Royal Rumble Sets Up a Familiar Road to Wrestlemania
If used correctly, the Royal Rumble match can be one of the most effective storytelling tools on television. Thirty characters moved around in various combinations over an hour, constructing alliances, ruining friendships, building up new stars and/or sowing the seeds for Wrestlemania matches. And on Sunday night, the WWE put on an entertaining show that ultimately set up an extremely well trod path to their biggest night of the year.
We will start with the bad: Triple H, who is 46 and first won the title in 1999, is your new world heavyweight champion in the Year of Our Lord 2016. Barring a giant swerve, he will be participating in the main event at Wrestlemania. He competed in one (1) match in 2015. That said, between bad luck with injuries and bad writing aimed at elevating potential opponents for Roman Reigns, some will say Triple H is a defensible option. Perhaps that’s true, but we shouldn’t be in this position.
The worst news for the WWE was the reaction to Reigns, who was booed for a lot of the evening. The fans were behind him late last year when he reclaimed the title against the wishes of Vince McMahon, but making the Royal Rumble match all about him seemed to limit the options for potential victors and sour the crowd. The Rumble has revolved around a single competitor before — Stone Cold Steve Austin in 1998 and 1999, for example — but Reigns is nowhere near the level of peak Austin. That’s not a slight on Roman, as only one or two people in the history of pro wrestling have ever been that popular, but it is true.
But when Reigns went through the table— and his attackers were not wise enough to roll him back into the ring to make sure he was eliminated — it was just a matter of when he’d be making his return. After he made his way back to the ring, the WWE was smart enough to put Ambrose in the final two because they knew the live audience would be fully behind him, thus avoiding the potential awkwardness of thousands of people lustily booing your hand-picked top babyface as the evil corporate boss eliminates him to win the title.
There was a lot of good stuff in the annual battle royal before we reached the conclusion. A.J. Styles received a rapturous ovation from the crowd for his WWE debut (see below), and Kevin Owens was the perfect man to eliminate him. Along those same lines, Sami Zayn received a lot of love and was the right choice to then eliminate his old foe Owens. Brock Lesnar got to throw some guys around before being quadruple-teamed and eliminated. Dean Ambrose looked strong. Bray Wyatt was threatening, and Braun Strowman looked tough in eliminating a cadre of giants. R-Truth thinking he was in a ladder match was a great comedy bit, and The Miz was fun on commentary. This was the best Rumble match in a few years, although that’s not saying much considering both the 2014 and 2015 editions ended with seething crowds.
The rest of the show was devoid of any bad matches, with a lot of highlights along the way. Owens and Ambrose beat the hell out of each other in the night’s first and best contest, which made them both look even tougher for their Rumble match performances. New Day versus The Usos and Kalisto vs. Alberto Del Rio were Raw-plus matches, serviceable but nothing special. It was fun to see the ladies get the pre-main event spot, where they put on a nice match, but Sasha Banks — a favorite for her time at NXT, which tapes in Orlando — got one of the loudest receptions of the night.
Make no mistake, the WWE has been extremely unlucky with injuries, as every single champion coming out of last year’s Wrestlemania is on the shelf (Seth Rollins, John Cena, Daniel Bryan, Cesaro, Tyson Kidd, Nikki Bella), but the company is also very much complicit is their current situation. Consider where Rusev was last year when the showcase of the immortals rolled around (an undefeated champion coming to the ring in a damn tank) versus how he spent most of 2015: injured for a time, yes, but also involved in a ridiculous lover’s quarrel angle that never reached a satisfying conclusion. In this year’s Rumble, where he could have been built as a potential threat, he did not last two minutes. Then there’s Rusev’s opponent for most of last year, Dolph Ziggler, who came out of the 2014 Survivor Series as one of the biggest stars in the company, having just defeated the evil Authority with the help of a debuting Sting.* A year later at the same event he was fighting Tyler Breeze in a filler match nobody cared about.
* Ziggler’s 2014 heroics make way more sense when you consider that it would have almost certainly been Reigns in that position if he was not injured at the time.
The WWE never quite pulled the trigger on Ambrose, whose voided championship win last summer was well-received, but he’s managed to stay extremely popular and was probably the MVP of the event Sunday night. They’ve also done nice work with Kevin Owens, who lost his series with Cena but is one of the most popular figures in the company because he’s great at pretty much all things related to professional wrestling. Before his injury Cesaro was beginning to receive something that felt like a push, but he’d been ignored so many times after earning adoration from the crowd that it was hard to trust it.
