WWE had to call an audible on their plans after Roman Reigns tested positive for COVID-19. Reigns was scheduled to face Brock Lesnar for the second match in their planned series of three at Day 1. Roman’s absence meant The Beast was placed into the WWE Championship match where he won the title.
Lesnar had been appearing exclusively on SmackDown during his feud with Reigns. Winning the Raw-branded world title meant that Lesnar had to move to that show. Lesnar is still scheduled to face Reigns at WrestleMania.
Dave Meltzer wrote in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter that there may be a title switch coming soon. Seth Rollins is set to challenge Roman Reigns at the Royal Rumble for the Universal Championship. That could mean the Universal title becomes a Raw championship.
“The plan for Day 1 was that Seth was gonna be the WWE Champion coming off of the show and Lesnar was gonna be the Universal Champion coming off of the show. So Lesnar is now the WWE Champion so I’m wondering if they are just gonna go … Seth was going to defend the title on one of the WrestleMania nights and then Lesnar and Roman were gonna be for the other title on the other WrestleMania night. I was kind of told it’s gonna end up where it’s supposed to be. So I wonder if that means they’re gonna switch belts, like the Universal belt with Seth goes on Raw and the WWE belt that Roman would end up most likely, I’m gonna guess but Brock would have, would be on SmackDown. Which was not the plan but maybe how they end up recalibrating everything because of Roman missing the pay-per-view and them deciding to go with Brock to win the other title because Brock was gonna win the one title.
I can’t say 100 percent that Brock was gonna win the other title, I mean I’m pretty sure. Seth I know 100 percent that was the plan (to win the WWE Championship). But Brock had to be winning over Roman [at Day 1] because it was the second match, Roman won the first [and] Heyman was gonna end up with Brock. I figured that Heyman was gonna screw Roman in the match but the match never happened and instead of waiting to do the match at the Royal Rumble, the decision was made that Paul has already been fired and we’re not gonna take him off TV so we’re gonna put him with Brock right away with no storyline, he’s just with Brock. I think that’s how it was gonna happen. I don’t know that it means Seth wins but it would make sense that would happen so that’s kind of something there.”
Meltzer’s speculation makes a lot of sense on the surface. It remains nothing more than a guess until WWE sources confirm any sort of title switch. Such a move would force WWE to change at least some future plans. Time will tell if the company makes the move.
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