In a move, nobody saw coming 24 hours ago, Brock Lesnar walked out of the inaugural WWE Day 1 pay-per-view as WWE Champion.

Lesnar was added to the RAW main event making it a fatal-five-way, after his match against Roman Reigns was nixed due to Reigns testing positive for COVID-19 and being unable to compete. Many have wondered if Big E was originally booked to lose the WWE Championship or if by inserting Lesnar to win this was a last-minute decision.

Interestingly the @WWEonFOX Twitter appears to have confirmed that Big E was set to retain the WWE Championship.

During live pay-per-view events the account posts graphics of the winners, except one of them that was posted last night, read "Big E defeated Bobby Lashley, Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens." with a photo of Brock Lesnar. The graphics are produced beforehand so they are ready to be posted as soon a winner hits pinfall. 

So there we have it, it looks as if Big E would still have been WWE Champion had it not been for COVID-19. 

Look closely at this graphic produced by WWE on FOX.

It looks like Big E was originally due to retain last night at #WWEDay1. pic.twitter.com/KRUQTSJUgw

, WrestlingNewsSource.com (@WNSource) January 2, 2022