WWE Royal Rumble 2018: Final Picks and Predictions for Entire Match Card
The fan-favorite 2018 Royal Rumble pay-per-view is scheduled for this Sunday, January 28, at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
This is always one of the most important and fun events of the entire year as the titular gimmick match is beloved even when the results end up giving the crowd a sour aftertaste when everything is all said and done.
Despite previous failures, fans are always anticipating the next Royal Rumble as it represents the start of the Road to WrestleMania and sets the pace for how the rest of the year is going to potentially turn out.
With that in mind, there is always enormous weight on the shoulders of this event to deliver, so WWE was right to stack the deck as much as possible this year.
Not only will we see The Beast Incarnate fight The Big Red Machine and The Monster Among Men, there will also be a women's Royal Rumble for the first time ever and the WWE Championship is on the line in a special handicap match scenario just to sweeten the deal.
In a universe where anything is supposed to be possible and we should expect the unexpected, let's gaze into our crystal ball and give our predictions for who will walk away victorious at the pay-per-view.
United States Championship Open Challenge Match
1 of 9
Determined to prove himself a fighting champion, Bobby Roode is continuing on with the tradition of putting the United States Championship on the line to all comers.
Seeing that this is a co-branded event and one of the biggest shows of the year with the most potential for surprises, the possibilities of who answers the call is almost limitless.
On a regular basis, only the SmackDown Live roster would be available to call upon, but on this pre-show, the Raw roster, the talent in NXT and even outsiders and legends could step up for the challenge.
Is Roode going to fight his former teammate James Storm? Could this be the perfect opportunity to bring Ethan Carter III or Bobby Lashley back into the WWE fold? Perhaps this is even where Dolph Ziggler makes his return to claim that he is the rightful champion.
It's almost impossible to be able to call a match that doesn't have half of the equation figured out, but one factor that remains the same is how Roode only just recently won this title.
In fact, the finals of the tournament to crown a new champion were originally scheduled for the Royal Rumble before being bumped up earlier, so in a different scenario, this would have been Roode's initial title win.
It's hard to imagine that after all that build setting up Roode as the new champion, he would drop it so fast to someone else, no matter who it is.
This should be a fun match and there is certainly a lot of room for surprises, but one of those probably will not be a title change.
Final Pick: Bobby Roode retains his championship.
The Balor Club vs. the Revival
2 of 9
Sadly, not everything is shaping up to be as memorable and interesting on the pre-show as the United States Championship match.
One of the underwhelming matches announced for the kickoff will be The Revival and The Good Brothers in a rematch that follows their clash at the 25th anniversary of Monday Night Raw.
Both of these teams deserve much better than what this situation is playing out to be as all four men are talented and could have a smash-mouth feud that could really turn heads if enough effort were dedicated to the program.
That isn't the case, though. Instead, this is just a semblance of a feud where The Revival are looking to offset their humiliating loss.
This won't get the proper time to do anything but feel like filler, and since it will be the second time we've seen them fight already, nobody is going to care to see a third or fourth encounter, which is a shame.
From an optimistic point of view, at least this puts Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows, Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson on the card when they could have easily been skipped over for the Royal Rumble match.
Also, this is an opportunity for The Revival to get a win to offset their loss on Monday Night Raw, so the biggest mistake WWE can make is to have them lose again.
Final Pick: The Revival are victorious.
Kalisto, Lince Dorado and Gran Metalik vs. TJP, Jack Gallagher and Drew Gulak
3 of 9
As soon as Enzo Amore was suspended and then released, it was easy to predict that WWE would fall back into laziness and book another six-man tag team match for the cruiserweights on the pre-show.
This requires zero effort and in turn accomplishes absolutely nothing for the brand itself and the wrestlers involved.
205 Live simply doesn't have the audience that Raw or even SmackDown has, and it's hard to argue that booking like this helps in any way.
There has been an abundance of six-man tag team matches on WWE programming in the past few months, which is exhausting and ultimately amounts to squat since nothing is on the line.
With this setup in particular, it doesn't even make sense to have Gentleman Jack Gallagher in a match that doesn't feature the person he's currently feuding with, Hideo Itami. This doesn't advance their feud whatsoever.
Since its inception, the cruiserweight division has largely been relegated to the pre-show, which has given it a stigma of being nothing but filler. The WWE creative team couldn't bother to spend another 10 minutes sorting out a better plan that fans might actually be invested in.
Why not have the 205 Live general manager announcement take place here so the Cruiserweight Championship could be addressed at a venue that has more eyes on it?
