History will be made this month in WWE as the road to Wrestlemania has been drastically changed. Ever since 1993, the winner of the Royal Rumble match usually earned a world title shot in the main event at Wrestlemania. This year however, things are a little bit different. As declared by Vince McMahon last night on Monday Night RAW, Roman Reigns will be forced to defend the WWE World title in the Royal Rumble match itself.
This is the first time that the title has been put on the line in a rumble match since 1992, when Ric Flair won the title in a star-studded match including Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Shawn Michaels, Undertaker and Sid Justice. It’s very interesting to see WWE go down this route for a few reasons. The big storyline for WWE is to obviously portray this idea that Roman Reigns is fighting all the odds and so far, I think it’s safe to say it’s working. Roman is getting some great reactions and is really getting over as a top main event babyface. It’s been a long time coming but it’s finally working for him. I think with this Rumble announcement, I think WWE’s plan is that Roman is again up against the wall as he’s got 29 challengers to deal with. However I’m not so sure it will work as well as WWE would hope because when you watch the Rumble, you have to go in with the idea that anyone can win.
Before this announcement, I was still unsure about who would win the Rumble but the new announcement now throws Roman into the mix as the champion. Unfortunately, this narrows things down significantly which is what I don’t think WWE should be doing. WWE should not be narrowing things down like that as those that watch the Rumble should go in with the idea that anyone can win. You don’t want your audience to be able to guess easily who wins the rumble. Now all of a sudden though, Roman once again becomes a big favourite to win which is one of the issues with this call. The last three Royal Rumbles were criticised for being too predictable. In 2013, it was John Cena winning to set up a predictable rematch with The Rock at Wrestlemania 29. In 2014, it was Batista coming back to win the Rumble. In 2015, it was Roman Reigns being pushed to win the Rumble despite the fans not really being with him. If you put the idea in the fans head that it will be either this guy or this guy, everyone else just seems to be there just to be a part of the match.
I want to believe that there’s a chance that a dark horse could come in and steal it all, but WWE is really shooting down that idea for me as a previous list of about ten or so people has been cut down to just a few. This also does add a bit of a twist to the booking of Wrestlemania. I really think because of all of this previous doubt over the main event, I think this is WWE’s way of buying themselves a month to come up with a plan for the show. I don’t think they’ve got a solid main event in the works yet. Maybe I’m wrong and they’ve actually got something in place, but I think this was there way of giving Roman a strong night regardless of their decision on the night. If he was put in early and does well but ends up being eliminated, at least Roman gets a little sympathy over the fact that he came so close but so far. He also looks strong going into Wrestlemania no matter who he faces.
I would be pretty annoyed if they were to introduce this stipulation and have the champion retain. I would understand and probably wouldn’t mind the booking of it because it’s Roman but to introduce this stipulation for the first in twenty years and to have the champion simply go through everyone would be detrimental to the road to Wrestlemania. If Roman goes through the Wyatt Family, Big Show, Chris Jericho and all of those guys, you leave only a few people left that could go up against him at Mania and be a legitimate contender. Let’s say they were planning Roman vs John Cena. If Roman beats Cena along with the other 28 people in that match and then Cena becomes the number one contender somehow at Fast Lane, Cena is going to look so weak against Roman. Unless it’s someone that wasn’t in the Rumble match, whoever challengers Roman at Wrestlemania would look insignificant.
It’s interesting. For now, I think Roman stands as the strongest contender. However, the list of Rumble entrants is still very small and there’s a bunch of big names that could be added to the match. Brock Lesnar is set to appear on next week’s edition of RAW and could easily be declaring his entry into the match. A lot of people are thinking that Triple H could win it. John Cena could easily be the victor if Vince believes that Cena would help the RAW ratings going into Mania. It’s still up in the air but I think the list of serious winners has been cut down significantly. It’s not a predictable Rumble YET but that could change in the weeks leading up into the event.
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