Plans for Bron Breakker reportedly changed for WrestleMania season

Bron Breakker was scheduled to win the Royal Rumble last weekend, but plans changed once WWE decided to have Drew McIntyre beat Cody Rhodes for the WWE Undisputed Championship according to a report from Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer.

WWE’s plans for WrestleMania initially changed after Seth Rollins’s injury at Crown Jewel in October 2025 according to the report. The original plan last fall called for the two big matches at WrestleMania this year to be Rollins vs. Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes vs. C.M. Punk.

WWE’s plan then changed to put Bron Breakker in the main event picture where he was set to face Punk at WrestleMania according to the report. The plan called for him to lose to WWE World Champion C.M. Punk at the Jan. 5 Raw, win the Royal Rumble, and then beat Punk for the title at WrestleMania.

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Plans then changed again once WWE decided to put the WWE Undisputed Championship on McIntyre on the Jan. 9 edition of Smackdown. McIntyre beat Cody Rhodes after Jacob Fatu interfered in the match to become the new WWE Undisputed Champion.

PWTorch’s Wade Keller reported that Cody made his case to WWE management that he wanted to be in “chase mode” going into WrestleMania rather than the incumbent champion facing the winner of the Rumble or Elimination Chamber. There were reports that Cody felt a rematch with Reigns would feel stale, once plans shifted to Punk facing Breakker instead of Cody. The decision to have Cody win, according to Keller’s reporting, was made two days before Smackdown. Drew McIntyre also made his feeling known in this process, as he was otherwise not going to be in the title picture at WrestleMania.

With McIntyre in the main event picture of WrestleMania, the decision was made to drop Bron Breakker out of the main event picture at WrestleMania. The likely main events of WrestleMania are McIntyre vs. Cody on night 1 and C.M. Punk vs. Roman Reigns on night 2. It is possible that Jacob Fatu could be added to the McIntyre vs. Rhodes match according to the report.