Ah, it’s almost time. The new year has begun. It’s January. That means we’re on course for WWE Royal Rumble 2017! A handful of matches will happen, only to be overshadowed by the best gimmick match WWE has to offer! It’s the show that takes the edge off being done with the holidays.
This will be the 30th edition of Royal Rumble, which is fitting. The first Royal Rumble was a televised cable event in 1988, featuring a 20-man over-the-top-rope Rumble. It became a PPV with a 30-man match the year after. In 1992, the match was for the vacated WWF Championship. After that, it became a match for a guaranteed WrestleMania title shot. That is, except for 2016, where the WWE World Heavyweight Championship was on the line.
This is happening at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. This is notable for housing the 1997 Royal Rumble, won by Steve Austin. Also worth mentioning is that the Saturday before will give us NXT TakeOver: San Antonio.
30-MAN ROYAL RUMBLE MATCH
Winner Becomes #1 Contender for WWE World Championship or WWE Universal Championship
Known entrants: Bill Goldberg, Brock Lesnar
As it is right now, the big story is that Goldberg and Lesnar will be involved. At Survivor Series, Goldberg made a return match against Lesnar and to everyone’s surprise, he destroyed him within a minute and a half. Goldberg then decided that he wanted to try for one more title reign and entered himself into the match. In response, an emotional Paul Heyman claimed that Lesnar would enter as well to get revenge on that Survivor Series massacre.
WWE US Championship
The rivalry between John Cena and AJ Styles has gone on for much of 2016, but rested itself after Styles’ decisive victory at SummerSlam and again when Styles retained his title at No Mercy against both Cena and Dean Ambrose. Cena went off to do Hollywood stuff while Styles went on to feud with Ambrose and James Ellsworth.
Styles came out on top in the end and followed up with a successful title defense against Dolph Ziggler and Baron Corbin. After the match, Cena appeared to offer his hand and demand a title shot. Hesitantly, Styles took him up on it and shook his hand.
WWE Royal Rumble 2017 Rumors
Bayley vs. Charlotte is most definitely in the cards due to Bayley challenging the champ on Raw and winning in a controversial fashion. This one may lead to a title match before the show, but we’ll see.
There’s also Sasha vs. Nia Jax, based on Nia showing up on Raw to annihilate the injured Sasha. Since the company desperately needs to keep Charlotte and Sasha away from each other, this is a good way of going about it.
