My favorite PPV of the year! The Royal Rumble! This is the official start to the Road to Wrestlemania! There are MANY storylines heading into this big event, like Batista's return to competition, Punk's fight with the Authority, Lesnar's clash with Show and of course, the rematch between the golden boys of WWE. Let's get right to it!
Bryan/Wyatt should open the PPV. This match has been brewing for months upon months and it gets a big stage for the payoff! It should be a pretty good contest and it's Bray first big PPV match. It's his time to shine. He needs a good performance here against the hottest guy in the company. I'm really looking forward to this and seeing if Bray can hang with the big boys. I can't see Bryan losing steam going into Mania so I'm going with Bryan to win and end this feud.
Lesnar and Big Show meet at Royal Rumble 11 years after their initial clash in 2003. This must be done so Lesnar looks like an animal before his match with Taker at Mania. I hope I'm wrong though. This should be a match that showcases Lesnar's strength, as we need to see Lesnar lift Show up multiple times again but we're going to see it. It wouldn't be smart for Lesnar to lose, so I'm going with Lesnar.
Cena/Orton has A LOT riding on it, obviously. Whoever wins this match will most likely main event Wrestlemania against the winner of the Royal Rumble. It's really up in the air. The obvious winner is Orton, so that he can main event against the Rumble winner, Batista in an all Evolution main event. I wouldn't put it past WWE to swerve us though. I'd love to see Cena/Punk one more time, especially at the big stage. Or Cena/Batista. I'm really not sure who's going to walk out the champion but with more and more guys gunning for the title, I don't think this match ends clean. I'm going with Randy Orton to win here. Somehow, someway.
The Royal Rumble match this year, like many years, has only two or three real winners but there are many guys who will have a good run. First off, there are 22 guys ANNOUNCED for the match and that doesn't include Ryback, Axel, Bryan, Bray, Henry, Show, Barrett, Brodus Clay, any member of 3MB, Sin Cara, Santino, or the PTP so obviously so guys are going to get excluded. Also, that doesn't include the returns of some guys like Ziggler, Christian, Bourne, or the obvious guy to return Sheamus. Bryan and Sheamus HAVE to be in the match while guys like Henry, Ziggler, and the jobbers will probably take a backseat to some of the surprise entrants.
Punk being #1 basically guarantees he'll last the whole match and probably make it to the Final 4 which will be Punk, Bryan, Batista, and Reigns with the Final Two being Batista and Bryan, if Bryan competes. That's the only two that make sense to me, unless, like I said, Punk and Cena is in the works. As for surprise entrants, Jake The Snake Roberts is likely, RVD and Jericho would be awesome but the one I want to see and the world NEEDS to see, is Hulk Hogan. Hogan is suppose to be returning to the company and a return on the Road to Wrestlemania would be great. I would like to see Cena lose the WWE Title match, enter the Rumble, have all the guys down and then have Hogan enter the arena. It would be insane!
Punk's going to have the best outing, most likely lasting the longest. Reigns, who will probably enter #2, will either break Kane's record or come darn close. I suspect Ambrose or Reigns will have good showings as well as Big E. As for Iron men of the Rumble, Rhodes stands out after his history over the years and does Mysterio.
As for winners, my #1 pick is Daniel Bryan though I KNOW it wouldn't make sense, especially with only one World Title now, but he's the hottest guy going into the match. Batista is a STRONG and I mean STRONG #2. He's the obvious choice but like in 2012, the obvious choice doesn't always pan out. We'll see though.
Let's talk likelihood of winners by numbers. Let's first start with #s 1-10.
Numbers 1 through 10 have yielded 7 winners, with 5 of them coming from 1-3 ALONE. So much for being unlucky numbers. The first two entrants are usually marathon men, many lasting well over 30 minutes. Punk is already #1 and if years previous has taught us anything, he'll face someone he's feuding with. My pick is Reigns, to showcase him as the top member of The Shield before they break up. Expect jobbers to try and distract the two before some bigger names start to come out, maybe a surprise entrant.
11-20 only have three winners, Hacksaw in 87, HBK in 96, Cena in 2013. More jobbers of course and probably Batista will enter here. I wonder who will enter in as the cursed #14? Mysterio entered lat year and has barely wrestled in 2013. Hmmmm....let's just hope Batista or Bryan (if he's even in the match, can't believe I typed that) doesn't draw that number. I don't see a winner coming from these numbers just because the winners are 25 years apart.
21-30 have 16 winners in the 26 Royal Rumbles. That's over half. This also has the two best numbers in the Rumble to draw which are of course 27 and the not so talked about 24. 27 has 4 winners but 24 also has 3 winners, which include three of the biggest names of all time in Hogan, Austin, and Rock. Why doesn't that number get more buzz? Anyway, I'm really looking forward to seeing who is the final entrant. It's gotta be a surprise entrant this year. Batista doesn't need the #30 spot and since he already returned, I think it would be a waste for him. I'd like to see either Sheamus or Hogan enter at this number. Yes, I'm pulling for Hogan hard. I don't care that he can't wrestle, I just think that this is the best way to reintroduce him to the WWE Universe. And when is the last time Hogan entered a Rumble?
Here are the numbers to NEVER win the Rumble: 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 26. Will one of those finally get a win?
The Road to Wrestlemania starts on Sunday! It's going to be one for the ages.
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