What's the story?
The Royal Rumble, scheduled to take place on the 29th of January at San Antonio's Alamodome, will officially kickstart the Road to WrestleMania. WWE fans all around the world have started predicting their winner for the Rumble and the matches scheduled for WrestleMania.
However, according to F4WOnline's Dave Meltzer, the WWE might've already made up its mind about this year's WrestleMania card.
According to Meltzer, the booking for RAW at this year's Mania is as follows:
#1 Roman Reigns vs. The Undertaker#2 Triple H vs. Seth Rollins#3 Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar#4 Kevin Owens vs. Chris Jericho#5 Sasha Banks vs. Bayley vs. Charlotte vs. Nia Jax for the RAW Women's Championship.
On the SmackDown side, the only match booked for ‘Mania as of this moment is Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt. There is no information concerning the SD roster as of yet.
In case you didn't know...
As mentioned above, the Royal Rumble has been scheduled to take place at the Alamodome in San Antonio on the 29th of January. The matches booked for that event are as follows:
1.) John Cena vs. AJ Styles (c) for the WWE World Championship2.) Kevin Owens (c) vs. Roman Reigns for the WWE Universal Championship3.) Charlotte (c) vs. Bayley for the RAW Women's Championship 4.) Rich Swann (c) vs. Neville for the Cruiserweight title 5.) Becky Lynch, Nikki Bella, and Naomi vs. Alexa Bliss, Carmella, and Mickie James in a Six-Woman Tag Team Match. 6.) The Royal Rumble Match
The RAW Tag Team Championship Match has been scheduled to take place on the pre-show. No official word has been given out about the SmackDown Tag Team Championship. The next brand exclusive PPVs after the Royal Rumble for RAW and SmackDown are Fastlane and Elimination Chamber respectively.
The heart of the matter
As far as the ‘Mania card for Monday Night RAW goes, Meltzer previously reported that The Undertaker vs. Cena match was off the table and added that he would face someone from RAW instead. Bruan Strowman was teased as a potential opponent a few weeks ago, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
Last year, Triple H was booked to face Seth Rollins at WrestleMania, but Rollins' unforeseen injury changed plans. But, this year they're planning to make that happen.
The split between Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens has been strongly hinted at since Survivor Series, however, nothing significant has happened since then. But, everything might change at the Royal Rumble, and with them closing this feud at ‘Mania for the United States Championship.
The match between Bayley and Charlotte at ‘Mania was an obvious booking decision ever since they kickstarted their feud at Survivor Series. Sasha Banks, after being relegated to a mid-card position, was also rumoured to be a part of something much bigger for ‘Mania, so her involvement in this match does not come as a surprise.
But, Nia Jax, also being involved makes it a unique scenario.
What's next?
According to Meltzer, the Superstars not mentioned in the list above such as John Cena, Finn Balor, AJ Styles, and Dean Ambrose to name a few, are also going to be booked for major matches. Matches such as John Cena vs. Samoa Joe, and AJ Styles vs. Shane McMahon, are being considered for ‘Mania.
Meltzer has stated that the current RAW and SmackDown Champions will not be going into WrestleMania as Champions. Thus, Owens and AJ will lose their titles sometime in the next few months.
Sportskeeda’s take
All the information mentioned above should not be taken as Gospel. Everything is still subject to change at the click of a finger. However, that being said, the card mentioned above seems pretty decent, but not something to really fanboy about.
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