The Royal Rumble is upon us! This year we got TWO RUMBLES involving men and women! As WWE likes to market things, it shall be an HISTORIC night full of MOMENTS! Wrestle Kingdom 12 is a success, now let's see what WWE has to offer for their annual January tradition PPV: The Royal Rumble. Who will join the elite ranks of Hogan, Austin, Bret, and Flair among many others as Royal Rumble winners? Find out below and my other predictions for the rest of the card! Cruiserweight 6 Man Tag-Team Match: |
RAW: Asuka Sasha Banks Bayley Mandy Rose Sonya Deville Mickie James Nia Jax Alicia Fox Dana Brooke | SD: Naomi Ruby Riott Natalya Carmella Tamina Lana Liv Morgan Sarah Logan Becky Lynch | SURPRISE ENTRANTS: NXT: Bianca Belair Iconic Duo Kairi Sane Nikki Cross Others: Eve Kaitlyn Kharma Lita Molly Holly Ronda Rousey? Trish Stratus |
Anyways as for the match itself, I'm predicting it actually to be the first one on the card. I personally am not a fan of this, no offense to the women but they don't have to replicate everything the men do, they can build their own legacies other than "first match/stipulation involving women!"
Royal Rumble matches themselves aren't exactly a masterpiece to show off technical prowess and amazing wrestling skills, and now with women being involved it will be a sloppier match. I know women's wrestling has improved immensely today but battle royal type matches aren't exactly where you can showcase your wrestling talents the best. It will be punch-kick affair with mostly near the ropes trying to eliminate your opponents.
The true heart of the match lies within the surprise entrants and I've had some obvious and bold predictions. First off I expect some NXT women to fill up the remaining spots such as The Iconic Duo and Nikki Cross for example, but that doesn't mean they'll get called up to the main roster, they're just there for surprise purposes and will go back to their regular roles in NXT after the match.
Alumni such as Kaitlyn, Eve Torres, and Molly Holly I think are obvious picks for surprise entrants. Lita & Trish being there would be cool as well for old time's sake. I know it's a stretch but here's hoping Kharma would make an appearance as well! A face-off with Nia Jax would be interesting at least.
Now the talk of town, one woman everyone and their dirt sheet writer mothers have been speculating whether she will enter the match or not; Ronda Rousey. Smarks have been arguing whether having Rousey in the WWE is good or bad for business, I myself do not mind if she appears. It's how the WWE uses her is where I worry. If they let her wreck the whole women's division then I won't be a fan of that, Rousey has been embarassed on her last two fights, she doesn't have the same aura anymore as she did during her peak.
Plus if she were to enter, I don't think she's winning. I know everyone is thinking, Ronda Rousey will win the women's royal rumble but I beg to differ. Sure it will light up a lot of mainstream media attention, but her just being there would be enough, I don't think they should sacrifice their tenured women on the roster for a part timer, but then again this is the WWE so you can never exactly know.
I know also that the obvious choice is Asuka and I do want her to win as well, continue her dominance and possibly even have a match against Ronda Rousey in the future but it might surprise you that she's not my pick as well.
My pick to win the first ever women's royal rumble might SHOCK THE WORLD and no I'm not talking about Fred Ottman, I'm talking about Ruby Riott. Some of you know are probably already laughing when you read that, but hear me out.
Riott is already a great wrestler, having been an experienced veteran. WWE needs to establish another top female superstar and Ruby Riott has "it" in my opinion. Plus it's a winner that nobody will see coming but I think the fans will appreciate, because like I said she already was beloved in NXT, they just need to give her that extra "push" so that she can rise to superstardom and even reach the levels of The Four Horsewomen. Out of all the women involved in this match, Ruby Riott needs this win the most and I want her to become the inaugural winner of the Women's Royal Rumble!
