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WWE will present the 2015 Royal Rumble this Sunday 1/25 from Philadelphia, PA on the WWE Network and PPV. Here are our takes on what will happen.
30 Man Royal Rumble to determine challenger for WWE World Heavyweight championship at Wrestlemania 31
Dave: The obvious choice is Roman Reigns. As Vince McMahon showed last year, he likes to stick to the plan, no matter what. However, this year there are some variables. Daniel Bryan is back and is way over. He never got his rematch or even lost the Title. Randy Orton will return. Plus, three main players are in the WWE Title match. This could be a year when Sunday’s winner doesn’t headline Mania due to booking that happens later. With that said, Vince wants Roman Reigns to be the next top guy so I think he wins here.
Mike: Unless WWE throws a major shock into the Rumble match, like say Sting, I think it's going to come down to whether WWE realizes Daniel Bryan fans will reject the match if he is eliminated early or whether Roman Reigns can use this match to rebuild some of the momentum he's lost since returning from injury. The good news is that this is always one of the most entertaining hours of the year, so we are pretty much guaranteed a good match here. Randy Orton is an interesting asterik. We know he's in the Northeast (as I broke yesterday in the PWInsider Elite section), so the question is he used if and when he returns. Does he show up to help John Cena while trying to get vengeace on Triple H and Seth Rollins? Or, does he appear in the Rumble. As far as the winner, as I said several weeks ago, if I am in charge, I have Daniel Bryan run from start to finish and at the end, it's three guys the audience loves the most right now - Bryan, Ziggler and Reigns. No one's going to be able to call a winner and from that point on, we could have some really cool stuff. As far as who goes over...I have to go with Bryan. He promised he was winning and heroes rarely break those promises. It's going to be interesting to see whether he is one of the few who does.
Richard: Will we see the bridesmaid become the bride? If we do, I think we will see a second year in a row where the winner is not going to be accepted by the hardcore wrestling fans. If they do a title change tonight, I think Bryan versus either man is a better match than Reigns. I think there are a lot of things to look forward to in this year’s Rumble match. They should FINALLY do the split of Miz and Sandow, even though they gave away how it should happen on Smackdown with the Usos. I hope we will get solid performances in the match from the people who have been on the treadmill next to Push Mountain. I would love for Cesaro, Ambrose, and Kidd have great performances and last a long time in the match. Now that Ziggler and Ryback are back and in the match, I would expect them to do well. Will we see any NXT wrestlers in the match like we got with Rusev last year? And as Dave mentioned, you have the Orton variable. Maybe he is the #30 surprise. I do hope that there is a ‘shock’ among the final four.
WWE World Heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena vs. Seth Rollins
Dave: This one has a ton of intrigue to it and I am very excited to see how it all works out. It’s every man for himself now, as it should be. The one thing that shouldn’t happen is Cena wins. I could see a scenario where Rusev costs Cena his chance and those two are paired at Mania. Then the question is do they pull the trigger and have Seth Rollins beat Brock. If Brock is not re-signing, they should pull the trigger and go Reigns-Rollins at Mania. I like the idea of a new guy getting the rub from beating Brock, as long as he does it straight up and not with help. Also, the dynamic of the champion also having the Money In The Bank briefcase would make for some different booking.
Mike: WWE has done a hell of a great job preparing for this one. I almost expect Rollins to lose and then cash in immediately after, but I don't know that will be happening. I really can't see Brock Lesnar losing until Wrestlemania, at least, but we will see. I expect this to be one of the best matches in the company since Lesnar won the belt at Summerslam as he never goes half-speed, Rollins is salivating to have a kick ass performance and Cena never fails to bring his 'A' game on major events. As long as it doesn't fall into the old formula of "one guy is down and out while the other two fight", this should be really good. I call Lesnar, especially since they apparently turned him babyface. If Lesnar does lose, I call a Paul Heyman turn.
