Now we know that Roman Reigns and Liv Morgan are heading to WrestleMania after winning the Royal Rumble, but they were not WWE’s original picks.
WWE had pencilled in Bron Breakker to win the men’s and Bianca Belair to return from injury and win the women as of December 2025.
As Wrestling Observer notes, plans radically changed when Triple H felt the road to WrestleMania felt predictable and Drew McIntyre would dethrone Cody Rhodes.
Breakker was originally the man they wanted to challenge CM Punk for the title after Seth Rollins went down injured, scuppering their plans for Rollins vs Reigns and Punk challenging Rhodes.
Now it’s expected that Breakker will instead face a returning Rollins in Las Vegas and we know that Reigns will challenge Punk.
The world title picture on SmackDown is still working itself out, but Jacob Fatu has managed to insert himself into the picture.
Belair has been out injured since WrestleMania 41 last April with a severe knuckle injury but it was believed/hoped she would return in time for the Rumble.
Not only did she not win the event, but she did not appear at all leading many fans to speculate that she is not healthy yet.
The working idea for Belair to win the Rumble would be to go on and finally face Jade Cargill in their dream match.
Whilst it’s not clear what Belair’s current status is, that could still happen with the Elimination Chamber.
