WWE Rumors: WWE making changes to WWE Royal Rumble 2019 match card?

What's the story?

The WWE Universe was left surprised earlier this week after one of the top matches for the WWE Royal Rumble was announce on WWE Main Event of all places.

The episode was hosted by Scott Standford and announced Asuka's first SmackDown Women's Championship defence against Becky Lynch at the Royal Rumble.

In case you didn't know...

Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch have been at each other's throats since SummerSlam. Lynch later won the title from Flair at Hell In A Cell.

In the lead up to Survivor Series, Lynch led an invasion by the SmackDown Women's division on RAW. Despite destroying team RAW in the surprise attack, an errant right hand by Nia Jax left Becky Lynch with a severe concussion as well as a broken nose.

Becky was then replaced at Survivor Series by arch-rival Charlotte Flair who attack Rousey with a kendo stick after getting DQ-ed during their Survivor Series match.

At WWE TLC, Rousey cost Lynch and Charlotte, in turn helping Asuka win the SmackDown Women's Championship.

The heart of the matter

After the announcement of Asuka vs Lynch, SmackDown GM Paige came out and informed fans that the match was not official:

Soooo I tried to make one last match before my time as #SDLive GM came to end...but unfortunately @BeckyLynchWWE vs. @WWEAsuka for the Smackdown Women’s Championship is NOT official for #RoyalRumble. #Oops

— PAIGE (@RealPaigeWWE) December 21, 2018

John Pollock has recently shed more light on the situation on Twitter. He said that Asuka vs Becky had been set to be announced on SmackDown Live last Tuesday but at the last-minute, WWE decided to reevaluate the card and make further changes. According to Pollock, this hadn't been conveyed to the studio which is why Asuka vs Becky Lynch was still announced on WWE Main Event.

Asuka vs Becky Lynch at the Rumble was the plan and was going to be announced on SmackDown. It was decided Tuesday that the Rumble card would be re-evaluated and the match may or may not happen, but the studio had the old information and used it for Main Event this week

— John Pollock (@iamjohnpollock) December 21, 2018

What's next?

The WWE Royal Rumble 2019 takes place in Phoenix, Arizona in January next year. We will have to wait till early 2019 to see who Asuka defends her title against and what plans WWE have for the Rumble.

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