Kevin Owens vs. Roman Reigns booked for WWE Roadblock

In a surprise, given this came largely out of nowhere, it was announced today that Kevin Owens will face Roman Reigns for the Universal title as the main event of the final WWE PPV of 2016, Roadblock, which takes place on December 18th at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, PA.

The surprise is that no angle has been shot for the match, and usually PPV main events aren’t announced until after the angle is already shot. Plus there are two PPVs before this show takes place. Starting with the Brock Lesnar vs. Bill Goldberg match, the company has started announcing PPV main events before the prior PPV takes place, likely because UFC has been successful announcing matches well ahead of time.

We had reported yesterday that Owens vs. Reigns was going to be the new championship direction in December, but that information related to plans for house shows, which also changes by the week.

It’s also notable since coming off the Hell in a Cell PPV, and how it was worked, it would have appeared that there would be an Owens vs. Seth Rollins vs. Chris Jericho program prior to the eventual Reigns program, which was always the direction, but not expected this quickly.