Royal Rumble 2019 discussion

[HarmonicGenerator]

It's just a week away, so let's talk about it.

Wikipedia says the (jam-packed) card is currently:

Brock Lesnar vs Finn Balor - Universal TItle

Daniel Bryan vs AJ Styles - WWE Title

Ronda Rousey vs Sasha Banks - Raw Women's Title

Asuka vs Becky Lynch - SmackDown Women's Title

The Bar vs Miz & Shane McMahon - SmackDown Tag Titles

Rusev vs Shinsuke Nakamura - US Title

Buddy Murphy vs Kalisto vs Hideo Itami vs Akira Tozawa - Cruiserweight Title

And the two Royal Rumble matches.

 

There are currently 18 confirmed entrants to the Men's Rumble:

Rey Mysterio

Andrade

Mustafa Ali

Samoa Joe

Jeff Hardy

All three of the New Day

R-Truth (entering number 30)

Apollo Crews

Jinder Mahal

Baron Corbin

Elias

Dean Ambrose

Bobby Lashley

Seth Rollins

Drew McIntyre

John Cena

 

And 15 confirmed entrants for the Women's Rumble:

The Iiconics

Naoma

Zelina Vega

Sonya Deville

Mandy Rose

Carmella (entering number 30)

Mickie James

The Riott Squad

Bayley

Natalya

Ember Moon.

 

Putting aside the wondering about how they're going to fit all that into one show without it lasting two days, it looks a good card. All four main title matches could be excellent, and even if the Rumbles are disappointing, it's still the Rumble so I'll still enjoy them as they go on.

What are people's predictions?

I can't see any of the main titles changing hands but Miz and Shane have a shout at becoming tag champs.

For the Women's Rumble I can't see a clear winner unless Becky loses against Asuka, then enters and wins, and I'm also not sure how they'll pad out the other half of the entrants. They're overused the nostalgia returns in last year's match and then Evolution, and the alternative's packing it with everyone from NXT/NXT UK.

I'd expect some of Bray Wyatt, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn to come back from injury in the men's match, and maybe an NXTer or two - Black, Dream, maybe Ricochet. Wouldn't be that surprised if Pete Dunne went in. Would quite like Miz to be entered in the match, but be sore after the Tag Title match, so Shane nicks his spot a la Crown Jewel - leading to jealousy, leading to their Mania match. Expecting a Rollins win (unless they announce Braun and he wins back the title shot he shouldn't have lost, and they can then call him a Rumble winner without having to acknowledge Saudi) but definitely a Raw winner because Smackers did it last year.

 

[Onyx2]

This poster is boss. But my suspicion is Brock will have the Brock match, Finn will get in 90 seconds of offence, F5 F5 pin. Yawn. 

[UK Kat Von D]

Wouldn’t be overly shocked if Balor won just so they could give him a mental entrance at Mania. McIntyre is probably my pick to win the Rumble though and if he does Brock is best retaining 

[Jon-Carr_92]

Planning to do the all nighter again as I tend to for the Rumble. Mainly to root for my Royal Rumble Lottery picks. I think it'll be a chance for an NXT UK entry in both Rumbles as they're part of that tournament at Axxess. The Womens Rumble can also have a larger berth for NXT entries this time. Off the top of my head, I'm thinking Candace LaRae, Bianca BelAir or Shayna Baszler from US and either Rhea Ripley and/or Toni Storm. Perhaps Jinny from UK.

[WyattSheepMask]

Brock has supposedly wanted this match with Balor for a while, so he should hopefully have his working boots on. It’s also a real test for Balor in a top spot, he got the Iron Man treatment in last years Rumble (longest entrant at just under 58minutes and in the last 4) but they didn’t do anything with that afterwards. If he can produce something like Styles or Bryan did I their matches with Brock, he could push on from it.

The men’s Rumble is looking like it’s going to be either Rollins or McIntyre. I can’t see them doing something with Braun, who I’ve now completely cooled off of. They’ve had the chance to go with him on more than one occasion and have completely bottled it.

Bryan v Styles I’m sure will be very good, but I don’t see Bryan losing. No idea what they’ve got in mind for him at Wrestlemania assuming he gets through Elimination Chamber and Fastlane as champion

Smackdown Tag belts mean fuckall, so stick them on The Odd Couple why not.

On the women’s side of things- Ronda by awesome destruction, I reckon they’ll do some screwy finish to Asuka/Becky and Charlotte wins the Rumble 

Rusev beats Nakamura, who I honestly think is on his way out of the company, and Buddy Murphy to retain the Cruiserweight belt

[Murtz]

There's 2 PPV's between the Rumble and WM? I thought the Chamber was replacing Fastlane. That's a bit shit. Only gives 4 weeks for a proper build to WM with the final card.

[WyattSheepMask]

17 minutes ago, Murtz said:

There's 2 PPV's between the Rumble and WM? I thought the Chamber was replacing Fastlane. That's a bit shit. Only gives 4 weeks for a proper build to WM with the final card.

There was 2 between Rumble & Mania last year too, RAW had EC and Smackdown had Fastlane, they then went to co-branded after Mania.

if you dropped Fastlane, it would mean they’d have 7 weeks between EC and Mania and no PPV in March

[SpiderJason]

While I am 90% certain that Brock retains, there is a chance Balor wins here:

1. There is no need for Brock to be champion. He already lost to Reigns so he is not invincible anymore. There is no one to crown at Mania by taking him out, having already beaten Braun while and my belief Seth does not need such a moment with him.

2. Brock might have a new deal that limits his dates even more

3. Maybe they would prefer to have Braun finally beat him at Mania after losing the previous matches, but they do not want Braun as champ

3. Braun could be involved in costing Brook the belt

4. How awesome would The Demon King vs The King Slayer be at mania?

Just some thoughts. I expect Brook wins anyway, but reasons to believe.

