WWE Had Much Bigger Plans For Big E During Men's Royal Rumble Match

One of the more disappointing parts of this past Saturday's Royal Rumble was the fact that Big E was overlooked in such a major way. He made a late entry into the Men's Royal Rumble match, but was largely irrelevant, getting eliminated without much fanfare.

It's odd to see how much Big E has dropped down the championship totem pole in WWE since losing the title to Brock Lesnar. That said, perhaps the news isn't all bad. For fans who wonder if WWE has decided not to move forward with him as a big player, there were originally much bigger plans for Big E at this year's Royal Rumble than what actually took place. Had things gone according to plan, fans might not have been so disappointed.

It was never in the cards for Big E to win the entire thing. However, there was a spot apparently planned between him and Kofi Kingston that didn't take place because Kofi accidentally eliminated himself from the match when he botched his jump off the tope rope. Kingston was supposed to save himself on the guardrail, but after the spot failed, everything that included Kofi from that point on had to be scrapped or changed on the fly. The Superstar most affected by this was Big E.

It's not entirely clear what the plan was. It could have been Big E and Kofi working together, but it might have been one man eliminating the other and potentially teasing the idea of friction between the group. We may never know.

Big Eliminated By RK-Bro

When Big E came in, he focused on Riddle and Kevin Owens, eventually being eliminated by RK-Bro. Could WWE now move Big E into a program with these two men? Considering there is now talk that WWE is rethinking about splitting this group, they'll need a tag team opponent to battle on the red brand. Is Big E now part of that discussion?

The only issue with this is that Kingston is on the SmackDown brand. Will WWE ignore the brand split or will Big E have to find another partner if he's got RK-Bro in his sights?