Perhaps people would actually tune in to the pre-show out of curiosity of how the situation would be addressed instead of just taking one glance at this match and thinking they could skip it.
By the time the first hour of the main show is finished, the audience will have forgotten this match was even on the card, and it's unfortunate as the six men involved do have something to offer and just aren't given the tools to succeed.
As this is superfluous filler that nobody will pay attention to—including WWE staff—and little to no effort was put in booking it, the easy call of the babyfaces going over is likely what will happen.
Final Pick: Lince Dorado, Gran Metalik and Kalisto are victorious in front of an unenthusiastic crowd more concerned with finding their seats and not dropping their food than what's going on in the ring.
SmackDown Tag Team Championship: The Usos vs. Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin
4 of 9
Many will be quick to jump to conclusions and see Jey Uso's recent DUI arrest as the death knell for The Usos' time as champions, but don't rush to that judgment so fast.
Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin have been hovering around the SmackDown Tag Team Championship for months and WWE has yet to pull the trigger, so why should we believe that would happen now?
While there's still plenty of time before WrestleMania for any number of title changes to take place, The Usos are still the more popular and credible tag team of the two and that means they're more likely to be in the title picture come April.
Gable and Benjamin had their false title win tease on SmackDown, and that was good enough to have kept this feud going until this point, with Gable getting a victory over Jey to not only potentially act as a bit of punishment for the arrest but also help drive speculation that a title change could happen.
Normally, when someone looks strong heading into an event, they lose, so that's another sign that once the Royal Rumble has concluded, its time for The Usos to move on to other challengers.
The Bludgeon Brothers need somewhere to go, and they won't be paired up with Gable and Benjamin, that's for sure.
Stranger things have happened than for the weaker tag team to upset the better one, but this seems pretty straightforward.
Final Pick: The Usos retain their titles.
Raw Tag Team Championship Match: Jason Jordan and Seth Rollins vs. the Bar
5 of 9
WWE has always had a fascination with pairing up two people who don't get along and giving them a run with the tag team titles, which is not only the story being told with the current Raw tag team champions but also the former tale of the challengers.
The Bar only became a tag team as a result of a series of matches between Cesaro and Sheamus in the first place, so it's interesting to see how they are the united front against the fractured team of Jason Jordan and Seth Rollins.
Since this title win is so fresh and the story hasn't taken enough particularly interesting twists or turns yet, there's absolutely no way The Bar win the titles back and reset everything back to the status quo.
Not only is this reverting backward, it's also forcing Sheamus to wrestle more often and potentially further diminish his health as he's been dealing with injury issues as of late.
In every way, it only makes sense for Jordan and Rollins to win here, even if they do so with miscommunication and getting in each other's ways.
Be it through blind luck, pure baseline skill or just plot armor dictating that they continue to be the champions, Jordan and Rollins will hold these titles as long as WWE wants to tell this story, which likely will be until at least WrestleMania.
Final Pick: Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan triumph and retain their titles.
WWE Championship Match: AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn
6 of 9
Sometimes, it's too tempting to go with the wilder angle even if it makes little sense, but the WWE Championship match for the Royal Rumble is not one of those scenarios.
At any other point in the year, it might be possible for a 2-on-1 match to end with the championship being held by two people at the same time. When building to WrestleMania, it just doesn't make sense.
AJ Styles is easily the better option to hold the WWE Championship going into the biggest show of the year than to set up something where Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn would be sharing the responsibility and fighting someone like Shane McMahon.
Whatever WWE has planned for Owens and Zayn can happen outside of the title picture unless it revolves around the SmackDown Tag Team Championship instead.
Meanwhile, Styles will have a fight on his hands that will be difficult to overcome, yet he'll still find a way to pull it off.
The Phenomenal One isn't dropping the same title at the same event two years in a row.
Final Pick: AJ Styles retains the WWE Championship.
30-Woman Royal Rumble Match
7 of 9
While three women have competed in the traditional Royal Rumble in the past, never been has there been an entire Battle Royal dedicated to the women's division.
This is breaking new ground in multiple ways, and as such, it's quite difficult to pinpoint where WWE's creative team's priorities might be.
The easy prediction is to go with the most obvious choice: the undefeated Asuka, who not only would keep up her streak but also set herself up for a prime spot at WrestleMania to dethrone Alexa Bliss for the Raw Women's Championship.
What might get in the way of that, though, is if WWE plays around with the wording and rules for how to determine that she's undefeated.
Does losing the Mixed Match Challenge count if The Miz is the one to take the pin, and would a Battle Royal count as a loss the same way that a normal match would?
