Backstage News On Original Plans For U.S. Open Challenge At The Royal Rumble

Dolph Ziggler was originally scheduled to answer Bobby Roode's open challenge at the WWE Royal Rumble last night, according to PWInsider. Plans were changed over the weekend to move Ziggler to the Rumble match, while Roode ended up defeating Mojo Rawley at the pay-per-view.

Ziggler appeared as the 30th entrant in the men's Rumble match. While he immediately eliminated Goldust, he was thrown out of the ring shortly after by Finn Balor.

It was Ziggler's first WWE appearance since vacating the U.S. title, which he had won the night before, on the December 19th episode of SmackDown Live and doing an angle where he left the company. To sell the angle, he was removed from all WWE live events and television tapings.

It was noted that Ziggler will be at SmackDown Live tomorrow night.

Eric Robinson contributed to this article.