Finn Balor defeated John Cena, Drew McIntyre and Baron Corbin in a Fatal 4 Way on tonight’s WWE RAW to become the new #1 contender to WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar. Balor, the first-ever Universal Champion, will get his title shot at the WWE Royal Rumble.
As noted, Braun Strowman was removed from the Rumble match with Lesnar earlier in the show after an angle with Vince McMahon. The segment saw Strowman destroy Vince McMahon’s limousine, not knowing who it belonged to. Strowman had been searching for Corbin, who was hiding in the limousine. Vince originally fined Strowman $100,000 but Strowman argued with him and said the limousine wasn’t worth that much. Vince then pulled Strowman’s title shot because he got loud with him. There’s no official word yet on why Strowman was pulled but it’s likely due to the elbow injury he recently underwent surgery for. @Wrestlevotes reports that Strowman is still not 100% from the injury.
The 2019 WWE Royal Rumble pay-per-view takes place on January 27 from Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona. Below is the updated card coming out of tonight’s RAW:
WWE Universal Title Match
Finn Balor vs. Brock Lesnar (c)
WWE Title Match
AJ Styles vs. Daniel Bryan (c)
RAW Women’s Title Match
Sasha Banks vs. Ronda Rousey (c)
SmackDown Women’s Title Match
Becky Lynch vs. Asuka (c)
SmackDown Tag Team Titles Match
The Miz and Shane McMahon vs. Cesaro and Sheamus (c)
Fatal 4 Way for the WWE Cruiserweight Title
Kalisto vs. Akira Tozawa vs. Hideo Itami vs. Buddy Murphy (c)
30-Woman Royal Rumble Match
Carmella (at #30), Naomi, Zelina Vega, Natalya, Bayley, Sasha Banks, Ember Moon, Ruby Riott, Sarah Logan, Liv Morgan, Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville, Alicia Fox, TBA
30-Man Royal Rumble Match
R-Truth (at #30), Rey Mysterio, Mustafa Ali, John Cena, Andrade “Cien” Almas, Apollo Crews, Elias, Baron Corbin, Jinder Mahal, WWE Intercontinental Champion Bobby Lashley, Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, Samoa Joe, Finn Balor, Drew McIntyre, Kofi Kingston, Big E, Xavier Woods, Jeff Hardy, TBA