We have the WWE Royal Rumble in one week and for the first time in a long time, it seems as if the winner of the 30-man match is a toss-up. Usually with a week out from the show, there are two favorites most likely to win the Royal Rumble while the rest are just sacrificial lambs for Vince McMahon. However, there are numerous directions the WWE can go with this year’s Royal Rumble.
The most speculated aspect of this year’s Royal Rumble is how the WWE will use Brock Lesnar and Goldberg. After Goldberg’s squash of Lesnar at Survivor Series, Goldberg announced that he would enter the Rumble. Right after he announced, Paul Heyman announced that Lesnar would enter the Rumble and now we have two monsters (one full monster and one old monster) in the Rumble. Can both men win? Yes...and no.
The problem with either man winning is a possible rematch may not happen as Lesnar or Goldberg would be going for a title, not for each other. The option is always there for either man to win the Royal Rumble and then have a Triple Threat match with the other man and the champion but that seems unlikely. You will see both men move through the Rumble and destroy mid-card wrestlers but neither Lesnar or Goldberg will win.
Let's look at other names from Monday Night Raw. Seth Rollins, Chris Jericho and Braun Strowman are the favorites to make noise in the Royal Rumble but only one has a real chance of winning. Jericho is on a month-to-month contract and will not be around much longer before his next hiatus so he’s out. Rollins is set to take on Triple H (finally) at WrestleMania so that means Rollins will not be winning the Rumble either. That leaves Strowman.
Braun Strowman has been protected and pushed as a monster since moving to Raw at the WWE Draft. Over the last few weeks, Strowman has been interjected into major angles on the Raw brand and taking on names like Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns. The question now becomes whether Strowman is ready to win the Royal Rumble and go for a title in the WrestleMania main event. That’s debatable and it seems the WWE may not be ready to go in that direction.
On the Smackdown Live end, there are no real contenders to win the Royal Rumble. For the most part, the match will be used to further the Tuesday night storylines and that is all. Look for a great performance from names like Bray Wyatt and Dolph Ziggler, but the Smackdown Live brand will mostly be used as the fresh meat for Lesnar and Goldberg. Even with Smackdown Live defeating Raw in the ratings, it is still considered as the red-headed stepchild of the WWE.
Add in surprise entries and returns and the Royal Rumble in 2017 could be the most unpredictable in the show’s history. With that said, the problem with being unpredictable and having many different theories being thrown around is that the wrong theory could be used and everyone could possibly hate it. There are probably many within the WWE who are burning the midnight oil to make sure that what they do is the right choice but whatever is decided, it is sure to garner reactions from fans and critics alike.
