WWE Royal Rumble 2016: Match Card, Odds, Potential Spoilers and Predictions

Does WWE dare make Royal Rumble 2016 a do-over for Roman Reigns?

Last year, Reigns emerged victorious in the annual event's Battle Royal, only to be wholeheartedly rejected by the crowd. Fans wanted Daniel Bryan in his spot. Fans believed it too early to catapult Reigns like this.

And so Reigns spent much of 2015 winning over a resistant crowd.

On Sunday, The Big Dog will enter first in the 30-man fray as both champion and huge underdog. Having him outlast 29 other Superstars puts him in danger of getting the same thundering boos post-victory. Or it could his crowning moment, the ultimate stamp of his arrival to the top tier.

Triple H, Brock Lesnar, Bray Wyatt and potentially a newcomer from New Japan Pro Wrestling are poised to stand in Reigns' way. 

WWE must put together a card for WrestleMania 32 without John Cena, Cesaro and Seth Rollins. Injuries may keep Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton out of the biggest show of the year too. The Rumble promises to shed significant light on what WWE has planned for The Showcase of the Immortals.

Are we headed for a Triple H-Reigns showdown? Is Wyatt going to get the honor of battling Lesnar? The Royal Rumble won't just decide the next WWE champ but do plenty to answer those questions.

News, Potential Spoilers

Just who is going to charge out of the curtains during the Royal Rumble? The format of the 30-man match opens the door for a variety of surprise entrants, but this year is especially intriguing with the huge rumors floating around.

For one, WWE's potential signing of AJ Styles (along with others from New Japan Pro Wrestling) has been the most talked-about story of 2016 so far. Fans may not have to wait long to find out whether all the rumblings are true.

PWInsider.com's Mike Johnson reported: "Styles will begin his tenure with WWE this coming week." He also noted "Styles is scheduled to be at the Royal Rumble this Sunday in Orlando, Florida as well as this week's Raw and Smackdown tapings in Miami and Tampa, respectively." 

That doesn't guarantee anything, but boy does it make each countdown on Sunday more interesting. Styles is the biggest American star who hasn't worked a significant stretch of their career at WWE. His potential arrival might be needed to offset a disappointment elsewhere.

Daniel Bryan may be sitting at home rather than entering the Rumble. 

According to Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline (h/t Wrestling Inc), UCLA doctors recently "deemed him OK," but that doesn't mean he's free to wrestle again. WWE has still not cleared him for a return to the ring. 

A surprising name could pop up in Orlando, though.

Josh Bredl, winner of the latest WWE Tough Enough, caught a surplus of flak on Twitter lately after referring to The Social Outcasts as "jobbers," as seen on TJRWrestling.net (NSFW language). That has apparently created some buzz for him.

Bryan Alvarez noted on F4WOnline: "We have heard from people in the company who want to see him in the Royal Rumble now."

That would be quite the misguided move as Bredl is way too raw to debut at this point. And that would only stir up the issues between him and the veterans.

Match Card

• Darren Young and Damien Sandow vs. The Dudley Boyz vs. The Ascension vs. Mark Henry and Jack Swagger (Royal Rumble qualifier)
• Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens (Last Man Standing match for Intercontinental Championship)
• Alberto Del Rio vs. Kalisto (Intercontinental Championship)
• The New Day vs. The Usos (Tag Team Championship)
• Charlotte vs. Becky Lynch (Divas Championship)
• 30-man Royal Rumble (WWE World Heavyweight Championship)

Royal Rumble 2016 Odds

Wrestler	Odds
Triple H	+115
Roman Reigns	+180
Brock Lesnar	+300
Bray Wyatt	+1500
The Rock	+1600
Daniel Bryan	+1800
Dean Ambrose	+2000
Kevin Owens	+2000
The Undertaker	+2500
Rusev	+3300
AJ Styles	+3300

Other notable odds, per Odds Shark, include Finn Balor at +4000, Vince (or Shane) McMahon at +6500 and Shinsuke Nakamura at +15000. 

