WWE News: Royal Rumble winners can challenge champions from either brand at WrestleMania

What's the story?

During the WWE Royal Rumble pay-per-view pre-show, Renee Young, David Otunga, Peter Rosenberg and Alexa Bliss announced that no matter what brand, the winners of the Men's and Women's Royal Rumble Matches will have the opportunity to challenge the champion of their choosing.

In case you didn't know...

Since the brand split there's been some doubt as to who exactly the Royal Rumble winners can challenge to a match at WrestleMania, would they be tied to their own brands, or could they challenge the champion from either brand. That was cleared up on the Royal Rumble pre-show.

The heart of the matter

During the interview with Alexa Bliss on the Royal Rumble pre-show, Renee Young dropped the bombshell news that the brand-split doesn't matter when it comes to the Royal Rumble winners choosing their 'Mania opponents. This means that Superstars from SmackDown Live can challenge the RAW Women's Champion Alexa Bliss.

The winners of tonight's #RoyalRumble matches will get to challenge the champion of their CHOICE at @WrestleMania this year!But @AlexaBliss_WWE ain't sweatin' it... #RoyalRumble pic.twitter.com/hSB3gSjZbY

— WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) January 28, 2018

Alexa Bliss goes on to talk about who she wants to defend the title against at WrestleMania, but has some strong words for any potential Rumble winners who decide to cash their opportunity in on 'The Goddess.'

What's next?

This opens up so many more options for the WWE, we could end up with Finn Balor vs. AJ Styles or Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania. Or we could get Charlotte vs Asuka, or Becky Lynch vs. Alexa Bliss. Obviously, it all depends on what happens, but now the results are even harder to predict.

Author's take

This is great news because it makes things so much more interesting going into both the Men's and Women's Royal Rumble matches, making it less obvious to the WWE Universe who will win after the results of the WWE Title and Universal Title matches are revealed.