Possible reason why WWE changed plans for Roman Reigns’ match at the 2024 Royal Rumble PLE

As seen during the January 5th 2024 edition of WWE Smackdown, a fatal four-way match was confirmed for the 2024 Royal Rumble PLE. Roman Reigns will defend his unified WWE Universal title against Randy Orton, LA Knight, and AJ Styles.

During Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez of F4WOnline.com discussed the plans being changed…

Alvarez: “So what they want here is that no one believes anyone’s beating Roman Reigns. And they’re not going to believe this either. But I think the idea is, well, it’s a fatal four-way. You know, maybe somebody will pin somebody else or whatever. So they’re trying to find something.”

Meltzer: “So the actual deal here is that the original idea was Roman and Randy Orton for the Rumble. Essentially, there were parties involved who did not want to beat Randy Orton this early, obviously, you know, and just felt that there’s money to be made with Randy Orton and Roman in a program at some point. But it’s too soon to do it. But LA Knight just got beat at [Crown Jewel] and AJ hasn’t isn’t strong enough. I think AJ was the guy that they probably would have wanted because, you know, Roman can beat him. I mean, I presume AJ is the one, the one that’s going to lose. Maybe not. It could be LA. But the basic gist was that AJ gives them someone they can beat.” (quotes courtesy of WrestlingNews.co)