5 Top WWE rumors from this week: 11-time champion favorite to win Royal Rumble; Roman Reigns' WrestleMania plans; Triple H "bummed out" (January 9th, 2022)

Welcome to the latest edition of our weekly rumor roundup, where we will take a look at the top rumors from the world of WWE.

WWE's first week of the new year 2022 was filled with a lot of action, surprises, and more. The Royal Rumble season is here and the company has already started building towards the pay-per-view with some major match announcements. We now have reports on the originally planned favorite to win the men's 2022 Royal Rumble match.

WrestleMania is less than three months away and plans are already in place for the WWE and Universal Championship. Several top names were released from NXT this past week and Triple H is reportedly not happy about the same.

Without any further ado, let's take a look at the top WWE rumors from this past week. Be sure to let us know your thoughts on the same in the comments section below.

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#5 Original plans for the WWE Championship and front-runner to win the 2022 men's Royal Rumble match

Brock Lesnar won the WWE Championship at Day 1 after getting added to the match at the last moment. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that Seth Rollins was originally supposed to win the WWE title at Day 1.

He also reported that the plan was for him to main event one of the nights of WrestleMania 38 against the winner of the 2022 Royal Rumble match. He added that 11-time overall champion in WWE, Big E, was the favorite to win the Royal Rumble as per original plans:

''Because there are two nights of WrestleMania, they need a WWE title match to headline the other show. The plan for that was originally Seth Rollins, likely against the winner of the Royal Rumble, with Big E the favorite, but Kevin Owens and Bobby Lashley were also possibilities. The match in that position may remain the same, but getting there is different,'' said Meltzer.

The plans seem to have significantly changed now as Seth Rollins is likely set to challenge Universal Champion Roman Reigns for his title at Royal Rumble. As for the WWE Championship, Brock Lesnar will defend his title against Bobby Lashley at the upcoming pay-per-view.

#4 Plans for WWE and Universal Championship at WrestleMania 38

Brock Lesnar winning the WWE Championship at Day 1 raised the question of what this means for the WrestleMania 38 match card. Over the last week, there has been massive speculation of Lesnar facing Roman Reigns in a champion vs. champion match at WrestleMania, something WWE teased on SmackDown.

Dave Meltzer has reported on the Wrestling Observer Radio that WWE is still going ahead with its original plans for the two world titles at WrestleMania 38 and Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar is still on:

"I know that they’ve got everything worked out between now and WrestleMania. Everything is worked out. All the original plans, there were some changes obviously because the Lesnar and Roman Reigns match from Saturday didn’t happen, but they’ve got their new twists and turns, and the final destination, which is presumably Lesnar and Roman Reigns, is still on," said Dave Meltzer.

This past week on SmackDown, Brock Lesnar confronted Roman Reigns and challenged him to a match. The loyalty of Paul Heyman was once again at the forefront as he caused an unintentional distraction, leading to Reigns delivering a Superman Punch to Lesnar.

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#3 Triple H's reaction to recent NXT releases

This past week saw yet another WWE release spree as several major names were let go by the company. This included NXT officials William Regal, Road Dogg, as well as top stars like Samoa Joe and Timothy Thatcher.

This was a major shock as most of these released stars were "Triple H guys". Wade Keller of PWTorch has reported that The Game is "bummed out" following these major releases:

"NXT just isn't what it once was. I've heard just a little about Triple H's reaction to all of this, and nothing super reportable other than it sounds like he's bummed out," revealed Wade Keller.

He further revealed that Triple H was building a team that he was eventually planning to bring to the main roster. Several current and former WWE Superstars have since reacted to these massive releases, and backstage morale isn't great.

#2 AJ Styles' contract status with WWE

WWE lost a lot of top names to All Elite Wrestling last year. However, one name that is reportedly not going anywhere anytime soon is AJ Styles.

According to Dave Meltzer on the Wrestling Observer Radio, the Phenomenal One recently signed a three or five-year deal with the company and is a WWE-lifer:

“No, he’s not going anywhere. He just signed, I don’t know if it’s a 3 or a 5 [year deal]. It wasn’t that long ago when he signed it. He’s not going anywhere. He had the chance to go if he wanted to but he was not interested. There were certainly overtures made for him and they were good money overtures but he’s in his mind, I think he’s a lifer there. Whether that’s the right or wrong call, I couldn’t tell you,” said Meltzer. (H/T WrestlingNews)

AJ Styles signed with the company in 2016 and has been one of the top stars, winning the WWE Championship twice. Over the last year, he has been mostly involved in the tag team division and fans want to see him back in the world title scene in 2022.

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#1 Backstage details and reason for Samoa Joe's WWE release

One of the biggest names released by WWE this past week was Samoa Joe. The former 3-time NXT Champion was initially released last year after WrestleMania 37. However, he returned to the company a couple of months later and went on to win the NXT Championship once again. He then had to relinquish his title in September and has since been out of action.

According to Fightful Select, Samoa Joe's release was "a further dismantling of the 2013-2021 vision of NXT and what Triple H had built."

The report added that there was hardly any talk of the in-ring return of Samoa Joe after him relinquishing the NXT title last year. Joe is believed to return to in-ring competition outside of WWE once his no-compete clause is over.