WWE Rumor Roundup - News on real-life heat between Seth Rollins and top Superstar, Big name going to AEW? Vince McMahon's changed opinion about Randy Orton - 9th January 2021

#1. WWE changes plans for the Roman Reigns storyline

Just heard an interesting story... NXT talent was slated to be called up to SmackDown last week, as of showtime, was written into the main event segment w/ Reigns, Uso & KO. Said talent is on tonight’s big NXT card so curious to see if it was pushed a week or scrapped altogether.

— WrestleVotes (@WrestleVotes) January 6, 2021

WrestleVotes was the first to report that a WWE NXT Superstar was originally scheduled to be called up and be inserted into the Roman Reigns storyline on the first SmackDown of 2021. However, the plan was nixed, and it was later revealed in a Fightful Select report that the Superstar was Damian Priest.

Dave Meltzer provided more details on the proposed storyline twist in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Meltzer confirmed that Damian Priest was scheduled to appear on SmackDown and team up with Kevin Owens to feud against Roman Reigns and Jey Uso. The idea was to bring in Damian Priest as Kevin Owens' best friend. However, KO opined that the concept made no sense as Priest and his characters don't even match enough to be best friends.

Owens proposed another plan wherein WWE officials book the former NXT North American Champion as his tag team partner. It would be WWE's way to protect Owens from getting beaten down every week at the hands of Reigns and Uso.

The plan failed to come to fruition, and Roman Reigns decided that the time wasn't right to introduce a new person into the angle. Both Reigns and Owens agreed that the timing was just not ideal for getting a new face into the main event storyline.

Damian Priest is currently scheduled to join the RAW roster, and he is expected to debut by the end of the month.