WWE's Original Fast Lane Plans Were Not Reigns Vs. Bryan

The main event of the February 22 WWE Fast Lane PPV is Roman Reigns taking on Daniel Bryan in a number one contender's match to determine who will face Brock Lesnar for the WWE Title at WrestleMania. However, that wasn't always the plan according to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (available at F4WOnline.com). According to Meltzer, the plan was to go ahead with Reigns vs. Lesnar at WrestleMania, but putting Bryan in this match may have changed things. The original plan was for Reigns to go over a top heel, presumably Big Show. They have been feuding for the last month and they've had a number of different matches, so it would have made sense for Reigns to go over him. At one point the rumor was that it would be a Last Man Standing match. It wouldn't be a surprise if they did Reigns vs. Show on Raw next week since Show got a cheap win over Reigns on Monday. As for Bryan, the Fast Lane plan for him was to put him in a match with Bray Wyatt. Bryan would have put Wyatt over because WWE wants Wyatt to look as strong as possible going into WrestleMania 31 for his likely match with The Undertaker. They actually had a match a couple of weeks ago with Wyatt winning and they have a long history, so that feud would have made sense. Why the change in plans? It's not known for sure, but it's likely because WWE realized they needed a stronger match at the top of the show. The Show/Reigns, Bryan/Wyatt and Cena/Rusev matches would all be fine, but none of them are that big or considered true PPV main event level matches. Reigns vs. Bryan is a PPV main event because it's very fresh with a lot on the line as well. The plan for many months now has been for Reigns to win the Rumble and go on to WrestleMania 31 to face (and likely beat) Brock Lesnar and win the WWE Title. It was noted by Meltzer that merchandise was done to push Reigns as a top star at WrestleMania. What Meltzer wrote in the Observer made sense because he mentioned that the last thing they should have done was put Reigns against Bryan because it will make fans hate Reigns if he beats Bryan like we expect. It's a valid point, but what WWE is likely hoping for is that the Reigns win over Bryan will make fans believe in Reigns and respect him more. There's no better opponent than Bryan if they want Reigns to have a great match. Not only is Bryan a former three time World Champion, but he's arguably the best wrestler in the world. When it's over, expect Bryan to raise Roman's hand as if to say "this is the man" so that the fans don't hate Reigns as much as they have in the last month. Then there's the other possibility: a win for Daniel Bryan. Perhaps the creative team figured that Reigns wasn't the right guy for the WM31 main event, so they should change things up and put Bryan in the spot. With Bryan in that position there's a guarantee that the match with Lesnar would be amazing. WWE made the right call in doing Reigns vs. Bryan. If they went with Reigns vs. Show and Bryan vs. Wyatt they wouldn't have felt like big matches. This is a bigger match and with a number of different possibilities, it's going to get fans excited about what may or may not happen in the match.