WWE reportedly once planned for Cody Rhodes vs CM Punk at WrestleMania 42.
Roman Reigns’ Royal Rumble victory this past Saturday offered fans their first clear indication of WWE’s direction for WrestleMania 42. While reports had already hinted at what the company was considering for the Show of Shows, there was still curiosity over how those in charge would position their biggest stars heading into Las Vegas. Now that Reigns’ challenge for CM Punk’s World Heavyweight Championship is set in stone, an update has emerged on what WWE had originally planned for this year’s WrestleMania.
According to Dave Meltzer in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WWE is believed to have changed the main event plans twice before settling on the current setup. He revealed that the original ideas would have seen Seth Rollins face Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes take on CM Punk.
“The plan was for Seth Rollins to defend the world title against Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes would then defend the world title against CM Punk in a babyface vs. babyface match.”
-Dave Meltzer
Understandably, plans had to change when Seth Rollins suffered a shoulder injury at Crown Jewel, and Meltzer writes that it was at this point the company began considering Bron Breakker as a possible opponent for CM Punk.
“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 to basically anoint Breakker as the top full-time star and eventually build to another match that has been avoided, a Breakker vs. Reigns singles match.”
-Dave Meltzer
However, as events unfolded with Drew McIntyre’s surprise capture of the Undisputed WWE Championship from Cody Rhodes, Meltzer notes that plans for CM Punk changed to accommodate Roman Reigns no longer being involved in SmackDown’s top title picture.
“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. Rhodes was on board with that idea. As noted here previously, they had a lot of creative worked out for Rhodes vs. Reigns, a match-up between the two people the company considers as the two biggest stars, with Rhodes as the full-time biggest star and Reigns as the part-time but actually viewed as the current biggest star of all. Paul Levesque, said to be the Wednesday before the Friday of the Three Stages of Hell match, agreed with Rhodes and McIntyre. His feeling is that the direction felt predictable and that Rhodes vs. Reigns had already headlined two WrestleMania shows. When the decision was made, they had to scrap Breakker winning the Rumble and the choices were either Rhodes or Reigns. The idea was to not have Rhodes win, trying to make him earn his title shot in the Elimination Chamber and build the show until the end of this month around Punk vs. Reigns as the big match.”
-Dave Meltzer
With Roman Reigns vs. CM Punk currently the only announced match for WrestleMania 42, attention will now turn to how the Undisputed WWE Championship scene takes shape. Meltzer’s previous reports suggest McIntyre will defend against Cody Rhodes, with the possibility of Jacob Fatu being added to make it a triple threat, though it is likely WWE will not provide official confirmation until after the Elimination Chamber on February 28.
Elsewhere during this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Meltzer noted that Seth Rollins is expected to face Bron Breakker at WrestleMania 42. You can read more about that here.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on WWE’s plans for WrestleMania 42 as soon as we hear more.
