Shore's WWE Royal Rumble Preview and Predictions: Who will start the road to WrestleMania 27 as the WWE and World Heavyweight Champions? Will the 40-man Rumble match deliver? Who are the mystery entries? (no spoilers)
Jan 30, 2011 - 11:00 AM |
By Chris Shore
The following predictions are made with no inside information on the match results. In other words, I am guessing just like you are.
Randy Orton vs. The Miz for the WWE Championship: This is the singles match I am least confident in picking. I really think Miz and Cena are going onto WrestleMania 27 to compete for the WWE title, but I'm not convinced Vince is fully behind Miz yet. He's still booked a little weaker than I would like, so I give this a decent chance of a title change. We almost always have one either at the Rumble or in the Elimination Chamber. I think this may be the odd year where both current champions move on to Mania, so I'm picking Miz.
Dolph Ziggler vs. Edge for the World Heavyweight Championship: I kind of gave away this one with my last pick, but I think this is also the easiest one to pick. Ziggler is ready, beyond a doubt. But he's not quite ready for a WrestleMania headline match. Vickie has the deck stacked against Edge, and shenanigans may yet play out on Smackdown next week. But I give it almost zero chance of a change here. Edge retains, but uses the spear in some way to allow for a story going into the EC.
Michelle McCool and Layla vs. Natalya in a handicap match for the Divas Championship: Will we see Awesome Kong here? I really think we do, though I think Natalya finds a way to survive. I'm not entirely sure how they will use her. She has to come in as a heel, nothing else would make sense. So I don't know if she runs in and helps McCool or if she attacks after the match. Either way, expect Natty to retain and Kong to establish herself as Natty's (or possibly Beth's) opponent at WrestleMania 27.
The Royal Rumble: With the Rumble being "the biggest ever" with 40 men, and with only three other matches on the card, this promises to be a long match. Whoever wins this will have significant bragging rights within WWE, so I expect a big name to ultimately come away with this.
I want it to be Alberto Del Rio, or at least a Smackdown guy because Raw has plenty of guys at the top of the card for title shots. Smackdown, not so much. I can't imagine Vince's current darling not winning a match that's going in the history books, so expect John Cena to walk away from this one, though I will not be surprised if they decide to go with Del Rio. That dude is beyond ready and will make a much more compelling champion than Edge.
As far as surprises, we know of two pretty big surprises but I won't spoil them here. Outside of those two, expect midcarders from the Attitude Era and/or Legends. I don't think we see Undertaker, but with the announcement of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin hosting Tough Enough (and surely to appear at WrestleMania 27) I give more chance to a Hunter return than ever. Adam Dunn will be proud. I also expect Sheamus, John Morrison, CM Punk, and at least one of the title match losers to have good showings in the Rumble as well.
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