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WWE will present The Royal Rumble this Saturday on ESPN Unlimited and Netflix from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with a 2:00 PM Eastern start time for the show. Here is what we think will happen.
Men's Royal Rumble Match
Dave: First, I look at the two champions, CM Punk and Drew McIntyre. Punk has been established for a while and Drew just recently won the belt and other than a rematch with Cody, there isn't someone I see as the natural opponent for him at Mania. That leaves Punk. In a perfect world Bron Breakker would win The Rumble and choose Punk right away. But WWE's World isn't perfect right now. The booking has largely been meh since last year's Rumble and it's showing up in Mania sales tickets (though we also have to understand that the price is also part of the reason that great tickets still remain available). So, when the booking hasn't led us down a path where there is an obvious guy we all want to see take on the champ, I can see them going the desperation route and having Roman Reigns win so that he takes on Punk. It would be a marquee match, for sure, and I could see Paul Levesque thinking that it will spike ticket sales. If that is what he chooses to do, I hope he's right because this will be a forced program as opposed to one that grows organically.
Mike: At the end of the day, it's about what's going to make the biggest match for Wrestlemania. Unless there's going to be some crazy swerve to Cody vs. Roman at the last second, it doesn't appear that WWE is going where everyone assumed they would. That leaves Punk and Drew as the top champions. So, if they want to go with Cody vs. Drew, Cody has to win either the Rumble or The Elimination Chamber. It seems too soon for the Jacob Fatu stuff to be concluded, so I'm more apt to believe Cody and Jacob end up eliminating each other in the Rumble. If I am correct, that leaves Punk's challenger. Again, unless they do some crazy pivot to Oba Femi or sneak someone out of retirement, Roman stands out the most to me. I'm calling Roman wins and he challenges Punk at Wrestlemania to play off all of their previous interactions. Zebros go to war in Vegas!
Richard: Who will be the man to choose their opponent at Wrestlemania (unless they don't choose before the winner of the Elimination Chamber does)? One of the obvious picks would be Bron Breakker to set up another match against CM Punk. On the Smackdown side, the favorite appears to be Cody. Last year, I said that half the field could have been justified to win the match. The other part of this match is to set up feuds for the year and tease potential Wrestlemania matches. I am looking forward to seeing Jacob Fatu interact with Cody Rhodes, but I really want to see Roman and Fatu go at it. We know that the Vision will be in the match, as well as Brock Lesnar. What if they were the first five in the match and Brock is eliminated by the other four. Gunther's result will be based on whether he had already wrestled AJ. Will we get a callback to last year's NXT match between Randy Orton and Je'Von Evans? How will Oba Femi do (since he is no longer Veer 'He's Coming' Mahan) and will he cross paths with Cody? The full field has not been announced, but Finn Balor was told the field was full before he could join. I can see Finn attacking someone to take their spot. Will there be any NXT entrants? What about Trick Williams? Will any of the members of the Vision try to screw each other over during the match? I think Bron wins this to set up Bron vs Punk at Mania. Here are a few things I do not want to see in either rumble: The Kofi/Naomi elimination save spot; and the eliminated wrestler eliminates someone [and it counts]; the throw the person over the top rope and instead of watching their feet hit the floor . . . you turn around and the other person gets back in the match (but I want to see Joe Hendry do it and then do the MEME TURN and eliminate the person who tried to skin the cat back into the ring).
Women's Royal Rumble Match
Dave: They have done a good job of making the top women care about the Tag Titles so that makes this one a bit more wide open. They sent Tiffany Stratton away after she lost the Title to Jade Cargill and I don't think that did her any favors. I think they need to remind us how great she is. Being one of the first two in The Rumble and going the distance would be a good way to get her back on track after she lost her momentum. Her choosing Jade would make perfect sense storyline-wise as well.
Mike: It's Liv Morgan's year. She's a hell of a talent, they are in Saudi Arabia where she's insanely popular and honestly, while there's never been a more stacked female roster, Morgan would be the direction I would go. I also expect they set Becky vs. AJ Lee for Wrestlemania during this bout.
