Prior to the WWE Greatest Royal Rumble event in Jeddah, the build for The Undertaker’s Casket Match was a bit of an odd one. Rusev was first announced as ‘Taker’s opponent, before being replaced by Chris Jericho. A second change was made days later when WWE announced Rusev would face Undertaker as originally planned. Several reports have stated the reasoning for the changes and now another one seems to add to the story.
According to The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, prior to Greatest Royal Rumble, and as a courtesy to WWE, Jericho informed Vince McMahon that he was returning to NJPW in Fukuoka to work a match at Dominion in June.
Several hours after Jericho spoke with McMahon, he was informed that the Saudi Arabian prince had asked for Rusev to be in the Casket Match instead of Jericho, so Y2J was being pulled as Undertaker’s opponent and placed back to the Greatest Royal Rumble match.