Had CM Punk not been injured during last year's Royal Rumble PLE, he'd have likely faced Seth Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship in the main event of WrestleMania.
The expectation has been that WWE might revisit the bout on the road to next's year's Show of Shows; however, in recent weeks, we've seen both men exchange barbs and there could be a good reason for that.
According to Dr Chris Featherstone of Sportskeeda, the current plan is for the Best in the World and the Revolutionary to go one-on-one during the premiere of RAW on Netflix on January 6. This doesn't mean they can't still face off at WrestleMania, of course, but there may well be other plans for both Superstars leading into that event.
This comes after @WrestleVotes revealed, "Well, I don’t know, are you counting Rock as a surprise? Are you counting John Cena as a surprise? They’ll both be there. I wouldn’t be surprised if Steve Austin showed up."
"I heard Shawn Michaels may make an appearance. Anybody that they have under a legends deal and is healthy enough to be in Los Angeles, I would expect to be there."
Featherstone later added that Roman Reigns will have a match on the show (we'd imagine he'll face Solo Sikoa). Triple H previously said the premiere is being treated like a WrestleMania and, judging by these early plans, we're inclined to agree.
Much has been said about what will happen to RAW when it moves to Netflix next month, but WWE has doubled down on the product keeping its "TV-PG" rating when the flagship show moves from the USA Network to streaming.
"It’s a safe place for families, for kids, for everybody, to be able to view the programming," The Game said at a press event earlier this month. "That will not change."
WWE President Nick Khan added to that with, "There’s some online chatter about how it’s going to be ‘R’ rated or, for us old folks, ‘X’ rated. That’s definitely not happening. It’s a family-friendly, multi-generational, advertiser-friendly programming. It’s going to stay that way."
Instead, the big change will be RAW's "global flair" according to Khan thanks to the show having its biggest global audience ever. "The countries outside of the United States are as important to us as the United States are," the executive explained. "We have certain targeted countries that are priorities for Netflix. They’re priorities for us. You’re going to see more of that."
Stay tuned for updates as we have them.