According to a report from Pwinsider, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon has taken “an extremely tight look” at the plans for tonight’s show, and he’s said to have made a number of changes to various aspects of the two Rumble matches, including the wrestlers who will come out first, and who will be involved in the endings for both matches.
The planning for this year is said to be different from Royal Rumble 2021, where all the plans for the Rumble matchups were locked in fairly easily. However, this year it’s reportedly been a much longer and more complex creative process as McMahon is trying to settle on the direction he wants for the show.
Additionally, the last few days have seen a great deal of talk of adding talents to the men’s Rumble who are already slated to work other matchups tonight. This isn’t confirmed yet because WWE Creative was said to have been going back and forth on this direction last night and earlier today.
One of the pitched ideas over the last week had Brock Lesnar entering the men’s Rumble match. Lesnar is already scheduled to defend the WWE Championship later tonight against Bobby Lashley.
Also, there was reportedly a big push behind the scenes earlier this week to have Randy Orton get a big showing in the men’s Rumble match, since St. Louis is his hometown. There was also reportedly another pitch to have both Orton and his RK-Bro teammate Riddle go far together in the Rumble. The idea would be to tease what could happen if both men made it to the end of the match given their incredible chemistry together.
The report noted that what happens in the match will ultimately depend on the whims of Vince McMahon, with Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns still being the expected final main event for WrestleMania 38.
With regards to the women’s Rumble match, WWE is still said to be working on plans for the match. As previously noted, there was a rehearsal for the women’s Rumble last night, and they reportedly had another run-through on it earlier today.
