It’s January, wrestling fans, and you know what that means: The Royal Rumble!! There are not a lot of people declared for the Rumble quite yet, but there are a few certainties. I’m going to focus on one: R-Truth. R-Truth and Carmella won the MMC Season 2 which guaranteed them the number 30 spot in their respective Royal Rumble. So we know he’s there! And we also know he won’t win. But hear me out.
I’ve looked at the list of all-time Royal Rumble winners and there truly aren’t any “surprises.” The weirdest one is probably “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan in the very first Royal Rumble and he didn’t even get a WrestleMania title shot – he just won an inaguaral Royal Rumble that meant nothing. The second weirdest – or longest shot – outside of Vince McMahon is maybe Sheamus? I don’t even know. The list is littered by people like Steve Austin, Hulk Hogan, and John Cena. Makes sense, sure – but what if…?
Kayfabe is essentially gone in professional wrestling and I read way too many spoilers to ever be surprised but why wouldn’t the WWE do this? Okay, year 1 it will fail, for sure. But long term – this could be golden. There’s a money thing and no one wants to see R-Truth fight Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania. I get that. Or DO THEY? Think about it. R-Truth shocks the world by winning the Royal Rumble – EVERYONE will be talking about it. Then there’s a two month build to him facing Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania – Brock isn’t around and Truth is pretty entertaining. It could work. But why can’t wrestling be “spontaneous” anymore? It’s gotten out of hand.
Listen to this 3 year plan: R-Truth wins the 2019 Royal Rumble (and I’m using R-Truth just as an example. Sub in anyone “out of the ordinary.” Think about one half of a tag team – like Dash Wilder, or Xavier Woods, or Jey Uso). If it’s a tag team, you have a built in storyline anyway – tag team partner helps him win the title, maybe gets jealous along the way and you have elevated two people to main event status. If it’s R-Truth you have unpredictability. R-Truth can’t beat Brock Lesnar. He just can’t. BUT MAYBE HE DOESN’T HAVE TO. What if Brock gets so cocky that something happens? Or the ref gets knocked down and then someone interferes because they hate Brock and it sets up his new program? What if Dana White comes straight to the WWE and kicks Brock’s ass himself?! R-Truth probably isn’t a long term answer at WWE Champion – but it’s interesting, isn’t it? So then the next year, people are on the lookout because truly ANYONE can win. And you do it, again. You let Bray Wyatt or Luke Harper win the Rumble. A decent guy, just waiting for a push. You let an NXT call up win – just to prove ANYONE can do it. That used to be the tag line, right? But it’s really not. It’s “how do I set up a program that will draw the most money?” And that program usually SUCKS! Give Fandango a shot at the title and see what happens with it. This is the most stacked roster EVER. There’s plenty of matches to fill out the WrestleMania card. Let’s get some unpredictability back into wrestling so I care again.
What do you think? Think wrestling is too predictable? Don’t care about wrestling? (why did you read this, then?!) Who is going to win the Rumble? S/O to Erica and Addison who are probably foaming at the mouth to see R-Truth win the Rumble. Let’s GOOOOO!
I like your idea of someone in a tag team winning. What about Cesaro? Sure, I have my doubts about whether he can actually speak English, but if anyone has the in-ring tools, it’s him.
I’m personally a fan of the idea that the winner is debuting from NXT. I was much more excited last year to see Adam Cole enter as I was Rey Mysterio just to see how they would make him look. The same as Rusev a few years ago, they tend to let the new guy look pretty good, but you never really get the feeling they’re going to win. The first possibility that popped into my head was Aleister Black winning to face Daniel Bryan at Mania. He’s amazing, he’s believable, and a lot of people would salivate at the idea of the matchup. Then, with your idea of being even less predictable, I thought if Velveteen Dream facing Brock Lesnar. This idea got me much more excited than it should have. The buildup between Dream and Heyman would be must see TV! Either way, I’m all for an unexpected victor. Remember how excited the crowd got when Santino Marella nearly won? The fans would definitely accept it as long as it’s the right guy.
Cesaro definitely has the tools. Can we start our own promotion so we can give the appropriate people pushes?
Love it! Let’s just make the entire Rumble NXT guys or something crazy so you have ZERO clue who is going to win it. I want to be surprised, damnit! P.S. Dream would take down Brock and I would love it.
Give me Velveteen Dream forever I love that idea. What about debuting the entire Undisputed Era and having them clean house, without turning on each other like they always make the tag teams do eventually?
And just the three of them walk out at the end and say fuck you to the entire WWE? Like what happens if all 3 members win the Royal Rumble and decide to never fight each other?! CHAOS I TELL YOU!