After the conclusion of Sunday night’s Royal Rumble , it was apparently set in stone that Roman Reigns would go on to face WWE Champion Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 31 . The negative reaction of the Philadelphia crowd and the mass cancellations of WWE Network subscriptions may already have the company altering plans for the biggest event of the year.
When Roman Reigns eliminated Rusev from the Rumble match, the crowd didn’t cheer, but they certainly weren’t silent. The former ECW crowd in Philadelphia completely rained down on the result with a chorus of boos.
OK so if Raw isn’t canceled would that mean we may get an empty arena Raw? A least Reigns could get a better reaction.
— Evan (@THERasslemania) January 26, 2015
A source, speaking on anonymity, has informed Inquisitr that the plans for WrestleMania 31 may really be changing soon. The debut of the WWE Fast Lane Pay-Per-View in February could end up truly deciding what main event the fans will see in late March.
Rumor has it that Daniel Bryan or Bray Wyatt could be put in a match at Fast Lane that could offer them a spot in the WrestleMania 31 main event if they win. It isn’t likely that Reigns will be taken out of it, but it could make the match into a Triple Threat.
It was one thing for WWE to deal with the bad reaction that Reigns got after the victory , and that is part of the reason that The Rock ran out to save him. The huge pop for Rock almost drowned out the boos. Almost.
The bigger problem was after the Royal Rumble when a round of mass cancellations hit the WWE Network. WrestleZone reported that they were much more than threats as users were tweeting images of their cancellation screens and #CancelWWENetwork was trending in a huge way.
After Batista won the 2014 Royal Rumble and was set to take on Randy Orton in the Mania main event, the fans protested, booed, and simply let it be obviously known how angry they were. That eventually led to Daniel Bryan being inserted into the title match.
Advertisements had Roman Reigns taking on Big Show in a Last Man Standing match at Fast Lane , but those plans may have already been scrapped. Reigns could still have a big match of his own while Bryan or someone else may have a match of their own to determine if they get put in the main event.
The source tells the Inquisitr that they also could run a plan similar to last year when Bryan had to win an earlier match to get into the main event at WrestleMania . Something like that could happen again, but the removal of Reigns from the main event isn’t expected.
WWE won’t let the mass exodus from the WWE Network continue. While they don’t always cater to the fans, they can’t afford to lose money, and the Royal Rumble is already causing them to do that. WrestleMania 31 may not be set in stone just yet.
[Image via WWE]