Following the vacation of the World Heavyweight Championship due to Seth Rollins’ shoulder injury, WWE held a Battle Royal on the October 20 episode of Raw to determine who would face CM Punk for the vacant title at Saturday Night’s Main Event. Jey Uso ultimately won the match, but the absence of Bron Breakker was notable.
According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the decision was made “not to have Adam Pearce not allow Breakker or Bronson Reed in the Battle Royal,” with no storyline explanation provided. The reasoning behind this decision, per the report, is linked to a long-term strategy for Breakker.
The report states, “Breakker is expected to end up as champion, but they have a plan of how and when to execute it”. WWE officials apparently felt that the upcoming Saturday Night’s Main Event, scheduled for November 1, was not the appropriate venue for Breakker’s planned championship victory.
As Meltzer noted, “it happening on an SNME show, which is a Peacock exclusive and likely won’t do big viewing numbers, was decided to not be the time or the place”. Therefore, the logic followed was that if Breakker was not planned to win the title at SNME, having him participate in the Battle Royal only to be eliminated would weaken him.
“So if Breakker wasn’t going to win, there was no reason to put him in and get eliminated,” the report added. This approach allows WWE to keep Breakker protected and strong as they wait for the planned time and place to execute his eventual World Heavyweight Championship win.
Bron Breakker, alongside Bronson Reed and Paul Heyman, addressed the attack on Seth Rollins during the October 20 Raw, but was explicitly kept out of the Battle Royal later that night. He did not have a match on the program.
