Friday 23 January 2015

Royal Rumble 2015 Predictions

It’s that time of year again, the ultimate opportunity. 30 men go in (apart from 2011) but only one will leave (apart from in 1994) with a guaranteed WWE World title shot. Here are 5 possible winners, some more probable than others:
 
1) Daniel Bryan – You got to admit from a storyline point of view, this makes perfect sense. The underdog overcomes the Authority wins the belt, gets injured, recovers, wins the Rumble and goes onto reclaim the title he never lost (and it makes up for the awful decision to have Batista win the Rumble last year, while the crowd chanted for Bryan who wasn’t even in the match!). I admit, it does sound good until you realise that it will be the same story as last year: Bryan versus the Authority. But the situation has changed. Batista is gone, Orton is seemingly not with the Authority and they wouldn’t put him against Triple H again. Which would suggest a bout against Seth Rollins. If that is the case, sign me up right away and give me a magic remote, so that I can travel forward to ‘Mania early.
 
2) Roman Reigns – Ever since his epic performance last year this guy has been favourite to win this year’s Rumble. The company seems to invest a lot in this guy and see him as their big name going forward. Is this his year? Yes, most likely. Despite Bryan’s comeback throwing a spanner into the works, Reigns is still the favourite to win. They got to be careful how they do it, push him too hard or have him eliminate someone like Bryan would be disastrous for his push. He doesn’t need another elimination frenzy like last year, just a clean performance to set up a most likely clash with Lesnar at ‘Mania. He is the favourite but are WWE really that predictable? Is Roman just a big red herring?

3) Dolph Ziggler – Hey, stranger things have happened. I know he’s currently fired and WWE seemingly doesn’t see him as a main event star but this could be a great opportunity for the “Showoff” to… well… show-off. He’s currently ‘fired’ at the moment which would make a great surprise at the Rumble and his win would really irk the Authority and allow him to fight to get his and his friends jobs back. The real question is whether WWE would really put Ziggler in a ‘Mania main event. You would think not but just look back to Survivor Series, I bet no-one predicted that either.
 
4) Randy Orton – It’s a given that he is going to make an appearance at the Rumble, it is just a question of ‘to do what?’ Will he interfere in the World title match? He’s got unfinished business with Seth Rollins. Could he cost him the win? It would be a bad move by WWE to just bring him back for the interference, so why not put him in the Rumble as well. It would provide a nice shock and if done well, get the crowd on his side. Of course, it could go horribly wrong like last year with Batista but Orton is WWE’s safe pair of hands. The only doubt is the Mania match. Storyline wise, it would make sense for him to face Rollins but would that really main event over guys like Cena, Lesnar, Bryan and Roman all of whom are going to be involved in the card. Most likely those two will get a grudge match at ‘Mania without the title, so the Rumble win for RKO is unlikely.

5) Cesaro – Dude can lift the Big Show over the top, surely he can… oh wait, we’ve forgotten that ever happened? Okay, WWE…

6) Triple H – Yeah, I said it. Personally I think it’d be awesome. It would be an obvious call-back to 1999 when Vinny Mac won the Rumble. But Triple H would make this work much better, mainly because as he has proven, he can still go in the ring. I’m still trying to work out the details, like who would he face at Mania. But let’s forget about that, how awesome would it be for Bryan to be the final guy and Triple H enter himself into the Rumble just to dump Bryan out. Imagine the heat. Yeah, it’s not going to happen but let me fantasy book in my head.

Others:
 
Bray Wyatt – It would be nice to see the WWE book him strong for once but this seems a step too much. Some promos cut during the match would be cool to see.
 
Dean Ambrose – A fan favourite and a winner the WWE Universe would get behind. But if he can’t even win a match on television, he’s not going to win the Rumble.
 
Either loser from the WWE title bout – This could be any of the three depending on the result. Lesnar losing the belt and winning the belt would be cool to see but would annoy a lot of people thereafter. Since they already complain about him being a part-time champ. Rollins winning the Rumble would also be cool to see but does he really need it? He’s already Mr. Money in the Bank and his time will come. And Cena, no, just no.

Do you agree with the predictions? Or do you have a different prediction for Rumble winner. Let me know @marcusandberg

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