Report: WWE Changed Plans For ANOTHER Major Royal Rumble Match

The two Royal Rumble matches weren't the only bouts subjected to big changes at WWE's 29 January premium live event.

Per Dave Meltzer on the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Roman Reigns was originally supposed to score a clean victory over Seth Rollins in their Universal Title match at Royal Rumble 2022. Instead, we got Reigns losing via disqualification for ignoring the referee while beating his challenger down against the ropes, leading to a post-match angle in which Roman destroyed Seth with repeated steel chair shots.

This was apparently the product of many changes. Meltzer stated that once the chair shots were settled upon, Vince decided that Reigns going over Rollins cleanly would have been "too much." The feeling was that the shots were more devastating than a clean win would have been.

WWE currently sees Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar as the big match of the year. Everything that happened at Royal Rumble 2022 was therefore configured to accentuate this, including the Rollins match.

Rollins walked into another world title program on last night's Raw, as a confirmed participant for the upcoming WWE Title Elimination Chamber on 19 February. Reigns, meanwhile, defends his Universal strap against Lesnar at WrestleMania 38.