Scrapped plans for Bron Breakker to win WWE Royal Rumble detailed
At one time, Bron Breakker was scheduled to win the WWE Royal Rumble.
In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, available now for subscribers, Dave Meltzer addressed how the injury to Seth Rollins at Crown Jewel caused WWE to change its original WrestleMania plans, which would have seen Seth Rollins vs. Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes vs. CM Punk as the top matches.
After the injury to Rollins, the plan was that Breakker would lose to Punk on the Raw Netflix anniversary show on January 5, win the Royal Rumble, and then defeat Punk for the title at WrestleMania.
Meltzer wrote:
“The injury to Rollins caused changes, as they went with Punk as champion with the idea of a three step program with Bron Breakker getting a title match on the Raw Netflix anniversary show and losing, coming back and winning the Rumble and then facing and beating Punk for the title at Mania.”
However, plans changed when it was decided that Drew McIntyre would defeat Rhodes for the title.
“Enter McIntyre, who pushed the idea that since he had lost multiple times to Rhodes, that it would be better for him to win the title in the already announced Three Stages of Hell match,” Meltzer continued. “Rhodes was on board with that idea.”
Punk vs. Reigns is now confirmed for WrestleMania, with McIntyre vs. Rhodes likely headlining night one, although Meltzer notes that Jacob Fatu could still be added to that match.
“Reigns, Rhodes and Punk are viewed right now as the three biggest stars, so essentially McIntyre was getting Breakker’s spot in the title picture.
When the decision was made, they had to scrap Breakker winning the Rumble and the choices were either Rhodes or Reigns.”
Meltzer also addressed who is currently planned to win the upcoming Men’s Elimination Chamber match in Chicago, along with a timeline for when WWE changed course with its Royal Rumble plans. The full edition of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter is available here.
Ian Carey is a writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, whose work has been featured in NOW Magazine, The Huffington Post, and more. A lifelong wrestling aficionado born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he has covered the industry for a decade and a half. He joined the f4wonline.com team in 2019.