How Long Has WWE Been Planning For Finn Balor To Face Brock Lesnar At The Royal Rumble?

As we saw on Monday’s episode of WWE Monday Night RAW, Braun Strowman was removed from his Universal Title match at the Royal Rumble by Vince McMahon. Instead Finn Balor will face Brock Lesnar after winning the opportunity on RAW. However, despite it being portrayed as an on-air decision by Vince, it appears that plans for Balor to be Strowman’s backup have been in place for some time.

According to a new report from Mike Johnson via a recent audio update on PWInsider Elite. Regarding plans for Finn Balor to replace Braun Strowman, Johnson said:

“I got a little bit more background on this. The Balor plan was actually in place quietly within a small circle in WWE from the moment that they knew Braun Strowman was gonna need elbow surgery.”

“This was always the plan to build up to Braun and then remove Braun out if he was not cleared, but more so to build to Balor vs Lesnar because they felt the story would be stronger. It would be a better match for a big show which if you saw Braun vs Brock at No Mercy I would tend to agree with that vision.”

“This was about building up babyfaces and using Braun to get some more heat on the heels and they felt like at that point that they needed some more heat on the heels.”

“This was not a last-second decision, but you know previously in my reporting I had said it was a couple of weeks. It was actually prior to that. It was back to where Braun first injured his elbow that that determination was made that they were gonna slide Finn Balor in the backdoor.”

So it sounds like WWE had decided that Finn Balor would be the backup plan for Strowman since WWE learned of Braun’s injury. With Strowman yet to be cleared by doctors to compete at the Royal Rumble, WWE decided to go ahead with plan B now instead of waiting until right before the event.

We will keep you updated if we hear anything about Braun Strowman being cleared to return to action, or news regarding Finn Balor and the Royal Rumble.

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(H/T our friends at Ringsidenews.com for the transcriptions.)