Jonathan Coachman doesn’t believe WWE avoided a mistake by taking the 2026 Royal Rumble away from Bron Breakker. He believes the company created a much bigger one.
On the Coach and Bro Show, while reacting to the behind-the-scenes discussion revealed on WWE Unreal, where Triple H and WWE officials admitted they were worried about pushing Breakker too quickly, Coachman said he couldn’t understand the logic behind pulling back on one of the company’s fastest-rising stars.
“I think that’s just the first of several mistakes they made. And when I hear, ‘We can’t have him win the Royal Rumble because we don’t want to shove him down people’s throats,’ Vince, I’m sitting here watching going, I was there for 13 Royal Rumbles, and when you decide who is going to win, it’s for one of two reasons. Either A, you think they are big enough to main event WrestleMania, or B, you’re going to use that in a storyline for the next pay-per-view before you get to WrestleMania.”
Coachman said WWE’s explanation simply doesn’t add up because he never felt fans were growing tired of Breakker.
“But to say we can’t shove him down people’s throats when he’s basically a new talent on the rise… I never got tired of Bron Breakker. I still haven’t got tired of Bron Breakker. So what did you make of that? They’re like, ‘No, let’s pull the reins back a little bit.’ And now all of a sudden, you go from he’s going to win the Royal Rumble to now SummerSlam, and he basically doesn’t even have a big role in the company right now.”
Vince Russo agreed, but argued the Royal Rumble wasn’t the real issue. According to Russo, WWE’s problem was failing to build Breakker into someone fans were already ready to support before putting him in that position. Russo insisted fans don’t reject a push when they’ve been given a reason to believe in the wrestler first.
“Well, not only that, he just lost to Seth Rollins. Coach, here’s the thing. That’s the wrestling bubble. That’s where their headset is. It doesn’t matter who the individual is. It could have been anybody that was there for that length of time. They would have said the same thing. What I’m saying is if you build him correctly, it’s going to be believable when he wins the Royal Rumble. You’ll believe it. You’re not forcing it down somebody’s throat when they ain’t buying it. If you would have built him the right way, they would have bought it.”
Coachman then pitched the storyline he believes WWE should have told after Seth Rollins suffered his shoulder injury. Rather than simply positioning Breakker as the new leader, Coachman said WWE had the perfect opportunity to embrace his famous family and use it to build his confidence heading into WrestleMania season.
“If you had done the Steiner name thing at the end of 2025 and you had the opportunity, Vince, once Seth got hurt… you could have pivoted to, ‘Well, I’m the leader now, but how do I be a leader in the wrestling business? I need to talk to somebody.’ And now all of a sudden you go out with him again and say, ‘I’m now the leader because Seth is hurt.’ And he goes and talks to Big Poppa Pump and he goes and talks to Rick, and now all of a sudden you can bring these guys back in.”
Coachman believes those interactions could have naturally led to Breakker entering the Royal Rumble with the confidence of a future world champion.
“Now when you get to January, he’s got the confidence from his own family saying, ‘You are good enough.’ Or even better, ‘You’re going to be better than we were.’ That’s a great storyline.”
Vince Russo believes WWE will eventually use the Steiner connection anyway—but only after wasting valuable time.
“They’re going to go there. They’re going to realize he’s not getting over the way he should. They’re going to go there when, guys, you could have saved yourself a hell of a lot of time by going there off the shoot, bro.”
The comments come after WWE Unreal revealed that Bron Breakker had been in line to win the 2026 Royal Rumble before WWE decided against it because officials feared fans would see the push as forced. Coachman and Russo see the situation very differently, arguing that WWE’s hesitation is exactly what has slowed Breakker’s momentum instead of helping it.
Do you agree with Coachman and Russo that WWE should have gone all-in on Bron Breakker, or was Triple H right to hold him back? Let us know in the comments below.
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