Something To Think About Regarding SummerSlam, The Rumble And WrestleMania

Here's something to think about.

Earlier today, I was listening to this morning's edition of the Wrestling Observer Radio podcast. When discussing Roman Reigns' SummerSlam announcement and everything else that happened on Raw - Dave Meltzer brought up something that might explain why we could be seeing Roman Reigns challenging Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship at SummerSlam rather than at WrestleMania 34.

The newsletter writer mentioned that, if the SummerSlam main event turns out to be Brock Lesnar versus Roman Reigns - a match that was reportedly in the plans for WrestleMania 34 - then the deviation from the original path to Mania may be because the company has decided to have John Cena versus Roman Reigns as the big match for April 8th.

Despite coming to the theory, Meltzer did stress that he hasn't been told of a change. So, everything we are witnessing on TV could still be leading to Brock Lesnar .vs. Braun Strowman on August 20th and then have Reigns chasing Lesnar during Mania season.

For what it's worth, I still think they're on the course to Brock Lesnar .vs. Roman Reigns as the Mania main event will be a contest between the only two wrestlers to have defeated The Undertaker at a WrestleMania.

However, If the plan really has changed, this should put John Cena as the favourite to win the 2018 WWE Royal Rumble.

In previous Rumble and WrestleMania prop posts, I noted that Cena should be one of the favourites to win the Rumble because his Mania storyline could be all about his quest to gain his seventeenth major championship.

I pegged Cena and Reigns as early Rumble favourites when the markets were first published shortly after this year's battle royal was completed. I'm actually leaning more on John Cena now due to the fact that he'll be floating across both Raw and Smackdown due to his televised status as being a 'Free Agent'.

If Cena is still being referred to in this manner - or simply not being aligned to one brand - come January, there's a perfect set up storyline-wise where a Rumble win would put him in a spot where he has the choice to challenge for either the Universal or World Championship at WrestleMania 34.

From a betting perspective, Cena is a top price 13/2 to win the 2018 Rumble with the Kambi websites. He had been 8/1 with Paddy Power and Betfair, but I had another punt on him shortly before writing this post and - as of right now - he has been moved to 6s.