[neil is brill]

48 minutes ago, SpiderJason said:

1. There is no need for Brock to be champion. He already lost to Reigns so he is not invincible anymore. There is no one to crown at Mania by taking him out, having already beaten Braun while and my belief Seth does not need such a moment with him.

4. How awesome would The Demon King vs The King Slayer be at mania?

Seth's whole arc is that he's finally bringing the title back to Raw for good. He might not need the moment, but for WWE to just throw it on Balor without taking advantage of the fact that the Universal title has basically been held hostage for all this time, is a bit silly.

How awesome would Demon King vs. Rollins be? Depends if the crowd are still upset about the colour of the belt. Their SummerSlam match was pretty decent, but spoiled by the shit crowd moaning about a bit of red leather.

I'd rather see Lesnar dethroned once and for all at Wrestlemania by a super over face who's looked strong for a while, not just a "it's January and we need to make someone look good quickly" push. Rollins has had his dreadful moments, but he's consistently all over the show, opening segments, backstage segments, main events all on the same episodes. Seth is getting all the airtime, so if they're not building him to taking the title off Lesnar, I have no idea what they're playing at.

[air_raid]

5 hours ago, SpiderJason said:

4. How awesome would The Demon King vs The King Slayer be at mania?

Not as good as a clear heel vs face dynamic that doesn't split the crowd .

Also, shit nicknames don't sound good on the marquee.

[SpiderJason]

21 hours ago, neil is brill said:

Seth's whole arc is that he's finally bringing the title back to Raw for good. He might not need the moment, but for WWE to just throw it on Balor without taking advantage of the fact that the Universal title has basically been held hostage for all this time, is a bit silly.

How awesome would Demon King vs. Rollins be? Depends if the crowd are still upset about the colour of the belt. Their SummerSlam match was pretty decent, but spoiled by the shit crowd moaning about a bit of red leather.

I'd rather see Lesnar dethroned once and for all at Wrestlemania by a super over face who's looked strong for a while, not just a "it's January and we need to make someone look good quickly" push. Rollins has had his dreadful moments, but he's consistently all over the show, opening segments, backstage segments, main events all on the same episodes. Seth is getting all the airtime, so if they're not building him to taking the title off Lesnar, I have no idea what they're playing at.

Fair points. I'm just offering the reasoning for why they might do it. With the current Seth/Dean it feels like Seth and Brook is something they really aren't talking about, so they don't feel its interesting or that is indeed the plan, waiting in the reeds.

I think they want Braun to remove Brock from WWE, and that match wouldn't need a title as they don't want Braun as champ, so its a way to get there. I've also realised they could move to Braun v Bobby in a big men Vince likes match that will involve smashing.

[SpiderJason]

20 hours ago, air_raid said:

Not as good as a clear heel vs face dynamic that doesn't split the crowd .

Also, shit nicknames don't sound good on the marquee.

Yep, The Rainmaker vs The Cleaner didn't sell, or The Beast vs The Monster.

IMO those are all great nicknames.

[air_raid]

2 minutes ago, SpiderJason said:

The Rainmaker vs The Cleaner

Wonky Japanglish nicknames to New Japan fans isn't the same as English nicknames to native English speakers and "Demon King" is fucking shit. "Kingslayer" is arguably worse because its "Oooh, look, we've borrowed from Game Of Thrones. That's cool, right kids?" And it plays off one big win he had, against Triple H, who currently is a babyface and certainly hasn't been slayed. Shit.

[neil is brill]

21 minutes ago, SpiderJason said:

Fair points. I'm just offering the reasoning for why they might do it. With the current Seth/Dean it feels like Seth and Brook is something they really aren't talking about, so they don't feel its interesting or that is indeed the plan, waiting in the reeds.

They aren't talking about it because if they were, they'd be saying "SETH ROLLINS IS WINNING THE ROYAL RUMBLE! NO NEED TO WATCH IT NOW!"

We are in the build-up to said PPV, which up until last week featured Braun vs. Brock. So they're obviously promoting Rumble over Mania at the moment. However, Seth has called out Lesnar several times in the last few weeks, alluding to the fact that the only obvious path to getting a Universal Championship match right now is to win the Royal Rumble. Hence him declaring himself to be a participant a couple of weeks ago.

[BomberPat]

I've barely been keeping up with WWE for a while, so I'd struggle to intelligently predict any results, but I've got the Monday off work, so I'll likely be staying up to watch this one, particularly if I can convince people to have a get-together for it.

I actually had Strowman down as beating Brock before the match was changed - I just couldn't see them, on a Big Four PPV, going with Brock beating Braun clean again (yes, I know, I saw all the Brock/Reigns matches and still think this), and with the potential of Lesnar being UFC-bound, is it even a guarantee he works Wrestlemania? I'm sure Vince is going to do all he can to have Brock locked down for 'Mania, but he looks to be in UFC shape far more than WWE shape based on recent photos, and if he's seriously training for an MMA comeback, is he going to take the risk of a Wrestlemania match? Particularly if there's any chance of him being booked for UFC 236 in April (I'm even more out of the loop with UFC than I am with WWE, so this might be wholly out of the question).

Balor as his opponent is interesting, as it suggests a more dynamic match. Also, since Lesnar returned, he's had four clear weaknesses - steel ring steps, being kicked in the dick, hubris, and being hit where his guts used to be. As far as the latter two is concerned, a little dude who Lesnar doesn't take seriously double stomping him right in the diverticulitis (probably after a distraction of some kind, maybe Strowman) would make a lot of sense.

 

Otherwise, genuinely no clue. Men's Rumble feels wide open to me, could be anyone.