We’re six days away from the Royal Rumble, which means we’re also a week away from opening the road to WrestleMania. What are the plans for the biggest show of the year? Who will win the Royal Rumble? We are trying to answer these questions now.
Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar en Winner take all ?
Due to his Covid infection, Roman Reigns was unable to defend his title against Brock Lesnar on Day 1. This changed all plans as the beast became WWE Champion at Big E’s expense. scenario where one of the two would lose their title before WrestleMania. So the winner of the Royal Rumble would have to choose between the tribal leader or the Viking-style beast incarnate. Suffice to say that the choice is tough. However, the WWE seems not to want to miss a real confrontation between Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar, why not to unify the titles. But then what about the winner of the Rumble? Would he be included with the two in a triple threat match?
A more win-win solution would be to redirect the Rumble winner to the NXT 2.0 title held by Bron Breakker. Thanks to this, WWE’s “minor” show would be brought to the fore. Bron Breakker who seems to be a real project for the main roster would also be in the spotlight. Finally, it would leave the field open to have that clash of the titans between Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar. For the moment, we remain at the stage of rumors and NXT 2.0 is not even mentioned.
Otherwise, a more classic construction could take place. The winner of the rumble would choose their opponent in early February. Then, the other major champion would know the identity of his opponent after Elimination Chamber which will take place in Saudi Arabia on February 19. The WWE and Universal champions would therefore not cross paths during this period of construction towards WrestleMania. However, it remains difficult to imagine since the head of the table and Paul Heyman’s client have been looking for each other for several months. In any case, it is clearly the most interesting and relevant program at WWE at the moment.
Who to pick up Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair?
There’s no denying that Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair are the two most protected female wrestlers at WWE. It will be complicated for their opponents to take their titles away from them. Nevertheless, it should already be known who will have this opportunity. According to American bookmakers, Bianca Belair is the big favorite to win the Royal Rumble again after her success last year. However, we can think of Liv Morgan who is very popular with fans. Lita who said she still has a run in her legs, like Goldberg in 2016. Not to mention Nikki Bella who could play the leading roles again. Recall that she finished second in 2018 for the first women’s Rumble. However, we can no longer imagine the Bella Twins going to conquer the team titles so much Queen Zelina and Carmella no longer have any challengers. Finally, Rhea Ripley and Shayna Baszler are placed as big outsiders.
The plans still seem vague and we don’t know what to plan for. The main reason is that we don’t know if WWE is betting on youth and its active superstars like Bianca Belair, Liv Morgan or even Alexa Bliss who made her comeback recently or on their Hall of Famers such as Lita or Nikki Bella. A ready-made solution would be for Liv Morgan to win the Royal Rumble to begin redemption against Becky Lynch. Then Alexa Bliss wins the Elimination Chamber Match to avenge Lily from Charlotte. These possibilities only take into account the available superstars. However, we should not overlook a return of Asuka, Lacey Evans or even Ronda Rousey in our wildest dreams.
What role for others?
Alongside the men’s and women’s major titles, there are untitled rivalries between two headliners. For the moment, no program of this type seems to have been prepared yet. The first dissensions may begin at the Royal Rumble. We can imagine RK-BRO splitting up and giving us a great one-on-one match. The rivalry between Naomi and Sonya Deville has been going on for many months and could extend to the biggest stage in the world. Superstars like Seth Rollins, Bobby Lashley, Omos, AJ Styles, Edge, The Miz, Kevin Owens will definitely have a program like this unless he wins the Royal Rumble. In any case, WWE has not teased any non-title rivalry for WrestleMania.
Regarding the other titles, it is very difficult to see the possible confrontations since they are not considered as much as the four majors. We can see it with Shinsuke Nakamura who has not defended his intercontinental title for six months. Damian Priest mainly fights on Raw for his United States belt, but rarely on ppv. SmackDown tag team titles are blocked by Usos who have the Bloodline to protect themselves. On Raw, the number of teams is low and above all all the confrontations have already been made. Finally, for the women’s team titles, it’s simple, the champions are the only recurring team still active. We will certainly have to wait for the return of the Bella twins to see these forbidden titles again. These elements blur the potential rivalries to come for the show of shows.
This year, the outcomes for the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania are not as clear cut as usual. For once, WWE manages to keep its plans secret and certainly has a surprise in store for us. The various American news sites also announce the arrival of a “forbidden door” during the Rumble in addition to Mickie James, Impact Knockout champion. In any case, like every year, the Royal Rumble brings great interest around the Stamford federation and marks the opening of the Road to WrestleMania.
Photo credit: WWE
Auguste Amar
