WWE Champion Brock Lesnar is set to defend his title against Bobby Lashley at the 2022 Royal Rumble premium live event and Roman Reigns is expected to defend the Universal Title against Seth Rollins at the show.
During Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer discussed the current storyline direction for Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar with Paul Heyman heading into Wrestlemania 38:
“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.”
