WWE’s road to WrestleMania will begin on Saturday with the annual Royal Rumble event.
Ahead of Saturday’s highly anticipated show, Sports Illustrated‘s Justin Barrasso published a report that seemed to spoil not only the winner of Saturday’s men’s Royal Rumble match, but also WWE’s plans for WrestleMania 40, which will take place on April 6-7.
Per Barrasso’s report, Gunther was expected to win the Royal Rumble match and challenge — and beat — current World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins on the first night of WrestleMania. That would leave Undisputed Universal Champion Roman Reigns to face Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in a highly anticipated match, with CM Punk facing Cody Rhodes in another high profile contest.
Barrasso’s report came as a surprise to many, as WWE has clearly been teasing a WrestleMania match between Rollins and Punk. And while Barrasso’s report referred to Gunther as the “favorite” to win the Rumble, the actual betting odds have favored Punk (although Gunther’s odds have since increased following the report).
Multiple outlets disputed Sports Illustrated‘s report, including Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp, who ran a story under the headline “Many In WWE Were Left Befuddled By SI Report On Rumble /Mania.” On Thursday, Barrasso published an update, in which he stated his belief that the information he received was intended to mislead either him or people within in WWE.
Wrote Barrasso:
As for the winners, I don’t typically post spoilers. This is an instance where I should have followed my own practice.
I reported spoilers for Sports Illustrated yesterday regarding the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania 40. I reported what was detailed to me by previously reliable sources. It appears this was a deliberate attempt at misinformation, or misinformation that is being spread through WWE itself.
I apologize for the errors in yesterday’s report. When posting these reports, the entirety of the information needs to accurate.
For what it’s worth, Barrasso has had a pretty reliable track record when it comes to his previous reporting on pro wrestling. And if he received the information from multiple sources he had previously deemed reliable, then it’s understandable that he’d be confident in it — or at least as confident as one can be when it comes to reporting about pro wrestling storylines.
As Sapp noted on X (formerly Twitter), the problem with reporting on winners and losers in pro wrestling is that plans are always subject to change. And while Barrasso’s report didn’t definitively state that Gunther would win the men’s Royal Rumble match on Saturday, it was certainly heavily implied.
To Barrasso’s credit, he was quick to issue a follow up and was transparent about what transpired. It’s also a credit to the state of WWE creative that while Gunther winning the Rumble would have been a surprise prior to Barrasso’s initial report, it also would have been plausible after the current Intercontinental Champion confronted Rollins on this past Monday’s episode of Raw.