Richard: Before Seth Rollins turned into Mr. Promo, this could have been called a handicap match with Cena having to face Rollins and Lesnar, only to allow Rollins to possibly cash in on Lesnar. Now, you can say it is Cena and Rollins against Lesnar to get the title off Lesnar; or Rollins and Lesnar against Cena to make sure John doesn’t win number 16; or even Lesnar and Cena versus Rollins to make sure that the young punk does not get his moment of glory at their expense. Since this is a Triple Threat match, there are No DQs so anything can, and probably will happen (because someone has been watching Jeff Jarrett as TNA champion DVDs). I kind of like the idea of Rollins winning and keeping the case because it gives him the insurance policy of a second rematch clause when he loses the title.
WWE Tag Team champions The Usos vs. Damien Mizdow & The Miz
Dave: It’s time to break Mizdow away from Miz or they really risk him losing all of his fan support. I say this is where they do it. Miz costs his team the match, blames Mizdow and Mizdow has had enough and lays out his former partner.
Mike: I don't see a title change here, but I do expect we'll see the beginning of the end for Mizdow and Miz. The wrestling here should be very good, although the comedy with Mizdown will overshadow that.
Richard: This will be the first part of the two part break up of Miz and Sandow. I think we will see the usual Miz/Sandow match where Miz will tease Sandow tagging in multiple times but refuse to do so. However, at some point Miz eats a double super kick and he falls into the turnbuckles and as Sandow staggers to sell him taking the double super kick from the Usos’ stunt doubles, he bumps into Miz and the referee says the tag was made. One Superfly Splash later and we have a successful title defense. Miz yells at Sandow, but that only leads to the inevitable that was completely given away on Smackdown.
The Ascension vs. The New Age Outlaws
Dave: The Ascension have been booked soooooooo badly since being brought up here. If they don’t beat two guys with a combined age of about 100, they might as well start planning their next careers.
Mike: Richard calls the Dudley Boyz, which would certainly make sense with the Ascension, although then we are put into the situation where the Duds come back to put over a team that isn't as good as them or the Ascension is getting killed, again. We will see. I know the Duds have been speaking with WWE, but don't know how far along that has gone. In terms of this match, I expect lots of old NAO spots to pop the crowd before The Ascension cheats to win.
Richard: What if they screw with everyone and have the Ascension come out and cut a promo about how they are better than any tag team that has ever come through Philadelphia and then we get the WWE return of the Dudleys to put the final nails in the Ascension’s coffin. Or they could save that for after the match when the Ascension finally get revenge on the two guys who would probably have bumped for them of the seven who got the shovels on Monday night.
The Bella Twins vs. Paige and Natalya
Dave: This match is ripe for the babyface to win and create more drama for Total Divas. After all, that is all the ladies division is right now. Sadly.
Mike: The Divas division is a loss leader for the woman to really make money for the company with Total Divas. What happens here is immaterial but Paige or Natalya should be pinning Nikki clean to set up title matches.
Richard: Why are either of these teams friends? Did we ever find out why Brie doesn’t hate Nikki any more? At least we have a new episode of Total Divas to watch as well.
Adam Rose & Tyson Kidd & Cesaro vs. The New Day in an Elimination bout
Dave: The Blue Day is getting something of a push. The other three are not. It would make no sense for the heels to win here.
Mike: Blue Day will win. There should be some solid action here and in another world, it might even be an awesome match that gets a good 25 minutes or so, but this is a Kickoff bout so I expect everything to happen quickly and as a backdrop for the announcers to push the PPV.
Richard: The best thing about this match is that it is an elimination match so we should see a lot of fun wrestling from Cesaro, Kidd, Kofi, and Big E. Of course that means we will probably get a rushed 8 minute match where we wonder what did we just see. Kofi will probably be too busy wondering how to do his latest ‘I am not eliminated yet’ spot in the Rumble match. Remember when Cesaro won the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at Wrestlemania last year? SOMEONE REMIND WWE CREATIVE
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