WWE Unreal Docuseries Reveals WWE’s Original Plans for Steve Austin’s Role, Potential Event Card, and Night 1 Main Event for WrestleMania 41

WWE’s Original Plans for Steve Austin’s Role at WrestleMania 41

WWE’s new WWE Unreal docuseries premiered earlier today on Netflix. One of the episodes focused on the behind-the-scenes process for this past April’s WrestleMania 41 event in Las Vegas, Nevada.

During the episode, it was revealed that WWE officials original plans for WWE Hall of Famer Steve Austin were for him to be the special guest referee for a planned match between Bron Breakker and Drew McIntyre.

These plans were eventually dropped and Austin would instead be involved in announcing the official attendance for both nights of WrestleMania 41. This involved Austin coming out to ringside driving an ATV and was involved in an incident where he crashed the ATV into the LED boards and hurting one fan.

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WWE’s Original Plans for Card of WrestleMania 41 Revealed on WWE Unreal

This episode of WWE Unreal also revealed what was WWE’s original plans at one point for the card of WrestleMania 41, which included many changes that were later made for the final card.

WWE WrestleMania 41 proposed card:

• WWE Championship – John Cena vs. Cody Rhodes (c)
• Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins
• WWE World Heavyweight Championship – CM Punk vs. Gunther (c)
• Women’s World Championship – Bianca Belair vs. Rhea Ripley (c)
• Randy Orton vs. Kevin Owens
• 10-Person Mixed Tag Team match – The Wyatt Sicks vs. Judgment Day
• WWE Women’s Championship – Nia Jax vs. Jade Cargill (c)
• WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship – Becky Lynch & Charlotte Flair vs. IYO Sky & Asuka
• Bad Bunny vs. Dominik Mysterio
• Special Guest Referee match – Bron Breakker vs. Drew McIntyre w/ Steve Austin as referee
• AJ Styles vs. Logan Paul
• Rey Mysterio (w/ Travis Scott) vs. Chad Gable
• WWE Intercontinental Championship Ladder match – Jey Uso vs. Damian Priest vs. Sheamus vs. Sami Zayn vs. Bronson Reed vs. Ludgwig Kaiser
• WWE United States Championship Ladder match – LA Knight vs. Jimmy Uso vs. Andrade vs. Santos Escobar vs. Solo Sikoa vs. Carmelo Hayes vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

🚨 SPOILER WWE UNREAL 🚨

La cartelera original de WrestleMania 41 iba a ser la siguiente, con los siguientes combates que cambiaron sobre lo que acabamos viendo:

– Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins
– World Heavyweight Championship: Gunther (c) vs. CM Punk
– Women’s World… pic.twitter.com/Pve9r3mzLd

— LuigiWrestling (@LuigiWrestling) July 29, 2025

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WWE’s Original Plans for Night 1 Main Event of WrestleMania 41 Revealed on WWE Unreal

This episode of WWE Unreal also revealed what was WWE’s original plans for the main event of Night 1 of WrestleMania 41.

Footage was shown from a backstage creative meeting that took place 11 days before the show that featured WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque discussing with Bruce Prichard and WWE SVP of Creative Writing Ed Koskey discussing plans for the main event match of CM Punk vs. Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins for Night 1 of WrestleMania 41.

Paul “Triple H Levesque – “I’m of the opinion that Punk should go over at WrestleMania. Punk should go over and not only should Punk go over, but Heyman turns on him, doesn’t work, doesn’t work. Punk overcomes Paul, beats either Roman or Seth, whatever he has to do. Punk survives and not only survives, but thrives.”

Ed Koskey – “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 up in the main event of WrestleMania is something that’s worthy of that. This is finally starting to feel like a rich story that’s worthy of Mania, as opposed to just fighting over the love of Paul Heyman.”

Levesque – “I see your point, I’m not sure I agree with it. I feel like in that scenario, Roman is dead in the water.”

In another scene, footage was shown involving CM Punk and Triple H right before the main event of WrestleMania 41 Night 1 show.

Levesque – “You’ve always been a main event guy. Always.”

CM Punk – “I don’t get here without you, thank you. Appreciate you. Thank you for the opportunity.

Another scene shown featured highlights from the match and the backstage reactions to it with Becky Lynch, WWE producer Michael Hayes, and Triple H shown.

Becky Lynch – “That was a goddamn masterpiece, Michael. That was tremendous. God, that was so good. That’s f—ing wrestling, man. That was spectacular.”

Levesque – “That was f—king awesome dude. Every bit of it worked.“

Hayes was seen speaking to the camera stating:

“I was blessed cause there is no doubt that this is what God wanted me to do with my life. And he helps me a lot. You wouldn’t believe how many ideas I get from him. He really likes wrestling. He really does. Cause I’m not smart enough to come up with all this s–t. Somebody puts that s–t in my head.”

Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com