The WWE World Heavyweight Championship being on the line in Sunday’s Royal Rumble match is about as fresh and intriguing an idea as sports-entertainment’s resident titans have had for quite a while.
The Rumble match itself is synonymous with professional wrestling lore, something that it rightly should be. Since 1988, the annual over-the-top-rope extravaganza has heralded some of the most iconic, significant moments in the business and has helped not only accelerate stars to the next level, but provide the starter elements in a superstar’s journey to WrestleMania.
On top of that, who doesn’t love a surprise entrant?
Drew Carey aside, the surprise entrants each year often make for some of the most entertaining, memorable parts of the pay-per-view. Face it: we are all still waiting for a Razor Ramon or Jake ‘the Snake’ Roberts cameo, something WWE really could have capitalised on last year. When you consider that both men were finally inducted into the Hall of Fame the night before ‘Mania 31, after finally overcoming their well-documented and potentially career and life-threatening demons. That’s a boat that Vince and co. may have missed.
Then there’s the question of how long entry number one will last each year. Are they going to survive the first few minutes? Will they get over halfway through the gruelling encounter? Are they going to have another Shawn Michaels moment and go the distance, fending off all 29 opponents? It’s something that’s always quite interesting to ponder and this year will no be different. With Roman Reigns laying WWE’s greatest prize on the line in the match, the pressure will be on for the Samoan Superman to channel the Heartbreak Kid as he looks to defy the mightily stacked odds of The Authority. After all, if he wants to remain in possession of the title, it’s something he will simply have to do.
For so long, Kane was the man to be beaten when it came to tossing men over the top rope in the January supershow. For 12 years, the Big Red Machine stood tall with 11 eliminations in a single appearance back in 2001 (a match which saw him being the final man to exit the ring thanks to Stone Cold Steve Austin) but that was then topped by this year’s star attraction: Roman Reigns. Still a member of The Shield, he had a fantastic Rumble appearance and bested Kane’s record by just one man to throw out 12 superstars. I guess Kane knows how Hulk Hogan felt, as the Hulkster’s record of 10 eliminations had stood from 1989 to 2001 until the Devil’s Favourite Demon decided to smash that one in the first (and up until now only) ‘hardcore’ Royal Rumble match, way back when at the start of the Noughties.
Still, Kane can take consolation from the fact it’ll be awhile before someone beats his record for total Rumble match appearances, as he sits on 18 at the moment, with a prospective (and more than likely) 19th showing coming this weekend.
But nostalgia and history aside, it’s a fair assumption to say that although it’s a fun match to take in every year, and it’s set-up for WrestleMania is a huge asset to the entire ‘Mania season, there’s something that has been lacking with the execution of the Rumble for a few years now.
With the Internet community and fans in general being as clued up as they are these days, the element of surprise is almost dead and forgotten in sports entertainment. It’s a sad fact that shock and wonder is practically gone and storyline direction is now common knowledge months before we watch it play out on a television screen, iPad or smartphone. A Star Wars Episode VII spoilers embargo would be a shot of life into professional wrestling. It’s hard to remember what it was like years ago, before the Internet was so prevalent and rumours were more or less unconfirmed (but more than likely), unhappened fact.
Well, it’s very likely that WWE are aware that even after maintaining the importance and reliability of the Royal Rumble for 29 years, it may be time to change it up. They attempted it back in 2011, when the Rumble went bigger and badder than ever, introducing 40 men to the fold, opposed to the tried and tested 30. On paper, it seemed brilliant. A match everyone likes? How about we make it run a little longer and throw even more names and faces into the mix?
Unfortunately, the match didn’t live up to the hype that was created around it. Sure, 40 men in the Royal Rumble was an impressive feat, logistically if nothing else, but it still fell flat. Alberto Del Rio’s ‘surprise’ win in Boston may have done some great things for him at the time but for whatever reason, the following year in St Louis, the old 30 entrant limit came back into effect.
So now the Royal Rumble match changes the game. For the first time since 1993, the winner this time will not receive shot at the World Heavyweight Championship in the main event match at WrestleMania. Instead, the winner when (both of) the final superstars feet touch the floor will be able to raise the aforementioned title right there and then. And that is where things are interesting. It totally flips the Road to WrestleMania on its head.
In theory, there should be some level of excitement returning to the Rumble match because for as many twists and turns as there could be (and have been in history) on the journey from January to March/April, again the formula is tried and tested. Whoever wins the championship match on Rumble night nine times out of ten, will be the champion when the bell rings at the start of the title match at ‘Mania. Likewise, by the end of the very same evening, the superstar set to be challenging for said belt has also been determined. This year: that won’t be happening. Quite the opposite. The only thing that will be crystal clear will be the man who can call himself WWE World Heavyweight Champion when they walk into Monday’s episode of Raw.
The reason I say that hinges on the fact that this has been done before, back in 1992, when the inimitable Ric Flair was crowned WWE Champion after entering number three and going right through to the end. It’s also fair to say that it certainly provided for some memorable moments and great throwback TV when the Nature Boy eliminated Sid, with some help from Hogan, who himself was in a rivalry with the now cult-hero that is Sid Justice/Sycho Sid.
Looking back at that, the landscape is radically different now to what it was in ’92. The room to manoeuvre is there. WWE needs to create viable stories from endless opportunities and hopefully, they’ll deliver when it matters. And that brings us to the questions we don’t yet know the answers to and maybe will never get to either:
Will Roman Reigns become just the third man to win a Royal Rumble match after entering number one?
When the dust settles, will we have answers to who will be the likely WrestleMania main event pairing?
What records will be broken on Sunday night?
Where will the ‘big players’ end up creatively when all 30 entrants have entered and exited the ring?
What surprises are going to be in-store in one of WWE’s most storied matches?
Are AJ Styles, Sting, Undertaker and a plethora of ‘wanna see them’ superstars to play a part in one of the most anticipated Rumble’s in recent years?
If it works, who’s to say it won’t be a recipe that can work for years to come?
Only one way to find out.
Let’s get ready to rumble!
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