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WWE Rumors: Latest on Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre Feud, Bray Wyatt and Mustafa Ali
December 20, 2021
Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe.
WWE Building Toward Reigns-McIntyre Program
While much of the focus for Roman Reigns right now revolves around his feud with Brock Lesnar, WWE is also looking ahead to what comes next for the Head of the Table.
Per Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio (h/t Subhojeet Mukherjee of RingsideNews.com), Drew McIntyre's upcoming match with Madcap Moss at WWE Day 1 is "probably just to give Drew a win since obviously Roman and Drew are gonna get together."
WWE has, understandably, been going hard on the Reigns-Lesnar feud because it's the biggest program in the company right now.
Even when Reigns has defended the WWE universal championship against someone like Finn Balor, it was always a stopgap until the next Lesnar match.
If Reigns is the next program for McIntyre, his match with Moss at Day 1 could end up being a glorified squash match. It's certainly the most high-profile thing Moss has been involved in since being called up to the main roster last year.
It's unclear if a Reigns-McIntyre feud will happen immediately after Day 1, or if WWE wants to keep Reigns and Lesnar going potentially through WrestleMania.
Regardless of what the plan is, McIntyre is certainly ready to be part of the SmackDown main-event scene now that he's firmly entrenched on the brand after being drafted in October.
Latest on Bray Wyatt's WWE Release
Nearly six months after Bray Wyatt was surprisingly released by WWE, speculation about the decision is still coming out.
Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio (h/t Subhojeet Mukherjee of RingsideNews.com) that one possible explanation is because Wyatt wanted to leave WWE:
"Wyatt scared a lot of people because if someone like Wyatt gets fired, then only guys like Roman Reigns, Randy Orton and Brock Lesnar are safe. I think that’s not really the case when you are at that level. The only reason someone would want to cut someone like that would be if they wanted out and made a lot of noise about it."
Last month, Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select reported Vince McMahon "just didn't like" Wyatt because he was often outspoken about bad creative decisions involving his character.
"The Fiend" character was one of the most unique gimmicks in WWE, and he was often featured in prominent feuds even though he would rarely win them.
Wyatt's final three matches in the company were against Randy Orton, including a one-on-one bout at WrestleMania 37. He lost the bout after being distracted by Alexa Bliss sitting on a box with a goo running down her face.
He did make one final appearance on the April 12 episode of Raw in a Firefly Fun House segment.
WWE released Wyatt on July 31 in a round of budget cuts.
Update on Mustafa Ali
It's been nearly two months since Mustafa Ali has had a match on WWE television.
Per Sapp of Fightful Select (h/t Nitish Vashishtha of RingsideNews.com), Ali was originally taken off television to go on paternity leave and hasn't been featured since his two-week leave expired because creative can't find anything for him to do:
"We’re told that while he asked off for a couple of weeks for paternity leave, that amount of time had already passed and it appears that there just wasn’t anything planned for him for the Chicago shows. We’ve also learned that WWE sent Ali home early for paternity leave, and he’s not been on the road since before Survivor Series."
WWE held last week's SmackDown at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois, near his hometown of Chicago. He didn't appear on the live show, nor the episode that was taped for this week on Christmas Eve.
Ali last appeared on television on the Oct. 29 episode of SmackDown. He lost a squash match to McIntyre in two minutes.
Prior to that, Ali was in a feud with Mansoor that was highlighted by a match at Crown Jewel. Mansoor won in one of the best matches on the entire show.
Ali has been outspoken about feeling underutilized by WWE in the past. He's been used primarily as a tag-team wrestler, but has had some singles success with wins over Ricochet, Jeff Hardy and Angel Garza on Main Event earlier this year.
Given how much potential Ali showed during his time on 205 Live after signing with WWE five years ago, it would be nice to see him get a fair shot to show what he can do on the main roster.
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