Royal Rumble 2019: Predicting the quality of every match

To say that the Royal Rumble card is stacked this year would be an understatement. It might just be the best WWE card of any main roster pay per view in years. Hopefully, the booking will live up to what's being presented on paper (we always have to be cautious about that), but it's hard not to get excited about this Sunday.

The Royal Rumble match is often the most enjoyable of the year, but the eponymous match has often overshadowed the other matches on the card through the years, making the rest of it feel irrelevant. Not so this time.

With so much quality on Sunday's card, which matches stand out as the best of all? Should you want to avoid any of them? Here's how things should stand as far as quality goes.

#9 The Bar vs. The Miz and Shane McMahon

Every card, no matter how good, has that least exciting match of the night. This one is it as far as Royal Rumble 2019 is concerned. The SmackDown writers have done a decent enough job hyping up this contest, but it still stands as an underwhelming one. It's part of a storyline that feels like it's getting far too much attention.

The Bar are an excellent tag team and The Miz is very underrated as a wrestler, so I don't expect this to be a train wreck in the slightest. It just doesn't compare favorably with the lofty standards of this card.

Hopefully, WWE will do the right thing and put this one immediately after one of the Royal Rumble matches. It's a terrible spot to be in, but this is the match that sticks out like a sore thumb.

If they can make that spot shine, that's all the better on these four guys.

#8 Buddy Murphy vs. Kalisto vs. Akira Tozawa vs. Hideo Itami

All four of these guys are great at what they do. This match should be good as a result. Unfortunately, 205 Live once again gets the shaft to the pre-show. That's usually difficult to get the most out of a match, as the crowd is still filing in and there are still ad breaks.

Furthermore, fatal four-way matches usually don't connect as well as singles contests. That will be another thing hampering this.

Still, these competitors have all done great things on the purple brand. They should deliver a contest that's fast-paced and, where necessary, brutal. Buddy Murphy, in particular, is one of WWE's most consistent performers, so it will be interesting to see how he deals with being outnumbered on Sunday night, and the fact that he won't need to be pinned or tap out to lose his title.

#7 Rusev vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

So much for the end of the automatic rematch clause. Oh wait, it wasn't automatic...technically. WWE has at least done some things to try and get this thing going, at least in part.

Unfortunately, Rusev and Shinsuke Nakamura have been absent for the past few weeks. What is it about people winning the US title and then disappearing? That's going to hamper investment in this match, which feels like it's going through the motions, compared to the other matches on the card, at least.

Fortunately, Rusev and Shinsuke Nakamura had a very good title match on Christmas, where Nakamura finally dropped the title. There's no reason to think these two can't equal or exceed that on a bigger stage with fewer interruptions. It will be on the pre-show, so there will be some ad breaks, but nothing like a TV match.

#6 Men's Royal Rumble match

It feels odd ranking a Royal Rumble match this low, but it's up against stiff competition, and unfortunately, the men's side of things in WWE isn't at a bright point at the moment, absent the work of Daniel Bryan.

There's also always the potential for WWE to get it wrong. The company often does in Royal Rumble matches, particularly in this decade.

Still, it is a Royal Rumble match, so we're guaranteed some fun and suspense for an hour. The people in Phoenix will want to see Seth Rollins win on Sunday night, and WWE would be foolish not to give them what they want.

With Drew McIntyre, Bobby Lashley, John Cena, and others involved in the match, he's going to have a tough road, though, which makes it more exciting and more dramatic at the same time. Hopefully, things will go right.

#5 Ronda Rousey vs. Sasha Banks

It almost feels criminal to rank this match so low. On other cards, it would be one of the highest ranked matches. Ronda Rousey has more than proven herself as a big stage competitor, and Sasha Banks has been criminally misused. She's the type of wrestler that most people have their best match with. With Ronda Rousey already doing stellar work, we can just imagine how very good indeed that best match potentially is.

Such is the competition this match will be up against on Sunday night!

Still, expect an exciting, fast-paced, and technically proficient encounter. There's already a major fight feel surrounding this match, and Sasha Banks has slowly been bringing back some of that old Boss persona. She'll need it against Ronda Rousey.

I could very easily be wrong about this ranking. It might just wind up stealing the show on Sunday night.

But you can say the same about anything from here. That's what makes this card so good!

#4 Women's Royal Rumble match

The women's Royal Rumble match is the one that has the least room for error. If everything goes right, it should steal the show. If things don't go the right way, we could be in for a repeat of 2014 and 2015, where the fans completely turn on the match and make everyone in it a loser.

That will be the case on Sunday night, where everyone wants Becky Lynch to come in as a surprise competitor and win the thing. The other favorite in the match is Charlotte Flair, who nobody wants to see win it.

If WWE is smart, they'll play up that dynamic to the very end, which could lead to some of the most exciting television in years. We just don't know if that's going to happen, so we have to hedge our bets by ranking this fourth.

#3 Brock Lesnar vs. Finn Balor

It's the dream match a lot of people have had for a long time. It's finally happening and with it comes a badly-needed insertion of new blood in the Universal Championship picture. There is the fear that Brock Lesnar is an inconsistent performer, but things get better when we hear chatter that the champion specifically requested this match. He also works better with smaller guys in general. If Finn Balor turns up like he always does, there's no reason why Brock Lesnar cannot put on a clinic like he did against AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan.

So we have what should be a motivated Brock Lesnar in a first time ever dream match on one of the biggest stages of the year. That usually makes for the ingredients of a classic in the making.

The only thing holding this match back is that it will have something of a predictable path - tons of suplexes followed by a thrilling comeback that gets snuffed out. Still, it will be heart-pounding at the moment.

#2 Daniel Bryan vs. AJ Styles

Hampered only by its repetitive nature, this contest nevertheless has an excellent chance of stealing the show on Sunday night. Many people thought these two did just that at TLC, even over and above the eponymous match between Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, and Asuka.

AJ Styles has changed his attitude since then in his run-ins with Vince McMahon, even if it does feel a little forced.

Regardless, Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles two of the best professional wrestlers in the world, and if they get some time to go, they should tear the house down on Sunday night. There's nothing that should stand in their way to make that happen.

It would have been even better to see some kind of stipulation, but that's possible in the future. It feels like this should be the end of the feud, though, so that should elevate the stakes a little bit higher.

#1 Asuka vs. Becky Lynch

I didn't think it would be this high, but I came here as a result of the process of elimination.

Asuka is another of those wrestlers that usually gives people their best match. Now give her the white-hot Becky Lynch for the first time on television and on one of the biggest stages of the year, and you have everything you need for a classic.

We should still exercise some caution, though. The booking of this match will matter a lot, namely - how does Asuka retain while keeping Becky as strong as possible, and vaulting her into the Rumble match later in the night? If that outcome doesn't occur, both Asuka and Becky Lynch will suffer greatly.

It's a tightrope and we should rightly exercise scepticism in WWE's ability to walk it, but there have been some decent signs lately, and we can take solace in the fact that everything up until the ending should be awesome.

A WWE Hall of Famer called out AEW fans HERE