5 times Vince McMahon changed major WWE plans

WWE Chairman Vince McMahon is widely regarded by many as someone who changed the landscape of pro-wrestling forever. The past 4 decades or so have seen McMahon take the industry to new and unimaginable heights.

Being a scripted sport, pro-wrestling has an advantage as the script can be changed at any time to give the fans the best product possible. Vince McMahon, throughout his illustrious career, has made it a point to change major WWE plans, to make sure that the final product would garner more views than the one that was previously planned. Some of these big changes were done at the very last moment.

In this slideshow, we will take a look at 5 instances where Vince McMahon changed major WWE plans.

#5 WrestleMania 30 line-up

Back in 2014, Daniel Bryan was the hottest Superstar in WWE and was garnering incredibly loud pops from the fans on a regular basis. Fans were clamoring for him to win the Royal Rumble match and bag the main event of WrestleMania 30. Bryan didn't even appear in the annual free-for-all, resulting in the WWE Universe booing the match out of the building. The original reported plans for Bryan at WrestleMania 30 were for him to face Sheamus, while CM Punk was slated to take on Triple H.

Punk's exit from WWE following the Royal Rumble match forced Vince McMahon to change the card drastically. Bryan was now immediately pushed to the main event scene and he ended up defeating Triple H, Batista, and Randy Orton on the same night to become WWE World Heavyweight Champion. The moment was the culmination of a months-long struggle that saw Bryan becoming a big deal and the Yes Movement bagging major mainstream attention.

#4 The 2020 Royal Rumble winners

The 2020 Royal Rumble matches saw Charlotte Flair and Drew McIntyre winning to punch their tickets to title matches at WrestleMania 36. Flair had a strong showing and eliminated Shayna Baszler last to win the free-for-all. McIntyre dominated the match immediately after coming out, eliminating Brock Lesnar in the very beginning. He later threw Roman Reigns out to win the whole thing.

Soon after, reports started coming in that WWE had planned for two other Superstars to win their respective Royal Rumble matches. Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio reported that the original plans for the PPV were for Roman Reigns and Shayna Baszler to come out victorious. Fans wouldn't have minded Baszler winning the women's match, but Reigns winning the men's Royal Rumble would probably have led to fans turning on him again. Eventually, McIntyre challenged Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 36 for the WWE title, winning the belt with the aid of four Claymore Kicks. Flair defeated Rhea Ripley at the event to bag the NXT Women's title.

#3 Seth Rollins' MITB cash-in

After a months-long dominant title reign, Brock Lesnar took on Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 31. By this time, fans had grown tired of Reigns and The Big Dog was getting booed regularly. The main event was set to end with Reigns winning the WWE World Heavyweight title by defeating Lesnar. Plans were changed in a hurry during the show. After Seth Rollins lost his match to Randy Orton, he went backstage and was informed that he would be cashing in his Money In The Bank briefcase during the main event.

As an intense brawl between Reigns and Lesnar was underway, Rollins' music hit and out came the villain. He cashed in the briefcase immediately, turning the match into a Triple Threat contest. Seconds later, Rollins had pinned Reigns after a thunderous Curb Stomp, becoming the WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Reportedly, Reigns' family was angry at WWE for the sudden change of plans, as they were looking forward to witnessing Roman become the World Champion at the end of WrestleMania.

#2 The first-ever Women's WrestleMania main event

At WrestleMania 35, Becky Lynch took on Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey in a Triple Threat match with both the RAW and SmackDown Women's titles on the line. The ending to the match saw Lynch pinning Rousey to win both belts, in what was the first-ever women's main event in WrestleMania history. Lynch had become the biggest and most popular WWE Superstar over the previous 8 months or so, following her loss to Charlotte at SummerSlam 2018. This forced WWE and Vince McMahon to change the original WrestleMania plans.

Originally, the plan was to have a singles match between Ronda and Flair for the RAW Women's title that The Baddest Woman on the Planet had won at SummerSlam 2018 by defeating Alexa Bliss. Lynch's heel turn and her beatdown on Flair at the same event threw the plans out the window, and we got a Triple Threat Women's title match instead. Lynch won the women's Royal Rumble match and went on to emerge victorious in the main event of WrestleMania.

#1 The end of the streak

Many still are of the opinion that ending The Undertaker's WrestleMania streak was one of the worst decisions WWE had ever taken. The loss severely hurt The Undertaker's mystique and aura. He went on to lose another WrestleMania match to Roman Reigns, tarnishing his record further.

Dave Meltzer later reported that The Undertaker was originally slated to extend his streak to 22-0 at WrestleMania 30, by defeating Lesnar. Vince McMahon changed the decision on the day of WrestleMania. He believed that The Phenom was nearing the end of his career, and it would be a good idea for him to put over Lesnar on his way out. Vince also thought that it would be the last time The Undertaker would appear at a WrestleMania. The match ended when Lesnar hit an F5 on The Deadman and pinned him to the absolute horror of the fans in attendance. The arena went silent immediately, and there wasn't a single soul there who was ready for what they had just witnessed.

Edited by Kaushik Das