Riddle Originally Planned To Win Men’s Royal Rumble Match

A new report has claimed that original plans would have seen RK-Bro’s Riddle win the men’s Royal Rumble match.

While the 2022 Royal Rumble is now in the books, there is still plenty of debate around the event. Some fans have been critical of the lack of surprise entrants – normally a staple of the Rumble matches – while some in the company have felt frustration at how the matches were handled, claiming that the outcome was changed “20 times.”

In the end, Brock Lesnar emerged as the last man standing in the men’s Rumble and pointing at the WrestleMania sign in celebration. ‘The Conqueror’ was himself a surprise entrant, having lost his WWE Championship to Bobby Lashley only hours earlier.

Now, Mike Johnson of PWInsider has reported that original plans for the match called for Riddle to win the bout. The report noted that plans changed a “ton of times” over the course of the week leading up to the event before the final decision was made for Lesnar to be the surprise winner. However, Riddle was consistently the frontrunner until the change to Lesnar was made.

The report also added that at one stage a pitch was made which would have seen Riddle’s partner, Randy Orton, win the match for a third time.

As it turned out, Riddle entered the match at number 20 before being eliminated by eventual winner Lesnar.

In the aftermath of the event, it has already been announced that Brock Lesnar will decide who he will challenge at WrestleMania 38 on the January 31st episode of Raw.

Although Lesnar lost the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble to Bobby Lashley, it was his long-time rival, Universal Champion Roman Reigns who cost him the gold.

As Lesnar landed an F-5 on Lashley, he also inadvertently took out the referee. This allowed Reigns to run in and deliver a Spear, before Paul Heyman revealed his true allegiance by handing the championship belt to his ‘Tribal Chief’ so he could lay Lesnar out.

As Heyman left with Reigns, all that was left was for Lashley to pin Lesnar and win the WWE Title.