Charlotte Flair and Drew McIntyre were this year’s Royal Rumble winners. Charlotte won after last-eliminating Shayna Baszler. Drew won after last-eliminating Roman Reigns. We have an interesting rumor to pass your way about the Rumble winners this year.
According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, Charlotte and Drew were not the originally planned winners.
Meltzer says that Shayna Baszler was originally penciled in to win the Women’s Royal Rumble match. He also mentions that Roman Reigns was originally penciled in to win the Men’s Royal Rumble match.
WWE made the decision on January 14th to switch the winners to Charlotte and Drew. It is unclear why the change was made other than WWE decided this was the better path for their build towards Wrestlemania 36.
My Take:
- If this is true, we can likely expect both Shayna and Roman to be in top matches at Wrestlemania 36. Roman vs Bray Wyatt seems to be the most obvious. WWE could also do Shayna vs Bayley or Shayna vs Charlotte vs Becky Lynch.
Let me know what you think in the comment section below.
On a related note, check out my predictions for the Elimination Chamber PPV here.