5 Top WWE rumors from this week: 11-time champion favorite to win Royal Rumble; Roman Reigns' WrestleMania plans; Triple H "bummed out" (January 9th, 2022)
Welcome to the latest edition of our weekly rumor roundup, where we will take a look at the top rumors from the world of WWE.
WWE's first week of the new year 2022 was filled with a lot of action, surprises, and more. The Royal Rumble season is here and the company has already started building towards the pay-per-view with some major match announcements. We now have reports on the originally planned favorite to win the men's 2022 Royal Rumble match.
WrestleMania is less than three months away and plans are already in place for the WWE and Universal Championship. Several top names were released from NXT this past week and Triple H is reportedly not happy about the same.
Without any further ado, let's take a look at the top WWE rumors from this past week. Be sure to let us know your thoughts on the same in the comments section below.
#5 Original plans for the WWE Championship and front-runner to win the 2022 men's Royal Rumble match
Hopefully that Big E will win the WWE Men's Royal Rumble and challenges Brock for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship or Roman Reigns for the WWE World Heavyweight Universal Championship #WrestleMania https://t.co/Uul6n5GyKi
Brock Lesnar won the WWE Championship at Day 1 after getting added to the match at the last moment. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that Seth Rollins was originally supposed to win the WWE title at Day 1.
He also reported that the plan was for him to main event one of the nights of WrestleMania 38 against the winner of the 2022 Royal Rumble match. He added that 11-time overall champion in WWE, Big E, was the favorite to win the Royal Rumble as per original plans:
''Because there are two nights of WrestleMania, they need a WWE title match to headline the other show. The plan for that was originally Seth Rollins, likely against the winner of the Royal Rumble, with Big E the favorite, but Kevin Owens and Bobby Lashley were also possibilities. The match in that position may remain the same, but getting there is different,'' said Meltzer.
😮
#SmackDown @WWERomanReigns @WWERollins https://t.co/luRLozWoPt
The plans seem to have significantly changed now as Seth Rollins is likely set to challenge Universal Champion Roman Reigns for his title at Royal Rumble. As for the WWE Championship, Brock Lesnar will defend his title against Bobby Lashley at the upcoming pay-per-view.