WWE Unreal Trailer Reveals Earlier (& Very Different) Version Of WrestleMania 41 Card
WWE recently released a teaser for their upcoming "WWE Unreal" show, which revealed the original plans for WrestleMania 41.
In the teaser video, WWE CCO Paul "Triple H" Levesque spoke about giving fans a closer look at the writing and creative process. A whiteboard in one of the meetings in the video had inked out the various matches that were set to take place at the show.
Some matches remaining unchanged, like Cody Rhodes and John Cena and AJ Styles versus Logan Paul, while the triple threat match between Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and CM Punk was also in the original plans. However, WWE had an alternative plan for the match that main evented night 1 of WrestleMania 41, as they had thought about a triple threat match between Punk, Rollins, and Gunther for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Gunther eventually faced — and lost — to Jey Uso, whose name was absent from the board.
The Women's World Championship match had the names of Rhea Ripley and Bianca Belair, which is close to what happened at WrestleMania 41, with Iyo Sky included later on, who retained her title. Iyo, according to the whiteboard, was originally to team with compatriot Asuka to face Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch. Lynch returned at WrestleMania 41 to team with Lyra Valkyria and won the Women's Tag Team titles, while Flair lost to Tiffany Stratton.
Jade Cargill was also penciled in to face Nia Jax and not Naomi, while Drew McIntyre's original plan was to be Bron Breakker's opponent. McIntyre, eventually, faced Damian Priest while Breakker was in a four-way match against Dominik Mysterio, Penta, and Finn Balor. Dominik was reportedly to face musician Bad Bunny, while his father was to go one-on-one with Chad Gable [and not El Grande Americano], with Bad Bunny accompanying the Hall of Famer. Rey was replaced by Rey Fenix at the last minute following a legitimate injury, as was Kevin Owens, who was also originally scheduled to face Randy Orton. WWE also had plans for the Judgment Day to feud against Wyatt Sicks, who have been absent from WWE television for a while.