Why WWE Royal Rumble 2017 Should Expand to 60 Superstars

The Royal Rumble is one of the most tried-and-tested cornerstones of WWE, having survived all the chaos from 1988 until today.

It is perhaps the most revered event after WrestleMania, as many argue that it is the true No. 2 pay-per-view rather than SummerSlam, mostly because of the Royal Rumble match itself.

Some might argue that if it isn't broke, there's no need to fix it.

That being said, ahead of the 2017 edition on Jan. 29, if one is to play devil's advocate and look for a way to tweak things, there's a change that might be worth thinking about: expanding it to a 60-wrestler match.

Change Is Scary

At face value, this may seem like heresy. The Royal Rumble is a tight, well-oiled machine we're all used to and can rely on as being the one gimmick WWE doesn't mess up every year.

That is, if you ignore what has already happened and look at things through rose-colored glasses.

In the first Royal Rumble, only 20 wrestlers competed. The following year, it was bumped up to 30, which it has been every year save for 2011, when 10 more Superstars were added to make 40.

Already, we've seen three variations of the number of participants, but those aren't the only alterations WWE has made over the course of the past 29 years.

The time between entrants has shifted from 60 seconds to 90—and even during those particular events, it has never remained a true constant, as WWE plays it by ear to sometimes hold off on a new wrestler until the moment is right.

Once in a while, if you willingly go over the top rope of your own accord, it doesn't count as an elimination. Somehow, Finlay was disqualified for using a weapon in 2008.

Women have been included in the match numerous times, as have world champions, people from outside WWE's roster, celebrities like Drew Carey and commentators like Michael Cole.

Perhaps the biggest change of them all was when the idea was implemented that the winner of the Royal Rumble would receive a world title shot at WrestleMania, but even that has been adapted over the years to reflect the brand split or lack thereof.

The Royal Rumble has gone through many tweaks over the years, and while some of them have been for the worse and never adopted again, the main point is that while a change to the system might seem scary at first, you never know how things will work out until you try it.

Don't write off the idea of a 60-Superstar edition of the Royal Rumble until WWE has tried it once or ideally even twice to work out the kinks. It might end up being the best thing for the match's longevity in more ways than one.

A Matter of Time

This past year, WWE adopted a strategy where all of the so-called Big Four events would have a similar setup. The brand split would cease during those pay-per-views, as both Raw and SmackDown would crossover, meaning there needed to be another hour added to the shows to compensate for extra wrestlers.

With the Royal Rumble event being four hours long with a two-hour kickoff, that effectively adds two full hours of programming to the docket, assuming the entire pre-show doesn't consist of recaps and video packages.

In the past, WWE has sometimes struggled to fill the Royal Rumble with meaningful matches, and the event has often been referred to as a "one-match card."

If that's the case, why not give people more of what they want?

When given a choice, would you rather see WWE compensate for the extra time by having a lot of downtime filled with commercials, backstage interviews, the panel of analysts repeating how "anything can happen" and other wasteful activities, or would you rather be swept up in the most important match of the year for a little longer?

There's a chance that doubling up the competitors might make the match drag on too long, but if that's the case, the following year, WWE could try going back to the 60-second timer to see whether that offsets it well enough.

Typically, it's hard to argue that more of something great is a bad thing, particularly if it's never been done before, so this might even be a nonissue.

Winding Back the Clock

Wrestling fans love to embrace history but are also quick to judge when the product hasn't evolved over time.

The crowd is just as likely to cheer a returning legend like Goldberg as it is to complain that he's taking a spot away from a younger, newer Superstar. It can't go both ways, but with 60 spaces to fill in the match, there's more room to play.

Every year, it's tough to predict which Superstars will enter the Royal Rumble, as any number of former wrestlers may be inserted into the mix at the expense of regular roster members.

There's no set amount this is limited to, and once in a while, all 30 Superstars feature on television every week.

However, seeing older stars return is one of the highlights of this event, so with 60 entrants, a handful could come back without stepping on the toes of the current generation.

Let's be generous and say there are 10 legends willing and able to enter the Royal Rumble match. That still leaves 50 spots for everybody else, which is more than enough to check off all the necessary wrestlers who should appear.

