This year we will see the biggest rumble in history with 40 superstars rather than 30 along with the WWE Title and World Heavyweight titles on the line but once again the Rumble will command all the attention for your £15 on Sky Box Office.
The decision to increase the number of entrants to 40 is a goodand sensible decision by the writers. The Royal Rumble is the pull of the show, not the matches. The matches are a nice bonus, but the main superstars are usually competing in the rumble match to make it harder to predict who will win. Increasing the rumble to 40 means that we will see men flying over the top rope for at least 1 hour and 18 minutes, with the likelihood of it going on for over an hour and 30 minutes.
It also throws up the question of who will the extra ten be? Will we get more surprises than usual? It does give us that excitement and draw to the match but it will be a chance for more superstars to be involved and have more entertainment with some surprises.
Going back to last year and we saw a shock winner in Edge, a moment that I won’t forget along with those who watched it with me as I got a tad excited. Anyway, this year once again has that potential with the upcoming return of Triple H.
The Game has been ready to wrestle for a while as we saw when he fought Alberto Del Rio at the WWE super show in New York. WWE want to use it at the most beneficial time, but even if he does enter the rumble, I can’t see him winning. It’s too obvious that he will fight Sheamus again and with the Irishmen not in line to win the title before WM 27, you’d have to say Triple H is unlikely to win. I wouldn’t be surprised if WWE held on till the Elimination Chamber to build up the suspense even longer and make you tune in for that PPV.
Other Royal Rumble potential winners are John Cena, CM Punk, Big Show, Wade Barrett, Sheamus, John Morrison, Rey Mysterio (No) Kane (where has he been recently?) and WWE once again showed us on Raw that Mark Henry could win. He won’t though will he WWE? So why bother every year to pretend he has a chance? Rant over.
The obvious pick of the winners is Alberto Del Rio. The slight hint has been the fact that for the last three weeks or so he has been on Raw and Smackdown just to say ‘my destiny is to win the royal rumble.’ It’s nearly as bad as when they showed before the 2008 Royal Rumble the 5 minpromovideo of who Randy Orton was.
WWE know that he wouldn’t be anybodies natural choice as he is still new let alone the fact he is a heel. The last heel to win the rumble was in 2009 with Randy Orton but before that it was in 1999 and Vince McMahon. WWE often give victories to the faces so that they will win the title at Wrestlemania, but will this year be the fulfilment of Del Rio’s destiny? I believe it will and here is why using the two main matches.
First of all, I believe a Smackdown superstar will win, and we need to look at the Raw title match of WWE champion The Miz (Awesome!) v Randy Orton to see where I am going. The Miz for me will
win and go into the Elimination Chamber as WWE Champion. WWE have been very happy with The Miz in recent weeks, he builds a lot of heat and splits crowds.
But why does this matter? The Miz can carry the belt as a heel till Wrestlemania. He will only get bigger in the build up to Mania and improve. Raw has an abundant of talent with Cena, Punk and Orton ready to fight for the main title at Wrestlemania as well.
Raw probably won’t do a one on one match and there will be many twists and turns before Wrestlemania about who will be in the main event. With Cena v Punk looking like it won’t last till Wrestlemania, both of them have the chance to fight for the title at ‘the Grand Daddy of them all’. Raw doesn’t need a rumble winner to decide the next title challenger(s), they can be creative in creating its number one contender(s)
This is why a Smackdown superstar will win as they don’t have the same options as Raw. The World Heavyweight title match is Edge v Dolph ‘Perfection!’ Ziggler and Edge will win this as Dolph is merely what I call a Rumble opponent. This is someone who the WWE see as being able to make the jump up to be a realistic Title winner but someone as well who we know won’t win the Rumble. Dolph Ziggler is a great character and has big potential, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he won Money in the Bank at Wrestlemania, that’s if they keep it, which they should.
Edge wins at the Royal Rumble, and with Alberto Del Rio winning the Rumble, we have our Smackdown main event. This is if no titles change at The Elimination Chamber PPV on February 20th, which is a big assumption with WWE as you wouldn’t be surprised if they did mix it up. However, Edge will be in the main event whatever at Wrestlemania.
I have also realised how little the name John Cena has been mentioned, which has been a nice change. Cena doesn’t need the WWE title in his match to make it a good rivalry, much like The Undertaker. If he is in the title match though, it will still add a lot, and as Jim Ross said about Shawn Michaels, but you could use for John Cena ‘whether you love him or you hate him, it’s really irrelevant.’ He still pulls in crowds and I’m guilty as I watch to boo him.
Even though The Royal Rumble does build up to Wrestlemania, The Elimination Chamber will once again bring us shocks that will ultimately decide Mania. With that type of match, it does give the opportunity to turn things on their head as we saw last year with Batista winning the WWE title after the match from John Cena and Jericho winning because of an interference from Shawn Michaels.
Check back in February for thoughts ahead of Elimination Chamber, including me probably eating my words after Mark Henry wins the Royal Rumble. I don’t even want to imagine what that would look like…
