5 most intriguing backstage rumors regarding the Roman Reigns 'mystery attacker' story - Unexpected botch, Original plans canceled

One of the most interesting storylines currently going on in WWE is the one featuring Roman Reigns and his mystery attacker. After being repeatedly attacked backstage, The Big Dog finally had enough and decided to go after his attacker.

The first attack took place when Reigns was ambushed backstage and the second attack happened when someone rammed their car into his SUV.

This has certainly been one of the freshest stories in WWE right now as the fans have been continually surprised by the events unfolding each week.

Let us take a look at the 5 most interesting rumors related to this program:

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#5 Buddy Murphy's involvement

After being repeatedly attacked backstage, The Big Dog finally had enough and decided to go after his attacker.

Reigns' first stop in his quest to find the culprit was Buddy Murphy, who was seen by the fans leaving the area of the first incident in a leaked picture. While many fans thought that it was an interesting touch by WWE to add Murphy as a possible suspect, it turns out that this was never the company's intention.

Bryan Alvarez reported on Wrestling Observer Live that Murphy's spotting was completely unintentional and it was because of this botch that Murphy got a chance to be part of the storyline.

Here is what Cagesideseats reported:

On Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alvarez said Buddy Murphy originally wasn’t planned to be a part of the Roman Reigns attacker story, but WWE added him when fans noticed him in the forklift video.

This is rather interesting that Murphy - who had been absent from SmackDown ever since he made his main roster debut - finally got a chance to shine thanks to something that wasn't even planned by WWE to begin with!

#4 Daniel Bryan will be revealed as the man behind the attacks

While Murphy was quick to blame Rowan for being the man behind the attacks, the speculation has still not stopped as to who the real attacker could be. This past week on SmackDown, as well, Daniel Bryan and Rowan stated that they will reveal the 'true culprit' behind the attacks on next week's episodes.

This has led to some people believing that WWE might swerve the fans, however, the feud between Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan has been planned for a long time and there is no doubt that Bryan will be revealed as the attacker.

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#3 Original plans for Daniel Bryan scrapped

WWE had been advertising Daniel Bryan's 'career-altering' announcement for a long while before the whole idea was seemingly scrapped. There was also a plan to have Roman Reigns face Bryan at SummerSlam itself, which also got canceled.

Here is what Dave Meltzer had reported on WOR:

Daniel Bryan's career-changing announcement has been scrapped. They are not going to wrestle. But some angle may happen. That's been scrapped (Daniel Bryan's career-changing announcement). However, they are going to do the reveal for this thing which they are almost at.

It came as a major surprise to everyone when both Reigns and Bryan were absent from the SummerSlam main show.

#2 Eric Bischoff could be behind the idea

As reported by Sportskeeda's Tom Colohue, Eric Bischoff - who is SmackDown's Executive Director - is keen on Daniel Bryan and feels that Bryan should be the top heel of the company.

Here is what Colohue's source stated:

“Daniel Bryan does great work in wrestling and in promos. Eric respects that. He wants to see a lot more of it. Bryan’s going up the card for sure.”

Bryan had been relegated to the mid-card and the Tag Team division ever since he lost the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 35, and it is likely thanks to Bischoff that Bryan will be feuding with the company's top babyface Roman Reigns to solidify himself as the #1 villain in WWE.

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#1 Reason behind Samoa Joe's change of heart

Samoa Joe has been a long-time rival of Roman Reigns, and was, in fact, one of the first suspects when the initial attack on Reigns took place. These accusations, however, did not sit well with Joe who was out looking for an apology from Reigns when the second attack on The Big Dog took place.

Not only did it absolve Joe of the accusations, something even more surprising happened as Joe was the first one to help Reigns and call for medical assistance. While many fans thought this would lead to a babyface turn, the reason behind Joe's actions was simply that WWE wanted Daniel Bryan to be the most despised heel on the roster.