Huge Gimmick Match Was Reportedly Pitched for WWE WrestleMania 42

One of WWE's biggest gimmick matches was reportedly pitched to take place next month at WrestleMania 42.

Last week on SmackDown, Cody Rhodes defeated Drew McIntyre for the WWE Championship in the main event of the show, setting the stage for a match between Rhodes and Randy Orton for the title next month at the Showcase of the Immortals.

With The Viper winning the Men's Chamber match instead of The American Nightmare, the main event landscape of WrestleMania was changed once again. However, before Orton hit the WrestleMania main event with an RKO out of nowhere, a much bigger gimmick match had been pitched for the event instead.

According to Mike Johnson of PWInsider, the original pitch for next month's WWE Championship match would have seen Cody Rhodes challenging Drew McIntyre for the title inside of Hell in a Cell.

Obviously, plans have changed: Rhodes will now defend the title against Orton, while McIntyre appears locked into a match with Jacob Fatu instead.

Now knowing that WWE left a Hell in a Cell match for WrestleMania on the cutting room floor, it's certainly worth questioning the company's creative choices heading into Vegas next month.

WWE booked the perfect Hell in a Cell match on TV and chose not to do it

Since Drew McIntyre captured the WWE Championship on SmackDown in January, the company was seemingly telling a clever story to involve several top names in the title picture heading into its biggest show of the year.

With the contract for the match declaring that Rhodes couldn't get a rematch for the title without winning the Rumble or the Chamber match, it put The American Nightmare on a race against time to get back into the title picture at WrestleMania.

At the same time, several other talents were getting involved in McIntyre's business. Be it Jacob Fatu, Randy Orton, Sami Zayn, or even Trick Williams, the top names on the blue brand were all seemingly in the hunt to compete for the WWE Championship at the Showcase of the Immortals.

If WWE could go back on a contract they made a big deal of — prohibiting Rhodes from challenging McIntyre for the title again without earning it — they could have easily booked a frustrated General Manager in Nick Aldis, who couldn't handle the pressure of all of these names going after McIntyre at once. With the champion repeatedly interfering in contenders' matches, the only way to solve things could have been to put them all together in the same match.

A six-man Hell in a Cell match could have happened in the main event of WrestleMania. A match that hasn't taken place since WWE Armageddon back in 2000.

Now all these men will be separated instead, leaving their individual matches to feel less important next month than they should have been. WWE was clearly looking for a blockbuster match to garner more interest and ticket sales for its biggest show of the year, and unfortunately, let it slip right through their fingers.