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With the Royal Rumble event approaching fast, we continue to make wild predictions about the event which could shake things up on all three brands of WWE. Even though some predictions hit while others miss the target, even a single one can do a lot in seeing how the future rivalries and storylines will build up for each brand.
Even though the event is famous for the 30-man and 30-woman Royal Rumble match through which one man and one woman will get a ticket to WrestleMania, there are a few more matches lined up for the event. Currently, there are seven championship matches lined up. That’s a lot of championships, with four being from the SmackDown Live brand alone.
Other than that, the cruiserweight championship from 205 Live will be put on the line and we will see the WWE Universal Championship and the Raw Women’s Championship defended at the event. With so many championship matches in one night, we expect at least three championships to change hands at the mega pay-per-view event!
Take a look at the three championships which could possibly change hands at the Royal Rumble PPV.
#3 The Cruiserweight Championship
The pre-show of the Royal Rumble pay-per-view will be fired up by the Cruiserweight Championship match. The current Cruiserweight Champion Buddy Murphy will defend his title against not one, not two, but three men. His contenders will be Akira Tozawa, Hideo Itami and Kalisto who are all incredible superstars.
205 Live is filled with talented men, and the best four will be battling for the championship on one of the biggest nights of the year. Expect all four men of having an equal chance of winning the championship, which decreases Buddy Murphy’s chances of retaining the championship.
While we could see a new champion be crowned in the form of Akira Tozawa, Hideo Itami, or Kalisto, Itami seems like the best choice at the moment due to his work on the roster and also the storyline that has been built around him. Expect a new cruiserweight champion to be crowned at the event which could certainly shake up the entire exciting 205 Live brand!
#2 The SmackDown Tag Team Championship
The Bar will face yet another goofy tag team in the form of The Miz and Shane McMahon at the Royal Rumble.
Before we justify this title change, remember that The Bar were the ones who lost their Raw Tag Team Championships to Braun Strowman and Nicholas at WrestleMania 34.
Now that that’s out there, The Miz is a good wrestler while Shane McMahon is, well, "The Best in the World."
With that said, The Bar is also a great tag team but given the time and circumstances, it seems as though The Miz and Shane hold the advantage as WWE are trying to put a title around The Miz to make him more prominent on SmackDown and give Shane another title for no reason whatsoever.
We could see a change of SmackDown Tag Team champions at the event as SmackDown tries to push the Miz and Shane storyline forward.
#1 The WWE Universal Championship
This one is the long shot, but the entire WWE Universe is behind the little man!
Brock Lesnar has held the Universal Championship for a long time in two separate reigns and has exhausted his time as the champion. Now the WWE Universe is ready to see a new man hold the championship that was named in their honor.
Finn Balor is definitely the underdog in this battle and will need to put in a lot of work to avoid getting squashed by The Beast. Therefore, a victory for him is something that is a bit too difficult to digest at the moment.
But looking at the past of Balor, it seems as though he is the perfect man to beat Lesnar at this point in his career.
Lesnar is usually comfortable facing larger and slower men in short matches, and longer matches against agile superstars have always tired him out.
Balor is the most agile superstar out there and he could actually pull off an incredible victory over The Beast which could crown him the Universal Champion once again.
