WWE Royal Rumble preview and predictions
The road to WrestleMania 35 is in sight, and by the end of the night Sunday at the Royal Rumble, we’ll be able to get our first real sense of the direction WWE is headed in over the next few months.
That goes for all four top title matches as well as both Royal Rumbles, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see one of the other three matches shake things up enough to send shockwaves all the way through to April, and beyond.
Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, Drew McIntyre and Braun Strowman have been the workhorses of Monday Night Raw, showing up every week and chugging along to carry the show in Brock Lesnar’s absence. Each has a potential claim as to why they would make a compelling winner of the 2019 men’s Royal Rumble match. Balor’s chances seem slim after he won the right to face Lesnar for the Universal championship, but for the other three members of that quartet the men’s Royal Rumble match seems as close to being within reach as could possibly be hoped for.
From field-fillers to legends to superstars making their WWE debut, surprises in the field make the Royal Rumble one of the must-see events of the year.
ESPN Stats & Info’s Joey Koontz runs through some key numbers ahead of the men’s Royal Rumble match — the most stats-friendly WWE event of the year.
Ronda Rousey still loves what she’s doing after one year with WWE and for now her escapist fantasy of a non-public life will have to wait.
First and foremost, Rollins has a lot of factors weighing in his favor. There’s unfinished business with Lesnar dating back to WrestleMania 31, when Rollins interrupted the main event between Lesnar and Roman Reigns by cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase and leaving the building with the WWE championship in hand. Since Rollins had to vacate that title in November 2015, however, he’s spent a grand total of a few minutes as a world champion and has largely existed on the fringes of the world title picture.
McIntyre is a guy who’s simply waiting for his big moment to step up to the plate and prove he can be the top guy. He had tremendous matches with a variety of Raw’s top stars in 2018, most notably his series with Rollins. If the desire is to put someone into the ring who can physically go toe-to-toe with Lesnar, McIntyre meets the requirements. He hasn’t had quite enough time on the microphone to prove himself until very recently, but it would not take a major leap for him to push past nearly there and reach top-tier status — and that could happen over the next two-plus months.
Finally, Strowman was unceremoniously bounced from the Royal Rumble Universal title match due to “bad behavior,” and everyone’s first instinct was to point towards his recent injuries to explain the switch. Monday night’s match against Balor seemed to change those perceptions, as he seemed to be moving perfectly well opposite Balor. If he indeed is in the men’s Royal Rumble match, Strowman could easily push towards the eliminations record and would be in line to finally get his big win over Lesnar at WrestleMania. Many might wonder if this moment might be a little too late to cash in on Strowman’s popularity and momentum, but only time can tell.
Finally, a dark horse could also come into play. Despite the WWE-announced injury concerns, John Cena’s record-smashing 17th world title reign could be in order for WrestleMania, and either AJ Styles or Daniel Bryan would be an intriguing opponent along the way. Most anyone else on the SmackDown side would have to be considered a major shock, although it would be a tremendous means of elevating a new star in a hurry.
In my mind, it all seems likely to boil down to Rollins and Strowman. I’ll lean towards the former, if only because the timing seems right for Rollins to step into the roles of Lesnar’s worthy challenger and, eventually, a champion of the people.
Prediction: Seth Rollins