The Royal Rumble main event was originally scheduled to be Brock Lesnar vs. Finn Balor for the Universal Championship. However, according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, those plans were officially changed as of Monday morning and that match is off because Vince McMahon didn’t feel that Finn Balor was over enough. Obviously, WWE constantly making Finn Balor lose matches and booking him in a dreadful feud with Bray Wyatt could have something to do with why he isn’t “over” enough. After TLC, where Balor was booked strongly in a win against AJ Styles, WWE just had him inexplicably job cleanly to Kane the next night on Raw. He also lost to Samoa Joe last night on Raw, so it seems obvious that WWE is not planning on having him main event the Royal Rumble against Lesnar.
WWE is apparently scrambling to find another possible opponent for Lesnar. The plan right now is to have him remain champion until WrestleMania, where he will finally drop the title to Roman Reigns. Meltzer also said that Vince McMahon doesn’t want people to kick out of the F5, which is why Strowman and Styles were finished after being hit with one F5 at the last two PPVs (which is good, imo).