WWE’s WrestleMania 39 Night 2 event on Sunday in Inglewood, California featured the main event match of Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. This match resulted in Reigns retaining his championship with the help of Paul Heyman and Solo Sikoa. Night 2 of WrestleMania 39 was notable for no titles changing hands out of the three title matches on the event.
Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that WWE officials had planned as far back as this past late Summer for Rhodes and Reigns to face off in a match for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship.
It was reported that when Vince McMahon was in power over WWE’s creative, there was no plan in place for Reigns to lose his title nor any potential plans for Rhodes to defeat Reigns for the title. Following McMahon’s removal from power in WWE this past summer, WWE officials reportedly put a plan in motion for Rhodes to compete in a match against Reigns.
It was reported that several people within WWE had started to defend the idea of Reigns defeating Rhodes and retaining his title this past week. There reportedly was also some “murmurs” going around backstage that Reigns would be winning the match.
Those spoken to reportedly had confirmed that the plan was always for Reigns to win the match and this was something that several people backstage had been aware of several weeks ago. It was reported that it is currently not known when Reigns nor Rhodes were informed of this decision for their match.
In regards to the large amount of interference that took place during the match, it was reported that WWE officials had kept talent, refs, and ringside staff in the dark regarding this aspect of the match until the day of the show.
It was reported that those spoken to reportedly had all stated that McMahon was not involved at all in the decision making process for this match.