It was reported by Dave Meltzer in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE had plans for Roman Reigns to defend his WWE Universal Title inside the Elimination Chamber structure at the upcoming Elimination Chamber PPV event.
WWE had already confirmed another Elimination Chamber match for the Raw brand featuring WWE Champion Drew McIntyre vs. Randy Orton vs. Jeff Hardy vs. AJ Styles vs. The Miz vs. Sheamus.
At the time of that report, the competitors in the second chamber match weren’t known. Fast forward to Friday’s SmackDown, WWE altered plans as there will be a second chamber match, but Reigns won’t be in it.
Kevin Owens, Jey Uso, King Corbin, Sami Zayn, Daniel Bryan, and Cesaro will battle in the chamber match to become the new #1 contender for the title. Immediately after the bout, the winner will challenge Reigns for the strap.
Dave Meltzer speculated on today’s Wrestling Observer Radio that it appears WWE changed its plans so it wouldn’t mirror what they were doing in the WWE Title match.
“It’s a way to get heat on Reigns. Originally, Reigns was going to be in the chamber match. That was the original idea and then I guess they didn’t want to do it on both shows or something. Whatever…they wanted to tweak it, so they tweaked it.”
