I could see him making his debut but I really think Taker wins... Which leads to a few possibilities but I'm hoping we end up with a Cena Vs Styles Vs Taker main event at Mania.
Is it official that Angle is going to be in the Rumble match too? And also just heard AJ Styles got jacked at the Little Rock performance. They stole $8k, a Xbox 360, and other items. Hopefully the AJ Styles shirt I recently bought will help him recoup some of those losses, haha
Its hard for me to see Taker in a title match, but who knows. He could win it and then hold it till Survivor Series for is final match and drop it. I can definitely see Goldberg fighting for the Universal Title at Mania in a trip threat. Maybe Roman, Goldy, and KO/Strowman(plus Rollins if they decide to go with a Fatal Four Way)
Triple H announced the next tournament on the Network will be a Woman's tournament with women from around the globe with the hopes of strengthening the divisions on Raw & SD Taker wins the Rumble I see him in a match with AJ & Cena Rollins wins I think he goes into WM as champ vs HHH
I mean I look at it as Taker is doing his last run and whether that's this year or next I think he will probably get in the title picture at some point before he calls it a career. Plus with a triple threat he doesn't even have to carry a match I mean Cena and Styles can carry Taker to a 5 star classic at this point. And I think Cena has earned the Taker match and I think Styles has earned the main event this year. So why not throw it all together? I see Goldberg and Lesnar both costing each other the Royal Rumble and setting up their match at Mania. Owens vs Jericho seems like its headed to mania. Reigns will end up facing Strowman. Rollins and Triple H seems logical and that just leaves out Finn... He is the real wild card in this whole thing, I could easily see him returning at the Rumble and getting a shot at KO at Mania.
If the rumors were true that WWE creative wanted a Mania main event that could contend with Okada - Omega, I think the triple threat is a very good idea. To me it's uniquely western, since I don't see it often/ever in any Japanese matches. It lets a part timer get carried by two better workers, and allows for creative spots and frantic finishes. But at this point what match closes Mania? Universal title, world hw title, or a part timer match? Lesnar has closed out the last two joint PPVs, with squashes in both Summerslam and S.Series. I think Styles is a necessary piece if they want a 6* Mania main event, but they don't value the Smackdown title over Raw.
And there's Nakamura's possible debut too. Itami's supposedly healthy, so that tier of near contender level guys is filling up if Nakamura loses the title to Roode and gets called up. It's Nakamura, the clock is ticking.
Strowman will win and it will suck. Reigns vs Strowman headlining Mania is ****. Still could be a good Rumble match though, what with the debut of Joe and return of Finn. At Mania: Strowman / Reigns HHH / Rollins Taker / Finn AJ / Shane Cena / ______ Probably Jericho / Owens
Stroman (who I will say has improved being in better matches, the Zayn Last Man Standing was super good on both ends) he's not jumping from a fued with Zayn (He may not come out on top of) into a Universal Championship match at WM. It's really down too KO, Rollins, HHH, Taker, Reigns, Balor, Jericho (in a long shot) in the main event picture. Rusev, Stroman, Zayn, Cesaro, etc is still that next group. I think the WWE Championship should always main event. If WWE wants the hype of something like Okada-Omega, AJ/Cena/Taker or the HBK rumors that seem to be gaining steam vs AJ would be dream matches. HBK also said he wishes he could have worked with Joe and would enjoy being in the ring with
AJ/Cena/Taker or AJ/HBK & Cena/Taker Rollins/Triple H (Universal) Goldberg/Lesnar KO/Jericho Charlotte/Bayley/Sasha Stroman/Reigns bathroom break IC Ladder Match I have no clue what the tag teams belts, US title, CW title, SD women's title. Pre-Show matches should be PPV card worthy
At least right now I think Lesnar/Goldberg closes out the show, and it has the possibility to be good but not great. Hopefully Goldberg is working on his conditioning and Lesnar is trying to shape up so they can actually work a non-squash match. If they can repeat the same kind of buildup that they had for survivor series there'll be lots of hype. Except for calling Raw the "A show" there's been no outright declaration that the universal title is the top belt. So they can tuck Roman vs Strowman away from the end of the card.
I think the possibility of matches we can throw out now shows how much better the roster has become over the last year. It also helps people staying healthy of course. Hell I had completely forgot about Finn Balor until a poster mentioned him above
I have no clue who wins the Rumble with Seth losing his spot thanks too HHH. Probably someone not advertised (Joe, HBK, Shinsuke, Kenny The Cleaner)
The Rumble is so unpredictable this year and I love it. It could be from any 3 of the part timers to Braun Strowman(please no) to someone like Balor or Joe to even Kenny freaking Omega.
Yeah it's pretty annoying. All Raw can talk about is the "royal rumble match" while Smackdown is pushing all their feuds and Elimination Chamber. Did they pump this phrasing of "royal rumble match" so much in the past? The conspiracy theorist in me is also hoping for Omega to debut. I swear they didn't acknowledge the Japanese titles specifically before this week or last. Now they say NJPW this and IGWP that.
