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#5 Dolph Ziggler returns
At WWE Night of Champions last month, Dolph Ziggler defeated Bobby Roode and then Champion Baron Corbin for the WWE United States Championship. Just two days later, on the following Smackdown, Dolph bizarrely forfeited the Championship after saying that the fans did not deserve him and placed the title belt in the ring before leaving. The following week, Smackdown General Manager Daniel Bryan claimed that Ziggler was nowhere to be found and had indeed vacated his title.
As of this writing, we have no idea where this angle is heading. Many fans actually speculated that Dolph may have legitimately walked out of WWE but that is said to be untrue and Dolph is currently a part of the local advertisements for Smackdown pay-per-view Elimination Chamber in February. Wherever they are going with this, many believe that Dolph may return to TV at the Royal Rumble this Sunday and even potentially win it. He and Daniel Bryan are currently tied in 3rd place as favourites to win the 30 man match on professional websites.
#4 Surprise Women's Rumble Entries, But None in Men's
The Royal Rumble match is always the most exciting and anticipated match of the year. One of the biggest reasons behind this is the element of surprise. You never know who will show up.
Other than superstars from Raw and Smackdown, the Rumble is also open to cameos/debuts from stars of the NXT roster, debuts from superstars who are skipping NXT and cameo appearances from WWE legends. Although we may get an NXT debut or cameo, unfortunately, it seems highly likely that we may not get to witness the big-ticket return this year. This is because WWE has been downplaying cameos from legends in recent years, having none since 2015. That is how it will likely play out for the men's Royal Rumble, especially due to the number of legend cameos on RAW's 25 Anniversary show this week. But there will be a legend cameo or two in the women's match, that much has already been confirmed by WWE themselves.
We may also possibly see the "hyped" WWE debut of Ronda Rousey. The 'Rowdy' one has been rumoured for the match since it was first announced and WWE COO Triple H recently teased it as being highly possible.
#3 A Quick Universal Championship Match
If you added together the total amount of time that Brock Lesnar spent wrestling in a WWE ring in 2017, you would calculate up to about 50 minutes.
Yes, the WWE Universal Champion had spent less than an hour wrestling on television last year, and don't expect anything different this Sunday. The Royal Rumble, which will feature Lensar defending his Championship against Braun Strowman and Kane in a triple threat match, will be pushed fast enough for time as there will be two Royal Rumble matches, as well as at least 4 other matches. WWE is going to have at least one match cut down a little on timing and the obvious choice is the triple threat as they need to keep Brock strong for his match with Roman Reigns at WrestleMania. So 6-10 minutes into this match when you see that Lesnar hoisting Kane onto his shoulders for an F-5, you know the end is here.
#2 Botched Rumble Eliminations
A couple of weeks ago, WWE Raw General Manager Kurt Angle announced that the Women's Royal Rumble match would feature the very same rules as the men's. Now this is actually what we all wanted to hear, we wanted the same rules, we wanted equality, but that does introduce one issue for the women. Eliminations.
The majority of the WWE women's wrestlers are about 5 ft-5'6 ft tall. So they pretty much are just about the same height as the top rope or a little shorter. This will without a doubt create many botches when it comes to contestants being eliminated. Some of the wrestlers are going to have to use their whole bodies to throw themselves over, which will look like they are making no effort to try and stay in the match, which in turn will look really bad.
#1 A Predictable Winner(s)
The Royal Rumble match is always the most exciting match to watch every year. However, what has really taken the fun out of it in recent years is predictability and leaked spoilers. It has literally been six whole years since the Royal Rumble winner hasn't been leaked online, back when Sheamus won in 2012.
This year seems a little different thus far. Firstly because we will be having two Royal Rumble matches for the first time and secondly because instead of just one potential name being rumoured to win, each match has at least two. Roman Reigns and Shinsuke Nakamura are currently the favourites for the men while Asuka and UFC icon Ronda Rousey are the favourites for the women's. As of this writing, it really does seem like two of these four will come out on top.
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Bayley gives us a HUGE update on a top Superstar's upcoming return RIGHT HERE.
