It looks like plans have changed again and a match that was originally planned for the WWE Royal Rumble pay-per-view is not happening.
Daniel Bryan declared last week that he would be entering the Royal Rumble pay-per-view and they continued to talk about him in the Rumble on this past Friday’s episode of SmackDown.
The closing angle on SmackDown between Reigns and Kevin Owens indicates that their feud will continue at least until the Rumble pay-per-view. Dave Meltzer noted in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Bryan vs. Reigns was the original plan. A few weeks ago on Talking Smack, Bryan talked about not being done with Uso and it was hinted that he would be moving onto Reigns in a feud for the Universal Championship.
Dave Meltzer noted in the Observer that SmackDown is low on main event babyfaces and that is an issue. Right now, unless they are able to bring someone completely unexpected, WrestleMania looks like it will be headlined by either Bryan vs. Reigns or Goldberg vs. Reigns. Since Goldberg has said things about Reigns in recent interviews, that seems to be the more likely match. WrestlingNews.co first reported several weeks ago that Rock vs. Reigns is not happening this year.
As of now, the top singles matches for the Rumble appear to be Reigns defending against Owens, The Fiend vs. Randy Orton in another gimmick match, and Bobby Lashley defending the United States title against Matt Riddle.
