New Day vs. The Usos: Preview, Odds and Predictions for WWE Royal Rumble 2016

For The New Day vs. The Usos at WWE Royal Rumble 2016 to be anything other than forgettable, midcard fare, the wrestlers will have to make up for poor efforts from the writers.

The tag team championship feud has dragged. WWE hasn't nearly taken full advantage of one of its hottest acts, instead having The New Day wade through a rivalry with little juice.

Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens and Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte are both potential show-stealers on the Royal Rumble pay-per-view. The scrap over tag team gold can't claim that. While those other title matches have seen the animosity increase each week, The New Day and The Usos haven't progressed much.

Still, with as much talent as there will be in the ring when they lock horns Sunday, the action promises to be thrilling.

Those rooting for The New Day to maintain its dominance over the tag team division may not like how things unfold, though. Xavier Woods, Kofi Kingston and Big E enter the Royal Rumble as the champions most likely to lose their titles, even with the insane odds that Roman Reigns is up against.

Breaking Down the Build 

After dispatching The Dudley Boyz at Hell in a Cell, ending a monthslong feud in the process, The New Day needed a new set of rivals.

The Usos and The Lucha Dragons both entered the title picture, competing for the No. 1 contender's spot in November. The New Day, celebrating the one-year anniversary of its formation that same night, attacked both teams with the thinking that neither team would qualify to face it.

Instead, both earned a title shot at TLC. The three-team ladder bout was one of the best that PPV produced. 

It looked as if The Lucha Dragons were primed to take the straps off Woods and Co. It was the luchador duo who provided the bulk of the ladder match's key highlights. It was the masked babyfaces who were suddenly the focus of the division.

Then injury struck. Sin Cara suffered a dislocated shoulder to close out 2015.

WWE then had The Usos step up as The New Day's challengers instead. The company tried to stir up bad blood between the teams by having the champs grow enraged when The Usos took home the Tag Team of the Year Slammy instead of them.

It didn't work. 

The teams' chemistry failed to spark. Too few memorable moments unfolded between them as the weeks passed. Jimmy and Jey Uso scored a number of non-title wins, but little else happened.

Last month, former WWE Creative member Alex Greenfield tweeted about how bringing up an NXT team to take on The New Day would be a better option:

WWE didn't make that move. It didn't pay much attention to its chosen tag title rivalry either. As a result, the story has sagged.

As Jake Barnett wrote on ProWrestling.net, "The Usos and New Day feud feels like it started eight years ago."

Strangely enough, The New Day has spent more time bickering with Chris Jericho than the top contenders for the tag titles. When Jericho made his surprise return on the first Raw of the year, he immediately targeted the self-proclaimed "unicorns" of the WWE.

Y2J mocked their unicorn horns and did his damnedest to get "rooty tooty booty" rolling as a new catchphrase.

His interactions with the champs have been some of the worst material of his career. As much as The Usos and The New Day's story hasn't clicked, the Jericho stuff has been just painful.

The results of the title match at the Rumble will go a long way in revealing whether all this banter with Jericho was just a subplot or a precursor for The New Day's next rivalry.  

Odds

Team	Odds from Coral	Odds from Bwin
The New Day	4/7 (-175)	8/11 (-137.5)
The Usos	5/4 (+125)	1/1 (+100)

The New Day are the favorites but not by much. The closeness in odds points to this essentially being a coin-flip matchup. It certainly won't be much of an upset if the challengers triumph.

Also, according to Odds Shark, both Big E and Kofi Kingston are the betting favorites among those battling in this match to win the 30-man Rumble at plus-10,000 odds. 

Prediction

The smart move would be to have The New Day viciously dismantle The Usos and move on to new rivals. The feud is stagnant; The New Day needs a fresh narrative to regain its momentum. That doesn't feel like what WWE is thinking, though.  

It's looking more and more like Jimmy and Jey will dethrone the champs.

Look first at The New Day's record of late. Per CageMatch.net, the trio is just 4-8-1 since the start of December. Three of those defeats came against The Usos, including a handicap match where the titleholders had the numbers advantage.

That all points to WWE setting up The New Day for a fall and trying to build up The Usos for another title reign.

Brandon Stroud of Uproxx reluctantly predicted a title change at the Rumble. He wrote, "As much as I don't want to see it, I'll pick the Usos to win here." Lance Storm sees things the same way:

They're both right. Signs point to The Usos taking home the belts, if for no reason other than there hasn't been a title change in nearly half a year.

And with all the current interactions with Jericho, count on The Usos finding new foes, while The New Day keeps colliding with Y2J. A Big E vs. Jericho match is a good bet for Fastlane. The trio's powerhouse is looking like the biggest star of the group, and WWE is sure to be thinking about him embarking on a solo run soon.

That begins with Big E and his crew dropping the belts Sunday.

Title-match betting odds courtesy of Oddschecker.