Some of WWE Unreal’s craziest pitches and most fascinating ‘what if?’s

Netflix

Netflix’s WWE Unreal docuseries may have been tailored to new and casual fans, but it also gave those of us who regularly track and discuss the pro wrestling world a glimpse of some of the proposed ideas and changed plans we’re always reading rumors about.

It does so in the course of giving us a peek at their creative process on the road that winds from the start of the calendar year through to April’s WrestleMania. Here are some of the ones that really piqued our interest from the first five-episode

season of Unreal, which dropped in full on the streamer yesterday (July 29):

Cody Rhodes wanted to save John Cena from a heel beatdown on the Netflix premiere

Cena appeared on the first Raw to stream on Netflix back in January, but only for a promo to kick off his retirement year by entering the Royal Rumble. The then-WWE champ thought it would be cool if a big group of heels surrounding the ring to jump Cena, only for him to make the save.

Chief Creative Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque shot down Rhodes’ idea, as he didn’t want Cena starting his final year by needing a save.

The initial options for the 2025 Men’s Royal Rumble winner were CM Punk & John Cena

This was revealed in a writer’s room scene during the second episode, entitled “Push”. An initial survey of who should win the Rumble seemed unanimous for Punk...

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Cena is given strong consideration. as plans at that point called for both men to challenge for one of WWE’s top titles at WrestleMania 41. Head writer Ed Koskey and producer Michael Hayes then make the case for the eventual winner, Jey Uso. Hayes argues:

“I think in the case of Jey Uso, when somebody catches fire, they just catch fire. And sometimes you have to alternate all your plans. Who do we have on our roster that’s hot, that hopefully is maybe new and fresh, and all of a sudden, Jey Uso is checking all those boxes.”

So if you’re still mad about the YEET! Man getting a big ‘Mania spot, blame the Fabulous Freebird.

Chelsea Green was pitched to win the Women’s Rumble in VERY Chelsea Green fashion

If you’re at all a fan of the first-ever Women’s United States champion, you should watch “Worth The Wait”, Unreal’s third episode. That hour features a lot of great Chels content.

She’s not in the writer’s room meeting about the Women’s Royal Rumble match, but after kicking around some options like a second Rumble win for Bianca Belair (and before deciding on a second Rumble win for Charlotte Flair), WWE Creative Writing VP Jonathon Baeckstrom floats the idea of making it “an underdog story”. Koskey then offers what he calls a ““horrible option”...

“You get entrant 29 in there. They come in and there’s only two women. They end up doing a double elimination. So whoever’s number 30 automatically wins. Chelsea Green walks down, wins the Royal Rumble.”

If by “horrible”, I think Ed meant “just crazy enough to work”, but your mileage may vary.

Cody Rhodes’ angle with The Rock at Elimination Chamber almost led to a shocking title change that night

When Dwayne Johnson and his creative partner Brian Gewirtz were first conceiving The Final Boss’ ‘Mania season plans, they disliked the idea of doing Rhodes/Cena as babyface vs. babyface title match. But they hadn’t considered a Cena turn at that point, so instead Gewirtz pitched...

“I had the idea of Cody needing to be Rock’s champion. We had that as the hook. We proposed, at Elimination Chamber, Cody turning down The Final Boss, and that was gonna lead to Final Boss making an impromptu title match right then and there, that resulted in Kevin Owens who had been in a storyline with Cody during that time, leaving with the championship.”

Gewirtz says Owens winning his second WWE title “wasn’t the end goal”, but he felt they needed “something seismic” for Rhodes to react to on the Road to WrestleMania. Obviously, they went with the Cena turn — and who knows if KO’s injured neck would have allowed him to finish whatever Johnson & Gewirtz would have had in mind.

Still, that might even beat Green winning the Rumble by entering #30 to an empty ring for the craziest pitch from Unreal. This mock-up of what it might have looked like blows my mind. Owens and Travis Scott? Kevin probably could have made it work...

Netflix

Triple H, Bruce Prichard & Michael Hayes all originally had Punk winning the main event of WrestleMania 41’s first night over Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins

Hayes’ take that “Punk over” was the best finish for his Triple Threat with the former Shield guys took us into another writer’s room scene on episode five, which was simply called, “WrestleMania”. There, Haitch goes over his plan, which was to have Punk win despite Paul Heyman betraying him by helping Reigns during the match.

Koskey objects, saying he loves the plan but “hates the finish at ‘Mania”. He proposed Rollins as the mastermind who’s been working with Heyman toward this moment:

“Seth going over just feels like a better story to me. Roman and Heyman have had such a run where they’ve become so synonymous that breaking them apart in the main event of WrestleMania feels like something that is worthy of that.”

CM Punk was originally set to win the WrestleMania Night 1 Main Event vs Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins

There was even an idea to have Paul Heyman turn on Punk, and Punk still win. But the Seth Rollins surprise turn pitch won out.

(WWE: Unreal) pic.twitter.com/YeVSRbVODY

— WrestlePurists (@WrestlePurists) July 29, 2025

He wasn’t wrong... sorry, Punker.

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Any we missed? What was the craziest pitch or fascinating “what if?” you took away from WWE Unreal?

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