There's room for Asuka to lose and still be referred to as someone who has "never been pinned or made to submit" with that phrase being the exact wording they use from then on, opening up the field to other potential winners.
Sadly, for the women's roster, there aren't any other contenders who stand on the same level as Asuka.
Nia Jax is a possibility, yet she feels more like a red herring since the monsters rarely ever win.
Becky Lynch has a shot, but if anybody is going to challenge Charlotte Flair, the smarter bet is to go with Ronda Rousey making her in-ring debut for WWE in a winning effort to spark a Four Horsewomen of WWE vs. Four Horsewomen of MMA feud for WrestleMania.
In that situation, Lynch would join Sasha Banks and Bayley as ringside support while Jessamyn Duke, Marina Shafir and NXT's Shayna Baszler would accompany Rousey for the match.
Yes, there have been conflicting reports that Rousey would even be in the Royal Rumble, but this event's history has proven that you can never trust what anybody says regarding surprises, so until all 30 entrants have come out, it's still up in the air about her appearance.
Since this is a match where Asuka can lose without being pinned or made to submit—particularly if she's taken out of the fight due to an injury by Nia Jax as payback for the attack on her leg on Raw before—this can allow WWE to check all the boxes.
Rousey winning would set up her title shot against Flair, and Asuka would lose without really losing and hold a grudge against Nia Jax, allowing for a Triple Threat at WrestleMania against Alexa Bliss as she is the common factor between the two and the champion.
Unless there are plans for some shocking surprise return, Rousey and Asuka are the two top candidates to win, and the decision is going to come down to whether or not Rousey is actually in the match.
Final Pick: Ronda Rousey wins the Royal Rumble.
Universal Championship Match: Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman vs. Kane
8 of 9
Three of WWE's biggest and most dangerous men are set to collide for the Universal Championship, which might seem like it's anybody's game, but there's really only one person who stands much of a chance to win and that's Brock Lesnar.
The Beast Incarnate has held the Universal Championship since WrestleMania 33 with the clear goal being that he will drop it to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 34.
Throughout all of 2017, every title defense he had was met with speculation that someone could upset those plans, yet nothing budged, and the belt has stayed on course.
Braun Strowman has amassed quite the following but failed to capture the title twice before at SummerSlam and No Mercy.
This third time will not be the charm since Kane is exactly the right type of person to be in this match specifically to take the fall, allowing Lesnar to retain while not beating Strowman directly.
By the end of this match, all three men will seem like they're forces of destruction, but in some fashion, Lesnar will find a way to stay on top and keep his title.
Final Pick: Brock Lesnar retains the Universal Championship.
30-Man Royal Rumble Match
9 of 9
To cut straight to the chase, there are only a handful of people who can possibly win this year's Royal Rumble for it to make any sense: Roman Reigns, Shinsuke Nakamura or Daniel Bryan.
One-tenth of the field is all that could potentially win as the 27 other Superstars are nowhere near fitting to challenge Brock Lesnar or AJ Styles for their titles.
In the case of Reigns, he's the most secure pick as far as WrestleMania plans go since his match against Lesnar seems like it's been a lock since around this time last year.
Since the Raw brand has the Elimination Chamber, though, this might not be as set in stone as it might seem.
Either Lesnar defends the Universal Championship in the chamber against opponents who he's already faced multiple times, or the better strategy happens where the six men are competing to determine the No. 1 contender to Lesnar's title.
In that scenario, that is where Reigns would earn his title shot, meaning someone from the SmackDown side of things has to win the Royal Rumble.
Given Styles as champion and the roster available—including free agent John Cena—the best possible matches are for The Phenomenal One to reignite his feud with Nakamura from New Japan Pro Wrestling or, if it's medically possible, Bryan to make his triumphant return to the ring.
Both men have a history with Styles and could certainly put on a fantastic match at WrestleMania that would be the complete opposite of the Lesnar vs. Reigns encounter not just in terms of style but in terms of pleasing the audience members who don't follow the same directive as the company wants.
Lesnar vs. Reigns is what Vince McMahon and those officials want. Styles against Bryan or Nakamura is what the opposite style of fan would be looking forward to.
Keeping in mind how the injuries continue to build with Samoa Joe, Sheamus, Dean Ambrose and Paige, it's hard to have too much faith that Bryan will be cleared to compete, so by process of elimination, Nakamura gets the edge as the most likely winner.
Final Pick: Shinsuke Nakamura wins the Royal Rumble.
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.
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