Backstage News On Scrapped WWE Royal Rumble Entrants – There were several changes behind the scenes on the day of the Royal Rumble event. Several of these ended up affecting Seth Rollins, who had a couple of plans nixed throughout Saturday.
On the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted that WWE originally had planned for Seth to be part of the men’s Royal Rumble match. Of course, that didn’t happen, but it wasn’t the only change he dealt with. Rollins did defeat Roman Reigns in the opening match, via disqualification. However, the first idea was for the Tribal Chief to win the match.
However, once the chair shots were added for the post-match beatdown, Vince McMahon personally altered the finish. He felt that the attack and a defeat would be too much for Seth. Because of the beatdown, it was also decided he should not be in the Royal Rumble match. This was to sell the attack, but Shane McMahon was pushing hard for him to be involved in that.
The entire plan for the PPV was to push both Roman and Brock Lesnar, as WWE feels that is the biggest match of the year. Because of that, everything that happened on the show was to accentuate them both. Of course, both men will be competing against each other at WrestleMania 38.
Lesnar is now attempting to regain his WWE Championship at the upcoming Elimination Chamber. This is because the Beast wants to make it a title vs. title match. He will compete inside the steel structure against current champion Bobby Lashley, Rollins, Austin Theory, Riddle, and AJ Styles.
It wasn’t just Rollins was affected at the Royal Rumble though. Alexa Bliss was apparently also supposed to be in the women’s match, but that was changed. While she did appear on Monday Night Raw this week, the former SmackDown Women’s Champion is yet to get back into the ring since returning.
Backstage News On Scrapped WWE Royal Rumble Entrants