Quick Predictions

• Henry and Swagger win Fatal 4-Way.
• Ambrose over Owens.
• Del Rio over Kalisto.
• The Usos over New Day.
• Charlotte over Lynch.
• Triple H wins the Royal Rumble.

Fatal 4-Way Royal Rumble Qualifier

As a random, throw-in bout to get some in-ring action on the pre-show, it's hard to project what WWE has in mind with the match between Darren Young and Damien Sandow, The Dudley Boyz, The Ascension and Mark Henry and Jack Swagger.

There was no build to this match. In fact, two of the four teams haven't competed on TV together.

As poorly as The Ascension has been presented, one has to label the team as the least likely to make the cut along with Sandow and Young, who have both barely been on-air of late. A Swagger and Henry win would allow WWE to put two former world champs in the Rumble.

That would help to a small degree with this Battle Royal being such a history-maker. 

Intercontinental Championship

Kevin Owens is such an intriguing option to face either Lesnar or Undertaker at WrestleMania that it feels highly unlikely WWE puts the IC title on him now. A loss here frees him up to take on one of those top names in April.

Meanwhile, WWE can continue to try to restore prestige to the belt with Dean Ambrose having a sustained reign.

Credit: WWE.com

Last year, the IC title changed hands five times, per WWE.com. It's time to stop passing around the gold so much and let The Lunatic Fringe actually establish some momentum.

United States Championship

How odd would it be if WWE just had Kalisto and Del Rio trade the U.S. title again? Kalisto's win on Jan. 11 was a powerful moment, a memorable upset. After he lost the championship just days later, though, the air leaked out of that moment in a hurry.

To then ask fans to invest in another Kalisto reign so soon would be a big mistake.

It's more likely The League of Nations helps Del Rio to retain here. Had WWE paid more attention to this story beforehand, signs would point to Kalisto winning. Instead, this promises to just be a filler bout.

Del Rio will move on after this clash and find a new challenger heading into WrestleMania.

Tag Team Championship

The smart move would be to have The New Day keep the belts until WrestleMania and take full advantage of the trio's antics along the way.

WWE, though, doesn't seem to be thinking that way. It has booked New Day to lose a bunch lately. Xavier Woods, Kofi Kingston and Big E have gone just 3-7 in their last 10 matches as a team, per CageMatch.net.

That speaks to WWE potentially setting up The New Day for a fall.

Maybe the company has plans for the stable to be a sore loser looking to reclaim its lost gold. Or the thinking could be as simple as: "We haven't had a tag team title change in five months. Let's shake things up!" 

Divas Championship

The Divas Championship bout between Charlotte and Becky Lynch has all the makings of the best non-Rumble match of the night. A well-told story and Lynch's emergence as a top-flight babyface has this poised to be a show-stealer.

Lance Storm, for one, is psyched about it:

As for the winner, as hot as Lynch has been, it's hard to imagine WWE not going with a Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte match at WrestleMania. That would have Lynch needing to step aside for the moment. She's proved she belongs in the title picture, but Banks vs. Charlotte is the money matchup waiting to happen.

Lynch will fall just short here. Charlotte will become even more of a heel, turning on her own father at some point.

Royal Rumble 

Expect Styles to show up but not Bryan. The latter has WWE on edge thanks to his history of concussions and surgically repaired neck. The former isn't dealing with those issues and is just what the roster needs after so many stars went down with injuries at the end of 2015. 

The Rumble will be the ideal place to set up Wyatt vs. Lesnar for WrestleMania.

Lesnar is going to need a high-profile opponent, and Owens may be busy with Undertaker. Reigns should have his hands full with The Authority.

Mike Mooneyham of the Post and Courier is among those who foresee Triple H coming in last:

It fits with the ongoing story of Reigns battling a corrupt empire. The Authority is trying to screw Reigns over. Having the champ go first and inserting the COO last is the logical conclusion.

The Game then being the man who robs Reigns of the world title would lead to the showdown WWE teased when The Big Dog went ballistic on Triple H at the TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs pay-per-view in December. That's the ending many see coming, but WWE has gone with the predictable three years running—John Cena, Batista and Reigns.