Roman Reigns will defend the Universal Championship at the Day 1 pay-per-view against Brock Lesnar. The match announcement was made on the December 3rd edition of SmackDown.

Following the suspension of Lesnar now being lifted, The Beast opened SmackDown by stating that his intentions are to go after the Universal Championship. Shortly after this announcement, Lesnar was interrupted by Sami Zayn, who has earned a future opportunity at the Universal Championship. Zayn earned the title shot by being victorious in a battle royal on Black Friday.

Following some intimidation tactics by Lesnar, Sami Zayn was forced to cash in his championship match later in the night. It was also announced backstage that the winner of the SmackDown main event would defend the Universal Championship against Brock Lesnar at the Day 1 pay-per-view. The main event was due to be Reigns vs. Zayn for the title. However, Brock attacked Sami before the match with multiple suplexes and F5’s. The pre-match attack enabled Roman to quickly dispatch Zayn to retain the title.

WWE Day 1 takes place on Saturday January 1st. The current card officially announced is as follows:

• Roman Reigns (c) vs. Brock Lesnar – Singles match for the Universal Championship.
• Big E (c) vs. Seth Rollins vs. Kevin Owens – Triple threat match for the WWE Championship.
• The Usos (c) vs. Kofi Kingston and King Woods – Tag team match for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships.

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