Roman Reigns beat Drew McIntyre in the main event of WWE Clash at the Castle in September, and we now know why.

Given that the show was taking place in the UK, fans thought that Drew was going to end Roman's historic 700+ day reign as champion, but that isn't what happened.

In what was a surprise to many, Roman retained his Undisputed WWE Universal Championship over the Scotsman in the show's main event.

Why did Roman Reigns beat Drew McIntyre?

In the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer explains that WWE wants Roman to be champion by the time his proposed match with The Rock happens at WrestleMania 39.

A lot of fans speculated that this might be the case, but still questioned why WWE didn't have Drew win, only to drop the belt back to Roman before the show in April 2023.

Meltzer addresses this idea, stating that Triple H and the rest of the WWE leadership team want Roman to be the longest reigning champion in WWE since Hulk Hogan, via WrestleTalk.

Reigns is pushed as the company’s biggest star, and they want him as champion for this match and a potential match with The Rock at WrestleMania. Of course he could lose it and win it back before, but clearly they are looking at a storyline of making him the longest reigning champion post Hulk Hogan.

Seriously lengthy title runs are far rarer in modern-day wrestling, so the idea of Roman being the longest-reign champion since Hulk Hogan would have been crazy to think about at the start of this historic run.

For context, Roman is already the longest reigning champion since Hulk Hogan, after winning the Universal Championship over 750 days ago at Payback 2020.

Roman isn't even that far off Pedro Morales' reign in the 1970s, which stands at 1027 days. Reigns will have to hold his belts until July 2023 to beat that, which if he beats The Rock at WrestleMania, isn't that unlikely.

Reigns would have to stay champion until September 2024 to beat Hogan's reign, which started in 1973, and that seems almost impossible at this stage.

Roman Reigns is the reigning Undisputed WWE Universal Champion

Later on in this report, Meltzer also revealed that the reason Drew didn't win the title in Cardiff is also linked to YouTube megastar Logan Paul.

WWE announced Paul v Reigns for the title in Saudi Arabia on November 5, meaning Drew couldn't have beaten 'The Tribal Chief' for his title.

The idea of him losing to McIntyre and then regaining it in January, which they could have done, couldn’t have been done since they wanted Paul for Saudi Arabia and Saudi Arabia was the next match for Reigns.

Ricochet recently gave his prediction for Reigns' potential match with The Rock at WrestleMania, which you can read more by clicking here, and it's sure to raise some eyebrows.