WWE had big plans for Brock Lesnar.
The 46-year-old was originally scheduled for the men's Royal Rumble match on Saturday. However, following Lesnar being mentioned in the recent lawsuit filed against WWE, Vince McMahon, and John Laurinaitis, the decision was made for him to be withdrawn from the match.
Had Lesnar not been removed from the Rumble, WWE was planning on him wrestling Dominik Mysterio at the Elimination Chamber, as first reported by Post Wrestling and later confirmed by our own Dave Meltzer in Sunday's Daily Update.
Mysterio had been set to eliminate Lesnar from the Rumble on Saturday, a role which was eventually given to Bron Breakker.
Lesnar was then scheduled to wrestle Gunther at WrestleMania 40.
Meltzer wrote:
The Lesnar creative which at this point he's not going to be involved with unless they decide they would bring him back, was Lesnar vs. Dominik Mysterio in Australia and Lesnar vs. Gunther (I don't know factually an IC title match but one would expect) at WrestleMania. Whether Bron Breakker gets those matches is not clear yet.
Breakker fulfilled Lesnar's planned role in the Rumble match, entering at #20 and lasting just over five minutes. He eliminated those Lesnar was supposed to eliminate (Ivar, Finn Balor, Jimmy Uso, & Omos) and was eliminated by Mysterio in the same way as had been planned for Lesnar.
Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez discussed the change during Saturday's Wrestling Observer Radio.
Meltzer said:
I think most people know this but Brock Lesnar was scheduled to return at the Rumble and this was a change, obviously, that was made because of the lawsuit. So, the change was made probably Friday, most likely, perhaps Saturday morning.
Bron Breakker, because of that, and the fact that the match was pretty much scripted out already, Bron Breakker essentially fulfilled the Brock Lesnar role. He came in when Brock Lesnar was going to come in, he threw out the guys Brock Lesnar was going to throw out, he got thrown out exactly how Brock Lesnar was going to get thrown out.
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