10 Shocking Royal Rumble Plans WWE Originally Had

5. John Cena Must Choose (2012)

John Cena Royal Rumble 2012
WWE.com

Anyone who sat through Sheamus' first babyface run must've been sighing with relief when he clobbered Shorty G recently on SmackDown and re-established himself as a heel. It blatantly sucked when WWE sampled Sheamus as a face back in 2012-2013. Still, at least he got a Royal Rumble win out of it.

One that almost never happened.

Dave Meltzer reported in The Observer shortly after the 2012 Rumble that John Cena was originally supposed to win the match then choose between wrestling for the WWE Title or confronting The Rock at WrestleMania XXVIII. That, if nothing else, would've been a uniquely engaging story the promotion could've told on TV between the Rumble-'Mania.

Another plan called for Randy Orton to emerge as the Rumble winner in his hometown of St. Louis. In the end, WWE went with Sheamus (hey, points for originality count), put him over Daniel Bryan in 18 seconds and booked Cena vs. Rock without a title on the line.

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.