Richard: The winner of this match gets to choose which main champion they want to face at Wrestlemania (unless they wait until after the Elimination Chamber, then all bets are off). If you are going with the 'logical' opponents for the champions based on who the current champions are, I would go with Raquel Rodriguez or Liv Morgan from the Raw side and outside of the recent stuff with Jordynne Grace, there really isn't a pick on the Smackdown side at this point so I would go with an 'if healthy' Bianca Belair to build to the logical feud. Will there be any tension between the women of the Judgment Day during the match, and will jealousy and the possibility of getting a title match cause the fracture to grow? With the focus on the women's tag team division, will we see any of them turn on each other to set up a feud? If any do this, I can see it being Alexa and Charlotte so they can set up a Wrestlemania match between them. There are some women who just need to have a strong performance, like Chelsea Green. Will we get a Lash Legend/Raquel Rodriguez face off? The order of entry in the match will be the most important feature because with all of the teams, if there is anyone at a disadvantage, if their tag team partner enters, things even out. I am going to go with Liv Morgan to build the eventual (at least before they get even stronger to lead to 14 more potential splits when they split in 2033).
Men's WWE Championship Match: Drew McIntyre vs Sami Zayn
Dave: There is an easy path to get to having Sami win here. He has been chasing a top belt for a while now. He will be a massive face in Saudi Arabia. And, he definitely has earned the right to reach the top of the mountain at some point before he retires. If it were SummerSlam? I would say go for it. But it's not. Drew has not held the belt long enough to lose it this quickly so there is no way I would put Sami over here.
Mike: Drew needs a big win to make him the dangerous heel monster champion going into Wrestlemania. Zayn is great and is a truly lovable babyface, but to me, his role is similar to the fiery babyfaces of the past who are used to raise the profile of the top heels as they are prepped for main events. Given where The Rumble is emanating, I expect lots of great crowd heat for this.
Richard: Is it too soon to take the title off Drew since he won it 3 weeks ago? Is this the right time for Sami Zayn to win the title after getting into this match as a result of a win in his home town and then to have the title match in the Middle East? The answers to both questions are yes. TJ and I had a discussion about this during the SNME post game show last weekend and we have different opinions and I think TJ's is very valid. Is giving Sami the title in Saudi Arabia the 'let's check all of the boxes for the feel good title change?' This should be a good match and I think they pull the trigger on the Sami win. I can see this first World Title run as the updated version of what WWE did with Edge where they gave him the short term run and then saw what they could do with him in the future. It is possible he could lose the title in Chicago or some other time before Mania, or do the rematch at Mania by having Drew win the Chamber.
AJ Styles vs Gunther (If AJ loses, he must retire from WWE)
Dave: Unless they do a screwy non-finish, this feels like it for AJ. You don't have Gunther retire John Cena and Bill Gunther and then lose to AJ. It just doesn't make any sense. If I am a betting man this is the end of the AJ run in WWE.
Mike: I don't think they ran through matches with Punk and Nakamura without a reason. My gut says this is it for AJ in WWE and I expect a hell of a performance from each competitor. Styles has been the man for a long time and did a lot to set ROH and TNA on their journey. I hope he gets out of this whatever he wants, because he's given an infinite amount of fans joy over his career.
Richard: If it wasn't reported that AJ's contract is set to expire very soon, it kind of gives you the result of the match. However, I will look at the possibility that even if the contract expires in the next few weeks, I would hope they could do an extension through Mania. If that is the case, I would love to see AJ win the match and then set up the rubber match and maybe have both men's careers on the line. If AJ is going to win the match, I think it has to happen the same way that Gunther won their last match, by chicanery and cheating. However, I will return to reality and say that Gunther gives AJ his final WWE match. I liked their first match and I expect this one to be even better. AJ will hit a Styles Clash but Gunther kicks out and then it will signal the end of the line for AJ. Then Gunther can be ridiculed by the fans and announcers FOR DOING HIS JOB . . . AGAIN
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