Report: Original Finish Of Universal Title Match At WWE Royal Rumble Revealed

While the Royal Rumble pay-per-view was largely considered a disappointment, particularly the Men's Rumble Match, the opening contest of Seth Rollins vs. Roman Reigns was widely praised.

The finish did draw some criticism, however, with Rollins winning the match by disqualification after the Universal Champion refused to relinquish the Guillotine before the referee's five-count.

That wasn't the original plan, though, according to Dave Meltzer.

"Seth Rollins was originally in the Rumble, which was another story - both Rumbles were changed over and over and over again. In fact, the Seth match with Roman was changed several times too. Essentially, the original finish was Roman Reigns was gonna beat Seth Rollins," Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio.

"The whole show, the basic gist of the Rumble show, was that Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar is the big match of the year, and everything at the Rumble was to accentuate that as the big match of the year. So both had to look really, really strong."

Meltzer also noted why Vince McMahon changed the finish, adding:

"Vince changed the finish because, when the decision was made to do all those chair shots at the end, Vince thought that was too much to do to Seth Rollins, to destroy him like that. Which also led to the idea - Shane was really pushing for Rollins in the Rumble, but when you did that beatdown, the feeling was it would be really stupid for him to take that terrible beating and then go into the Rumble."

If Rollins will face Reigns in a rematch remains to be seen but The Visionary will challenge for the WWE Title in an Elimination Chamber Match at the namesake pay-per-view.

H/T to WrestleTalk