Conflicting Reports About Riddle Original Royal Rumble Plans

Conflicting reports have emerged on plans for Matt Riddle at WWE Royal Rumble, and the originally planned Rumble match winner.

PWInsider recently reported that WWE originally planned for Riddle to win this year’s Royal Rumble match, plans which obviously never came to fruition. The report also noted that Randy Orton was also considered, but Riddle was always the frontrunner to win, before Brock Lesnar was added to the equation.

Fightful Select (subscription required) now reports that notable WWE sources have said that this wasn’t the case, with Brock Lesnar reportedly pencilled in to win the 30-man match at least two weeks prior to the event.

Ringside News and Louis Dangoor of GiveMeSport have also stated that they’d been told that Lesnar had been slated to win the Royal Rumble for weeks. It is unclear how serious any WWE creative team conversations were about Riddle winning the Rumble.

Per WrestleVotes, Orton and Riddle were originally set to feud at SummerSlam 2021, but WWE decided to hold off on the RK-Bro split until WrestleMania season. It was noted that the handful of creative members who still want the split to happen, want the duo to feud over the WWE Title.

Riddle is one of five challengers who will challenge Bobby Lashley for the WWE Championship inside the Elimination Chamber on February 19. You can read the full match line-up here.

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