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The Royal Rumble takes place on Saturday night. Here's our take on what will happen at the show.
WWE Champion Brock Lesnar with Paul Heyman vs. Bobby Lashley with MVP.
Dave: This is the only thing I am really looking forward to on the show, and that is only until I really think about it. The match should be great and we really should be able to believe that either man could win, but we are heading toward WrestleMania and I just don't see Brock losing the belt going into the biggest show of the year. Yes, they could have him lose and then just chase Roman Reigns, but that would take the luster off of that match. What seems more interesting (and more appealing to fans) is that both Brock and Roman retain here, then do a unification match at night one in Jerry World. Whoever wins the Rumble will declare for his Title match at night two and WWE can then take one of the belts off of the Unified champ and restore the status quo before Monday's Raw.
Mike: This is the most intruiging thing on the show and for once, WWE didn't drop the ball on the creative for this. Brock is always ragdolling everyone so I'd flip the hourglass here and have him being the one thrown around like crazy by Lashley to get Bobby over as a threat to Lesnar. Then Brock can make a big comeback and we're off to the races with a big Hoss fight. I half expect WWE to get out of this with a DQ but to me, the better plan is to have Brock win just barely with a shoulder up at the last second as both men are down, that way Lashley looks like his equal to the end and can be seen as a future threat to all top names.
Richard: There has been a good build for this match (no, seriously) and it is a match I am looking forward to. Do you take the title off Brock on Saturday and rob of of the opportunity for Roman vs Brock in a Title vs Title match? If this match is at the start of the show and Bobby does win the title, does Brock enter the Royal Rumble as number 29 or 30 and then win (but that has been done before). If you want two big men beating the crap out of each other, this is the match for you. Give us 15 minutes and we should be satisfied. I agree with Dave's idea for the title vs title match at Stupendous Night One and then the Rumble winner faces the winner on Stupendous Night Two.
WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins.
Dave: See above. There is no juice in this feud and it makes zero sense to put the Title on Seth. As bad as WWE booking is, even they can see that.
Mike: With all due respect to the Seth's incarnation as The Joker with a big-money stylist, no one believes that Roman has even a feasible shot at losing before Wrestlemania. With The Usos out, maybe it's time for a new member of The Bloodline to appear and get involved? Either way, I don't see Seth leaving with a title.
Richard: If they didn't keep the Freddy Krueger fingernails on a chalkboard character, this might have made me care more about this match. If they had Roman do something different over the last six months, I might have been more interested in this match. If you take that all away, this should be a very good match with two strong in ring performers. Roman should not lose so we can get the set up with Roman and Brock for Mania.
30 Man Royal Rumble match featuring Big E, Happy Corbin, WWE Raw Tag Team Champion Chad Gable, Kofi Kingston, Johnny Knoxville, Madcap Moss, Dominik & Rey Mysterio, Omos, Randy Orton, WWE Raw Tag Team Champion Otis, Kevin Owens, WWE United States Champion Damian Priest, Riddle, Robert Roode, Sheamus, AJ Styles, Austin Theory, The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford), Sami Zayn, and Dolph Ziggler which leaves 8 slots open.
Dave: There are a whole lot of names there that have no shot at winning. There are some that could, but they have been booked so badly that if they win, it will be anti-climatic. Of the names that are there, the only one I think could be interesting is Priest. If he wins, Bad Bunny could show up and celebrate with him at the PPV or Raw, and promote his upcoming tour in the process. That makes sense in the synergy world of WWE.
Mike: Like Dave said, lots of open slots. I always go by who I think deserves and needs the Rumble win the most. The two names that come to mind are AJ Styles and Big E. Now, they could toss an Edge or a nostalgia surprise in and obviously Orton always has a chance especially in St. Louis (and I could imagine a nice pop if it came down to Orton and Riddle), but to me, I'd prefer Big E walk out victorious the most. He needs a strong rebound after WWE really cut his legs off on the first WWE title run and if there was someone who should looks the part and should be a centerpiece figure for the company, it's Big E. The problem is that the way they've used him, I don't know E would come off as a big fresh surpise. I also predict Montez Ford, who has been on fire lately, has the long run as the "worker" in the match.