Without knowing if we’ll be getting returns from the likes of Daniel Bryan or Randy Orton, there is a rough outline of a Wrestlemania card that could deliver from AT&T Stadium in two months. There are still a few potential moves to make, like call-ups from NXT or immediate pushes for some of the recent signees from New Japan, but here’s a rough sketch of what we could see:
World title match: Triple H (with Vince and Stephanie McMahon) vs. Roman Reigns (with The Rock and possibly Ronda Rousey): We know The Rock is going to be at Wrestlemania, and it makes sense that he would be in Reigns’ corner. We also know that Rousey was at the event last year in a prolonged segment opposite the McMahons, making her a potential option to support Reigns. With that kind of star power, I think this match could have main evented without being for the championship, which I would have used for Wyatt vs. Lesnar. As it stands, this looks like a retread of Austin vs. McMahon, only if the crowd wasn’t fully behind the good guy.
Of course it might be foolish to assume any main event plans are in cement, as we’ve seen crowd-forced detours the last two years. In 2014 the plan was for returning hero Batista to conquer Randy Orton, only the crowd essentially willed Daniel Bryan into two Wrestlemania matches and a title win. In 2015 it was to be Reigns conquering Lesnar, but Seth Rollins was injected into the proceedings via a Money In The Bank cash-in after the majority of the original angle fizzled. Will the WWE stick to the plan this time around?
Bray Wyatt vs. Brock Lesnar: Wyatt has perhaps been the most wasted member of the roster, made to look dominant for brief stretches before losing the big matches and being spun into nothing battles with competitors like Ryback or former ECW legends. With a little more of a push he would have been a sensible option to defend the belt against Lesnar, who will now spend February and March tossing around Luke Harper and Erick Rowan. The worst thing about this match is that it seems likely Wyatt could drop to 0-3 at Wrestlemania (previous losses to Cena and Undertaker), but perhaps with a little outside assistance he could steal a win from the Beast Incarnate. With the way Lesnar was eliminated from the Rumble, you can presumable write this one down in pen as a co-main event.
Undertaker vs. ???: The Dead Man seemed in relatively good health by the end of his last run, and considering he’s from Texas I think it’s safe to expect his match will be one of the main ones in Arlington. But against which opponent? They could go brother-versus-brother against Kane, pit him against Owens (everyone vs. KO seems like a good feud) or perhaps the most likely throwback option would be putting him against Strowman, who was built up as a monster killer during the Rumble. Would that necessarily be a great match? Probably not, but Taker has a long history of being thrown against Random Threatening Big Guy at Wrestlemania.
Related: Watch The Undertaker Wrestle a Man Dressed as a Turkey
Kevin Owens vs. A.J. Styles, Sami Zayn and/or Dean Ambrose: Or maybe against all of them. Both Owens vs. Styles and Owens vs. Zayn had the crowd hyped in Orlando, and we’ve seen the kind of work Ambrose can do when working with the man he beat for the title. What about a multi-man match for the Intercontinental title? Perhaps it makes more sense to put Owens vs. Styles, save the Zayn match for a future Wrestlemania and let Ambrose defend the title in a separate match.
Dean Ambrose Intercontinental defense: Ambrose could lose the title between now and Mania, but it makes sense to have one of the most popular wrestlers in a big title match. Could Rusev be built up as a credible threat? (Sure.) His League of Nations compatriot Sheamus could also work. He could also be the first opponent for Shinsuke Nakamura, a multiple-time champ from Japan’s IWGP expected to debut in the WWE soon.
Diva’s championship: Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks (vs. Becky Lynch?) (vs. Paige?): One of the best matches of 2015 was a four-way for the NXT Women’s title between Charlotte, Sasha, Becky and Bayley. Would a similar match with Paige subbed in for Bayley work? Whatever version of this happens should be great, whether it’s two, three or all four of these ladies in the ring.
Tag team titles: New Day vs. ???: Could this just be the Usos again? A multi-team match like we’ve seen the last couple years? Social Outcasts? Mark Henry and Jack Swagger? Big Show and random partner? Harper and Rowan? Two months is enough time to put together a credible tag team threat.
U.S. title match: Considering this title has changed hands three times in the last fortnight, it seems unwise to predict who will be champion going into April. Could it still be Del Rio and Kalisto going at it? This is a potential multi-man match as well, or just for kicks, how about a face vs. face Neville vs. Kalisto to tear the house down with some acrobatics on the pre-show?
Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal: This hasn’t been officially announced yet, but the WWE has put this on the card last two years as a way to get everyone not in a regular match into the mix, so we’ll assume it’s happening again.
And there you have nine pretty respectable matches to choose from or combine as you wish. The last two years there have been just seven matches on the actual Wrestlemania show, with one preshow contest in 2014 and two in 2015, so this is about the number needed. Throw in almost assured special appearances from Texas natives Austin and Shawn Michaels and you’ve got what should be a pretty good Wrestlemania, even if the main event storyline appears to be one that will seem very familiar over the next two months.
What are you expecting to see at Wrestlemania? Drop your suggested matches in the comments.
WWE’s Wrestlemania airs April 3, 2016 on the WWE Network
