WWE's Original WrestleMania 42 Plans: Injuries Altered Main Event Matches

WWE was reportedly eyeing several different main event matches for WrestleMania 42 weekend in Las Vegas.

Cody Rhodes defeated Randy Orton in the main event of night one for WrestleMania 42 to retain his WWE Championship. The following night, Roman Reigns closed out the show with a victory over CM Punk to claim the World Heavyweight Championship.

A year ago, fans and pundits could have easily guessed that Rhodes, Reigns and Punk would be involved in the two WrestleMania main events. For fans who were disappointed with the Rhodes-Orton and/or Punk-Reigns matches, it turns out the two bouts weren't actually part of WWE's original plans.

Speaking on "Wrestling Observer Radio", Bryan Alvarez reported that WWE had a long-term idea of getting Bron Breakker to beat CM Punk at WrestleMania 42. Unfortunately, Breakker suffered a hernia injury and had to miss WrestleMania (h/t WrestlingInc.com).

"There were a lot of problems. One is that WWE just isn't as hot, that's number one.," Alvarez said. "Number two, they had, and part of this is not their fault, but they had a card for Mania long in advance and there were things like Bron Breakker beating CM Punk for the title and getting crowned the guy. They had all sorts of things."

According to Alvarez, Bronson Reed's torn biceps injury also forced WWE to shift its WrestleMania plans. WWE was even considering Rhodes vs. Reigns or Rhodes vs. Drew McIntyre for the flagship event, per Alvarez. However, those ideas were nixed since fans have seen those matches numerous times.

"And then Bron Breakker gets hurt. And then Bronson Reed was in it, Bronson Reed gets hurt," Alvarez said. "They were originally going to do Roman and Cody again. And then it was like 'People have seen that match too many times.' So then it was going to be 'Alright, well we'll do Cody and Drew.' And then, (it was the) same thing. 'Well, people have seen that match too many times.'"

As for McIntyre, he would lose his singles bout to Jacob Fatu on night one of WrestleMania.

Roman Reigns Has Headlined Six Consecutive WrestleMania Events

WrestleMania 42 marked the sixth straight event with Roman Reigns headlining the show. His streak started at WrestleMania 37, where Reigns defeated Edge and Daniel Bryan in a triple threat match to retain his Universal Championship.

WWE is trying to push younger stars like Breakker, Reed and Oba Femi, yes. But at this rate, there's little reason to think they'll move away from using Reigns in the WrestleMania main event picture.

This story was originally published by Men's Journal on May 19, 2026, where it first appeared in the Sports section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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This story was originally published May 19, 2026 at 3:03 PM.