Some light has been shed on why exactly WWE announced Becky Lynch versus Asuka for Royal Rumble and then quickly changed its mind.
WWE has been tripping over itself somewhat ever since the McMahon family felt they needed to return to TV. The biggest example so far was the announcement of Becky Lynch versus Asuka at next month's Royal Rumble. A contractually obligated rematch for The Man despite Shane McMahon labeling such matches a thing of the past.
The strangest thing about the announcement was it happened on Main Event. Not exactly the WWE product with the most eyeballs on it. Nevertheless, fans started to get excited once news filtered out into the WWE Universe. However, shortly after that, Paige tweeted that she had tried and failed to get the match booked as her last act as SmackDown Live's General Manager.
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A little confusing and clearly, someone made a mistake somewhere. John Pollock of Post Wrestling has shed some light on what exactly happened. According to Pollock, Lynch versus Asuka at Royal Rumble was the plan up until last week's SmackDown Live. However, it was then decided that the entire Rumble card would be re-evaluated. So the match wasn't disregarded completely, but certainly not official.
Unfortunately, someone didn't pass on that information to those in charge of putting together Main Event. That's why on last week's show, Scott Stamford casually and openly discussed the match between Lynch and Asuka, believing it had been made official. We get that WWE has a lot going on, but for a company of that size to make such a glaring mistake and air it on TV, that's not great.
So the good news is if you were looking forward to The Man and The Empress doing battle at Royal Rumble, that match is not yet off the table. However, since news of it was leaked out before Vince McMahon would have liked, he may well take it from us out of spite. On the bright side, if Lynch doesn't have a title match at the PPV, there's a bigger chance of her winning the actual Rumble match and going on to WrestleMania 35.