This year's WWE Royal Rumble was unlike any other due to the pandemic.
As a result, several big changes were made to the show, and Fightful Select was able to find out several of those.
Fightful has learned that there were "numerous" names planned for the WWE Royal Rumble that ended up having to be pulled from the match. Jey Uso was advertised for the match before being pulled, and wasn't at that week's episode of Smackdown. Fightful was told that Keith Lee and Robert Roode were supposed to be in the match as of several weeks ago, but also ended up being pulled and unable to compete.
We've heard some more about the recent WWE Men's Royal Rumble match. There were several pitches that didn't end up happening, and changes to the match. Originally, the match was laid out to have Ricochet come out late in the match, before that was changed. Another pitch featured the members of Retribution at ringside, with one on three different sides causing mayhem. That obviously didn't end up happening, but a similar spot with Omos did.
For those who were wondering where Buddy Murphy is, he was slated as a Royal Rumble alternate for the show. In addition, we're told that Cedric Alexander was set for that role, as well. Montez Ford was at the venue for the Royal Rumble, but wasn't listed internally as an alternate. We've heard nothing about whether or not Andrade being at the building, but we can confirm he wasn't listed as an alternate, either.
This article first appeared on our premium service, Fightful Select. Subscribe to get exclusive news every day, and a half-dozen weekly podcasts. It also appeared in our Fightful Wrestling Weekly newsletter, free on Fightful.
To directly support us and our continuing breaking news, interviews, and the like, subscribe to FightfulSelect.com. You'll get exclusive news sent to you directly before anyone else, and dozens of podcasts monthly including Alex Pawlowski's Sour Graps, Sean Ross Sapp's Q&A, Retro Reviews and more
