WWE changed its plans for Cody Rhodes to defeat Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Title in the main event of WrestleMania 39 – night 2 last year. Instead, they had “The Tribal Chief” retain the title.

Prior to the event, it was widely believed that Reigns would lose the title to Rhodes and take a break. This was during the period when Vince McMahon began implementing changes to the creative direction, particularly for the post-Mania episode of RAW. Despite this, McMahon was still involved in WrestleMania, even though Paul “Triple H” Levesque was in charge of main roster creative.

According to the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer stated that it was rumored both McMahon and Levesque supported Rhodes’ return at the Royal Rumble following his pec surgery and his subsequent title victory.

Meltzer wrote, “A lot happened behind the scenes, with the key points being argued and eventually agreed by all parties it would be stronger a year later. It was also argued that keeping Reigns as champion would open up a key storyline to make Jey Uso into a major singles star and merchandise draw as a babyface. While Vince did make the call, Levesque was on board with the call and there were no significant issues with the decision. It was said that it was absolutely not Vince overruling Levesque and forcing the decision.”