WINNER: Ruby Riott
2018 Men's Royal Rumble
RAW: Elias Finn Balor Matt Hardy Bray Wyatt Apollo Crews Titus O'Neil The Miz Roman Reigns | SD: Randy Orton Shinsuke Nakamura Baron Corbin Rusev Aiden English Tye Dillinger New Day FREE AGENT: John Cena | SURPRISE ENTRANTS: The Undertaker Batista Dolph Ziggler Neville Roderick Strong Pete Dunne Hideo Itami Tommy Dreamer EC3 Bobby Lashley |
For the confirmed entrants the obvious choice is Shinsuke Nakamura, everyone and yes including yours truly wants him to win the match. Styles vs Nakamura at WrestleMania for the WWE Championship is MONEY! Not only will it be a high profile match but both men are really over and I'm sure those two will steal the whole show and become a match we'll remember 10-20 years from now!
Then there's John Cena and Randy Orton who could always pull off an upset and win but I don't think they're doing that this year. The biggest upset the WWE could pull off is have THE BIG DOG win the match, oh the terrors, the Philly crowd will go nuts! Now that Reigns is no longer the Intercontinental Champion, his chances of winning in my opinion actually went up but jeezus I sure hope not. He can get that inevitable match against Lesnar some other way.
It would've been a cool moment to see a Wyatt vs Woken Matt faceoff but WWE killed the momentum of that feud in their shitty RAW 25 Anniversary show with Matt getting pinned in a matter of minutes, what a shame. Finn Balor also has a chance of winning but meh, I doubt it. I want a heel, preferably The Miz to enter at No. 10 just to upset the fans and have Tye Dillinger enter at 11.
As for the surprise entrants; The Undertaker might be the most obvious one. What else could that RAW 25 appearance be for right? Batista might appear too but that's kind of a stretch. The one I want to return the most is Neville, the Cruiserweight division is already dead as it is and Neville will hopefully breath new life into that or just go straight to the Heavyweights and forget the Cruiserweights, I won't mind that either.
Dolph Ziggler might also make his return at the Rumble. He could challenge Roode for the US Title Open Challenge too, but I see him more returning in this match, hopefully with a fresh character? Or is that too much for him? We might also get an NXT surprise entrant, my pick is Roderick Strong but hopefully they won't call him up yet, he still needs to be in NXT. Other possible NXT entrants are Killian Dain or Eric Young, but I think Roddy is the best bet.
UK Champion Pete Dunne might make an appearance too, him vs Neville face off would be nice. 205 Live representative should be Hideo Itami, he deserves some spotlight at least. The Rumble won't be complete without a nostalgia entrant and since they are in Philly why not have an ECW alumni? Who better than Tommy Dreamer, The Heart and Soul of EC-DUB! If Tommy won't be there, RVD or 1/2 of The Dudleyz may be? Sabu would be cool too but I doubt he is returning to the WWE anytime soon.
Other surprise entrants I think that MAY appear but it's kinda impossible are the recently released talents from IMPACT: EC3 and Bobby Lashley. It likely will not happen but they are surprise entrants I'll welcome and mark out for! Just please don't have EC3 return as "Derrick Bateman" cause that is an awful name.
Now that's all out of the way, who do I think is winning? It's the majority's choice and I have to go with it as well: Shinsuke Nakamura. He's the only logical winner for me and I know I picked Ruby Riott to win the women's rumble, meaning that's two rumble winners for SmackDown but hey why the hell not?
Styles vs Nakamura should headline WrestleMania, or at the very least be treated as a high profile match that it deserves to be.
WINNER: Shinsuke Nakamura
It's also great to be a wrestling fan this weekend as we're not only getting Royal Rumble and NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia, but also Day 1 & 2 of NJPW's New Beginning in Sapporo will be taking place this weekend too.
Headliners for those respective shows are Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Minoru Suzuki for the IWGP IC Title and Kenny Omega vs Jay White for the IWGP US Title.
Have a great weekend and Thanks For Reading.
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Super Mastodon. Spent countless of hours throughout my life watching professional wrestling. Now I write about it, because I like that too.
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