Former WWE Writer on How Royal Rumble 2021 Finish Changed at Last Minute

– During a recent interview with the Public Enemies Podcast, former WWE writer Chris Dunn discussed the finish to the 2021 women’s Royal Rumble match, and how Charlotte Flair was originally scheduled to win. However, a number of people voiced their support for Bianca Belair winning the match, including Ryan Ward. Below are some highlights (via Fightful):

Chris Dunn on booking of Bianca Belair after losing to Bayley: “She had lost to Bayley, which upset a lot of people, but I think helped her in the long run because I think it’s really hard to have an unbeatable babyface. I think it made the second match better. So I was just like, ‘Listen, you go out there, I don’t give a shit what you say,’ we had this promo. I think I told her, ‘If you say something they don’t like, I will take any heat for it, but you need to cry, you need to be emotional, you need to really feel the moment.’ This is literally the biggest moment of your career. This promo is gonna say a lot. You need to actually feel it. She cried and it was emotional, and it was awesome, and Vince really won her over. But it didn’t look like she was going to win the Royal Rumble. I thought about looking into putting a tag team together with her and Billie Kay, where I thought we could kind of do a modern Rock ‘n’ Sock Connection with them. It would have been awesome.”

On the last-minute change to the women’s Royal Rumble 2021 match finish: “I was in a Tampa hotel room, and we were watching some sort of football game, and an assistant had just left the Royal Rumble night-before meeting, and they changed the finished. Charlotte was gonna go over, and they rehearsed Charlotte going over. Bianca was gonna get eliminated midway through the match, and it got changed to Bianca going over. I think a lot of people voiced it, but this guy, Ryan Ward, he’s been for 14 years. He was [John] Cena’s writer, and for my money, I think [he] had the biggest hand in the women’s revolution. He was lead writer in the golden days of NXT when Kevin and Sami, and the Four Horsewomen, all that stuff. From My understanding, he kind of said to Vince something to the effect, ‘Vince, if you look at the Royal Rumble tomorrow, we have Edge winning and Charlotte winning. We’re not making any new stars.’ I think that really resonates, and Bianca was on such a roll where it kind of made sense. She also had to again, right after that match, really nail that post-match promo, and she did it, and she was just awesome and great.”