backlash as the WWE Universal Champion.
One day before the pay-per-view, The Tribal Chief posted a tweet to promote his match against Cesaro. He also said that holding the Universal Championship and carrying WWE on his back is “light work.”
Roman Reigns defeated Daniel Bryan and Edge on the second night of WrestleMania 37 to retain the Universal Championship. On the event’s first night, Cesaro recorded a statement-making victory over Seth Rollins.
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Cesaro immediately targeted Reigns’ title after WrestleMania. However, the Universal Champion disrespected his fellow SmackDown Superstar by refusing to acknowledge him as a worthy challenger.
On last week’s episode of SmackDown, Cesaro picked up another win over Seth Rollins to set up a match against Roman Reigns at WrestleMania Backlash.
The final SmackDown before WrestleMania Backlash ended with Cesaro defeating Jimmy Uso via disqualification following interference from Reigns. The Universal Championship contender stood tall at the end of the show after hitting Jey Uso with his Neutralizer finisher.
Cesaro and Roman Reigns’ previous WWE matches
The history between Cesaro and Roman Reigns goes back to their time in WWE’s Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) developmental system. Cesaro (f.k.a. Antonio Cesaro) defeated Reigns (f.k.a. Leakee) in their first televised match at an FCW taping in November 2011.
In November 2015, Reigns defeated Cesaro on RAW to progress to the semi-final stage of a WWE World Heavyweight Championship tournament. Two years later, Cesaro unsuccessfully challenged Reigns for the Intercontinental Championship on another episode of RAW in December 2017.
Watch the video above to hear predictions and opinions from Sportskeeda Wrestling's SP3 and WrestleTalk's Pete Quinnell ahead of WrestleMania Backlash.