Posted in: Sports, TV, WWE | Tagged: elimination chamber, Smackdown, wrestling, wwe

Roman Reigns to Defend Title Against Winner of Elimination Chamber

WWE has finally booked Smackdown's Universal Championship match for the Elimination Chamber PPV, which happens one week from Sunday and had, until tonight, just three matches booked. Roman Reigns will defend his title at Elimination Chamber, but not inside the match itself. Instead, the winner of the Chamber match will get a title shot "on the spot" at the PPV… which means they'll have to fight Roman Reigns right after competing in one of the most brutal matches in WWE. Seems a little unfair, to be honest.

From Bleeding Cool's Smackdown report, currently in progress and to be published after the show, here's how it happened:

Roman Reigns walks to the ring with his entourage. And walks. And walks. It takes a while. So long, Smackdown stops for a full recap of Edge's promo from Raw, and Roman is still only a quarter of the way down the ramp. Adam Pearce is in the ring with a very stern look on his face. Roman ignores him while he slowly gets in the ring and holds up his title. A "you suck" chant spontaneously breaks out because someone pressed the "you suck" button on the sound board.

Eventually, Roman asks Pearce what he's doing here. Roman tells Pearce that he's basically Roman's bitch and doesn't have any real power on Smackdown. So he makes Pearce wait while he addresses Edge and Edge's refusal to name Roman as his opponent for WrestleMania. He says Edge is scared of him and hoping someone else will take the title before WrestleMania, but Roman says that's not happening.

Pearce has a contract for Reigns to defend the title inside the Elimination Chamber. Paul Heyman says that's not what Roman's contract stipulates. Reigns has to defend the championship at Elimination Chamber, but he doesn't have to defend it in the Chamber. Instead, Roman will defend the title against the winner of the Elimination Chamber match, immediately after the match. Pearce isn't happy, but Heyman asks what he'll do about it. Fire Roman Reigns? He points out that WrestleMania was the lowest-attended of all time last year without Roman Reigns. That's, er, technically true.

Pearce says he'll put together qualifying matches, but there are two superstars who don't need to qualify: Jey Uso, and Kevin Owens. Pearce backs out of the ring as he names Uso and Owens, but Reigns follows him and gets in his face. Heyman coaxes Reigns back.

Hey, if WWE keeps this up, they might have an actual PPV card by the time Elimination Chamber gets here! Check back later tonight for more on WWE Smackdown.

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