Ask yourself whether you'd rather see Kurt Angle, Carlito, The Boogeyman, Rob Van Dam, MVP and others from the past make a surprise appearance or would be OK with WWE saying there wasn't enough space to fit them in there.

The Full Scope of the Roster

Take the example above, which suggests 10 legends and 50 normal roster members, and you might think to yourself that 50 is too much and that WWE would never have the ability to pack that many people into the match.

Check the numbers, and think again.

There are 63 active wrestlers on Raw and SmackDown. Three of them are injured, which takes the number down to 60.

Two Superstars are world champions who should be excluded from the match, although there's nothing stopping WWE from allowing both to compete in the hopes that they may challenge the opposing brand's champion, but let's hold off on that and assume that rule remains a constant.

This leaves us with 58 wrestlers who are able to compete in the match—60 if you count Kenny and Mikey from The Spirit Squad, who may have normal contracts.

Already, we're at the limit if WWE didn't even want to include any legends, allowing every person on the roster to compete in the match.

This boosts the credibility of the winner, who would've outlasted every other Superstar in the company.

But what if WWE has another year like in 2015, when many more people were injured? That's where the NXT roster comes into play.

There are 24 more wrestlers in NXT who would be eligible to compete, ignoring Austin Aries, Hideo Itami and Sawyer Fulton because of their injuries. This doesn't even factor in any of the developmental stars like Riddick Moss, Tucker Knight and Patrick Clark, who are called upon to fill in the blanks.

On top of that, the cruiserweight division is also available for the picking, adding 16 more men to the fold.

WWE has well over 100 active wrestlers it could place in the match, but that's still not all!

When you include The Headbangers and the other outsourced talents who could be brought in from the indy scene and foreign territories—which has happened in many past Royal Rumbles before, with wrestlers from NWA, AAA and so forth—the possibilities are nearly endless.

This shows WWE wouldn't just be caught in a predicament in which the only additions are the jobbers who aren't worthy of qualifying for those 30 coveted spots. Instead, the Royal Rumble could have more room for a much wider variety of Superstars competing.

If you don't think the NXT stars should compete because they're in the minor leagues or that the cruiserweights should be kept in their own division, there are still plenty of other people to choose from, and this isn't even including the option of adding the women's division to the mix, which some might argue would be a fair policy.

MAIN ROSTER	NXT ROSTER	CRUISERWEIGHTS	OTHER
65	27	16	25+

Minimal Risk, High Reward

In the grand scheme of things, if this concept didn't work out for whatever reason, the repercussions would be negligible.

The Royal Rumble is beloved and has etched its place in history as one of the few mainstays of WWE that will never go away, similar to the WrestleMania name, the use of a TitanTron and referees playing dumb to allow heels to cheat.

If a 60-person Royal Rumble turns out to be a mess, WWE can simply go back to the 30-person format and stick to that version until another interesting idea comes along.

Fans would remember that particular year as a bad show, but nobody would stop being interested in the concept 12 months later when it starts being advertised again. Everybody would breathe a sigh of relief when WWE says it's reverting back to the old system.

Taking the risk would be worth it, as the potential benefits would far outweigh the possible negatives, and WWE will never evolve if it refuses to at least try to tweak things from time to time.

Sure, it might not be perfect the first time, but some of those flaws can be avoided if WWE were to go into this change knowing full well what problems may arise. The second time around, it should be considerably better.

WWE already has the advantage of knowing what worked and what didn't work from WCW's version of the Royal Rumble, World War 3, which was itself a 60-person match, so there's no need to try out the three-ring setup. Nor is there a requirement for the elongated entrances to start things off.

Giving a 60-person Royal Rumble a chance could either lead to great success or prove there's no need to ever do it again, making the 30-person version that much more revered when it returns.

In the end, you can't steer a car that isn't moving, and while the normal setup we're all used to is fantastic, we'll never know whether it can be even better unless we try.

What do you think about the idea of the Royal Rumble expanding to include 30 more entrants than normal? Should WWE consider this, or are you vehemently opposed to that happening? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below.

Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.