WWE News: New ‘Royal Rumble’ Winner And ‘WrestleMania 33’ Main Event Potentially Being Considered

The road to WrestleMania can be one of the wackiest times for the WWE Creative team all year. While there are times where a match can seem to be set in stone heading to the big event, oftentimes those plans are scrapped and something else happens. Whether it is a result of an injury that takes place, the fan’s reaction – or lack thereof – or just Creative simply changing their minds, marquee matches are always subject to change before WrestleMania takes place.

An example of this is the match that was scheduled to occur last year between The Undertaker and John Cena. While the contest was just about set in stone, Cena suffered an injury that did not allow him to compete at the event in a full match.

As a result, WWE threw in Shane McMahon to replace Cena, and the two competed inside Hell in a Cell for Shane’s ability to own WWE Raw. The storyline was rather rushed, and while Shane lost the match, he ended up running Raw for weeks after the bout anyway and is currently the commissioner of SmackDown Live.

Another example is the return of Batista. After a four-year absence, Batista returned as a babyface in 2014 but was poorly received after he won the Royal Rumble weeks later. At the time, Randy Orton was WWE World Heavyweight Champion, and a match between him and Batista was set for WrestleMania. However, the fans were quick to show their disinterest of this main event and forced WWE to change plans in order to insert Daniel Bryan in the mix.

As a result, Bryan became champion, and WrestleMania XXX was christened by Jerry Lawler to be in the history books as “Yes-lemania.”

However, not only was Bryan originally supposed to be nowhere near the match, but according to Raj Giri of Wrestling Inc., Vince McMahon thought that Randy Orton vs. Batista was going to be the biggest WrestleMania main event he has ever had. Thankfully, he was convinced otherwise.

Yet another shake-up looks to be in the works for WrestleMania 33. Although a third installment of Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar was basically confirmed for the show, the latest episode of WWE Raw planted some seeds for a change of plans.

During the debut episode of “The Kevin Owens Show,” Mick Foley imposed his first guest on him, which was the returning Bill Goldberg. During the segment, Chris Jericho announced that he will enter the Royal Rumble, which was something Owens had strongly mixed feelings about. Then, out comes Goldberg. With animalistic intentions, Goldberg stated that whether it was Owens or Reigns, he will be facing one of them at WrestleMania 33.

This led to the appearance of Roman Reigns. Reigns briefly spoke to Owens and Jericho, before stating, “Which leads me to you.” He then proceeded to have a face-off with Goldberg, which received a thunderous ovation from the Tampa crowd. The segment concluded with both spearing Braun Strowman and Goldberg celebrating to the audience.

For weeks, there have been many different options for Reigns heading to WrestleMania. One of the biggest reasons why there was nothing etched in stone for him was due to WWE looking at him to be the top star of the company and wanting him to appear in a marquee match.

Braun Strowman was discussed to be Reigns’ opponent. Recently, there have been talks of The Undertaker being his opponent as a result of Vince McMahon having a stronger concentration of building Reigns as a star by competing against Undertaker, rather than John Cena simply gaining his 16th world title reign.

Now, from the actions exhibited on WWE Raw, a match with Goldberg is also on the discussion board.

This scenario would require Reigns to defeat Kevin Owens at the Royal Rumble, winning the Universal Championship for the first time. Along with this, Goldberg would win his first Royal Rumble match, earning a main event at WrestleMania. This would set up a Roman Reigns versus Goldberg showdown, which certainly has box-office appeal for both the casual and diehard wrestling fans.

In theory, a Reigns vs. Goldberg match does sound interesting and would captivate the grand spectacle appeal that WrestleMania aims to present each year.

[Featured Image by WWE]