There were a few changes made to this year's WWE Royal Rumble matches. Several plans that were laid out several weeks ago have been scrapped.
Fightful Select reported today that originally, Ronda Rousey was scheduled to defend the SmackDown Women's Championship against Raquel Rodriguez at the Rumble PLE. The match was bumped up by several weeks and instead, Rousey dropped the belt to Charlotte Flair.
Fightful Select also reported that Charlotte Flair was initially on a "suggested matches" list to wrestle Bianca Belair for the Raw Women's Championship and Rhea Ripley was scheduled for a match with Rousey. WrestlingNews.co is told that these were matches that were scheduled for WrestleMania as of a month ago.
Fightful adds that several creative options were presented to Rousey but they didn't work out and the decision was made to bump up the match with Rodriguez and then have her drop the belt to Flair.
WrestlingNews.co was told that the original plans called for Rousey to walk into WrestleMania as the SmackDown Women's Champion. It's unclear what the plans are for Rousey at Mania. She is currently not advertised for the Royal Rumble PLE.
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