Richard: When you look at the people already announced, the people who you could argue would be a credible opponent for Roman or Brock based on the booking, I would say that Owens, Orton, and Priest are the only ones who should win. There are others like Big E and AJ who should be considered options but aren't booked well enough. I am more interested in which feuds will develop out of this match. I can see Dominik and Rey starting their feud after one eliminates the other. There will probably be something with RK-Bro and Alpha Academy since they are in a feud on Raw (are you ready for a scooter race?). They should start with Johnny Knoxville and Sami Zayn and then have the rest of the Jackasses (the movie people, not WWE Creative) help Johnny eliminate Sami and then they eliminate Johnny. What surprises will we see? Does an NXT wrestler show up? Does someone who has been out of the business be in the match? Let McAfee pull a "JBL" and be announced as an entrant while he is doing commentary, and then he gets eliminated by his buddy, BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOGS. I like the idea of Priest winning, but if he loses at Mania, does that hurt him and the US title?
30 Woman Royal Rumble match featuring Aliyah, Shayna Baszler, Bianca Belair, Nikki Bella, Brie Bella, Shotzi Blackheart, WWE 24/7 Champion Dana Brooke, WWE Women's Tag Team Champion Carmella, WWE Smackdown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair, Impact Wrestling Knockouts Champion Mickie James, Kelly Kelly, Lita, Michelle McCool, Liv Morgan, Naomi, Natalya, Nikki ASH, Summer Rae, Rhea Ripley, WWE Women's Tag Team Champion Queens Zelina, Tamina and 9 more competitors to be announced.
Dave: Well, it won't be Mickie James. It had better be Ronda Rousey returning and winning the Rumble or man, this will be flat.
Mike: If it's not Rousey, I call Flair wins and challenges Becky to unify the belts. Lots of nostalgia names, so fans of the Divas era should be happy!
Richard: What does it say about the women in this company when they have as many 'retired legends' in the match as current roster talent? You have Io Shirai, Kay Lee Ray, Raquel Gonzalez, and Dakota Kai available. Maybe they can have Aliyah start off with Natalya and some other allies for Nattie follow to set up Xia Li's entrance and eliminations of Nattie and Friends. If they want to have some fun, we get to Charlotte Flair eliminating everyone before number thirty is revealed and . . . STEPHANIE MCMAHON . . . I mean RONDA ROUSEY comes out and then they go at it for a while before Ronda eliminates Charlotte and then announces she wants to redo Mania in the Meadowlands against Charlotte and Becky (for night two's main event)
WWE Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch vs. Doudrop.
Dave: Piper Niven is soooooo good. In a perfect world, she would get the win here and show the world how great she is. Unfortunately, this world isn't perfect and she is not Piper Niven in it. They need Becky on top for Mania so she goes over.
Mike: Love Doudrop. She's awesome, but this won't be her moment beyond coming out with a hopefully great performance.
Richard: New opponent, probably the same result with Becky retaining. At least a women's champion is defending a title on a pay per view. This should be a very good match if they let us get Piper Niven against Becky and not Eva's assistant against Becky. A Doudrop win would be a big shock, but I am okay with big shocks for this show.
The Miz & Maryse vs. Edge & Beth Phoenix.
Dave: Miz and Maryse have the USA show and are more full time than Beth and Edge. They should win, and set up something bigger between the four for Mania.
Mike: No shot Miz and Maryse win here unless they are rematching at Wrestlemania. I am holding out hope for Edge vs. AJ Styles at the big show however.
Richard: I was hoping that this would be the Mania match so we could have Maryse running away from Beth at the start of the Royal Rumble match with them having 1 and 2. I would have Miz and Maryse win here so if they do something at Mania, it can have higher stakes and let Edge and Beth get the win. Maybe a stipulation that if Edge and Beth win, they get to have an episode of Miz and Mrs. (goofy, but we are thinking like Vince here). If this is not over on Saturday, do we need to have segments every week between these four? That would be Stupendous!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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