WWE made a few changes to the originally planned Royal Rumble card, including a once-talked-about Finn Balor vs. Edge bout inside of the Hell in a Cell structure.
The planned Ronda Rousey vs. Raquel Rodriguez match for the SmackDown Women’s Title was pulled from the show and moved to SmackDown a few weeks early, where Rousey retained the title only to lose it to a returning Charlotte Flair minutes later.
Edge and Beth Phoenix returned from hiatus at the Royal Rumble to mix it up with The Judgment Day, continuing their feud. For more on the plans for this rivalry, click here.
In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that WWE had to nix the Hell in a Cell bout due to Edge not being able to appear on TV to build up the bout as he was filming “Percy Jackson and The Olympian” for Disney+.
Meltzer wrote, “The reason the at one time talked about Brood Edge vs. Demon Balor Hell in a Cell match at the Rumble didn’t happen is because Edge was filming a television show until this past week and thus couldn’t do the WWE television to build up the match. He was filming “Percy Jackson and The Olympian,” a Disney + series where he will play Ares, the Greek God of War.”
