WWE Greatest Royal Rumble Match Card, Potential Spoilers, Predictions and More

A bonus WrestleMania of sorts is coming in the form of WWE Greatest Royal Rumble.

Friday's special event in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, features a loaded card brimming with championship bouts and a number of marquee guest stars.

Undertaker will collide with Rusev with a casket looming at ringside. John Cena and Triple H will revisit their old rivalry. Roman Reigns will look to rewrite the story of his feud with Brock Lesnar in a steel cage Universal Championship match.

It's enough to wonder if WrestleMania 35 arrived early.

Still, it will be hard to skirt around the controversy surrounding the event. There will be zero female performers on the card during a time when WWE has heavily promoted the evolution of the women's division.

WWE has to hope fans focus instead on the scale and stacked nature of the Greatest Royal Rumble. It spared no effort in bringing in talent to make this event feel huge.

Before it all goes down on Friday at 12 p.m. ET on the WWE Network, read on for a preview of the show.

News, Potential Spoilers

Lesnar won't be traveling to Saudi Arabia alone it seems. His advocate Paul Heyman will be at ringside during Friday's steel cage match despite some early uncertainty about the situation. 

PWInsider's Mike Johnson reported: "Over the course of the day, it was confirmed that Paul Heyman is now working Friday's Greatest Royal Rumble event in Saudi Arabia."

Ahead of the big show, Zack Ryder hurt his knee during Monday's Main Event taping. He noted on Twitter things aren't as bad as they first looked:

Even so, he's presumably out of the picture when it comes to the Greatest Royal Rumble.

Betting odds favor two bearded Superstars in the 50-man Royal Rumble. Braun Strowman (+225) and Daniel Bryan (+250) are the two favorites to be the last man standing in that bout, per OddsShark.com. Also of note, Lesnar is the only champion who will be the underdog by the numbers.

Match Card (per WWE.com)

• John Cena vs. Triple H
• Cedric Alexander vs. Kalisto (Cruiserweight Championship)
• Sheamus and Cesaro vs. Bray Wyatt and Matt Hardy (Raw Tag Team Championship)
• The Bludgeon Brothers vs. The Usos (SmackDown Tag Team Championship)
• Jeff Hardy vs. Jinder Mahal (United States Championship)
• Seth Rollins vs. The Miz vs. Samoa Joe vs. Finn Balor (Ladder match; Intercontinental Championship)
• 50-man Royal Rumble match
• Undertaker vs. Rusev (Casket match)
• AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (WWE Championship)
• Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns (Cage match; Universal Championship)

Predictions

• Cena over Triple H.
• Alexander over Kalisto.
• Wyatt and Hardy over The Bar.
• The Bludgeon Brothers over The Usos.
• Hardy over Mahal.
• Rollins retains.
• Braun Strowman wins Battle Royal.
• Undertaker over Rusev.
• Styles over Nakamura.
• Reigns over Lesnar.

The Greatest Rumble

WWE is doing everything it can to make sure the upcoming Royal Rumble match will live up to its "greatest" label. 

For one, the field will include 50 wrestlers, the most in the bout's history. The star power in that contest will be off the charts. WWE.com listed Daniel Bryan, Rey Mysterio, Mark Henry, Kurt Angle and Shane McMahon as entrants.

There has been no word so far on any kind of reward for the victor a la the real Royal Rumble, though. That lessens the stakes and makes this more of an all-star game-type exhibition.

The Deadman Cometh

You have to go back to 2015 to find an Undertaker match that didn't occur at a Big Four PPV. In one of the signs WWE is going all out in Saudi Arabia, the future Hall of Famer is making a rare appearance in the ring.

Undertaker last wrestled at WrestleMania 34 on April 8, taking down Cena will little effort.

He'll now face Rusev in a gimmick match that has long been associated with The Deadman. It's hard to imagine this going long or ending with a Rusev upset. Undertaker is a past-his-prime special attraction at this point.

This clash is poised to be a spectacle and a celebration of Undertaker.

Styles vs. Nakamura II

When these two first met at WrestleMania, it was a babyface-against-babyface contest marked by mutual respect. After a number of cheap shots to the nether regions, the dynamic has changed big time for the rematch.

Nakamura responded to his loss by flooring the WWE champ with a low blow. Then he repeated the technique on SmackDown a number of times. To top it off, the Japanese blasted Styles' allies Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson on Tuesday night.

Styles will now be hungry for revenge as The King of Strong Style remains focused on taking the WWE title.

Their WrestleMania match was good but not nearly as sizzling as many expected. The second go-round promises to be better thanks to added bad blood.

The End of The Beast's Reign?

Were this any other international live event, one wouldn't expect the Universal Championship to change hands. The Greatest Royal Rumble, though, is anything but that.

Reigns couldn't knock off The Beast Incarnate at either WrestleMania 31 or 34. Surrounded by a steel cage and a likely more receptive audience than normal, the powerhouse will look to get it right third time around.

With so much talk of Lesnar potentially returning to UFC, it's not crazy to think he loses the title in Saudi Arabia while WWE continues its effort to build around The Big Dog.

As for the action itself, history says Lesnar vs. Reigns III will be hard-hitting and strike-heavy. It has a low bar to surpass as their last collision was an underwhelming main event.