10 Wrestling Facts We Didn't Know Last Week (Jan 11)

6. WWE Decided Against Rousey Vs. Flair II

According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, Ronda Rousey vs. Charlotte Flair II was the original plan for the Royal Rumble. It was never supposed to be Sasha Banks, and there was excitement in creative about the prospect of following up on Flair's savage beating at Survivor Series.

Then, WWE realised the limitations of their own product, got cold feet on the rematch and decided to try something else with Sasha instead.

The main problem was that Ronda and Charlotte work on separate brands, and the writers were struggling to come up with a solid excuse for Flair challenging Rousey again. They could've had Ronda throw out a call to Flair instead, but WWE believed they'd be sh*tting all over Survivor Series' brand warfare gimmick if they did.

At this point, that's the show's only hard sell, and so plans for the bold rematch were scrapped. It's not cool that phoney brand differences (ones WWE have ignored before) stopped such a heated storyline from concluding.