Final Predictions for Lesnar, Rousey and Entire WWE Royal Rumble 2019 Match Card
The long wait for Royal Rumble 2019 is just about over. On Sunday night, 30 men and 30 women will compete for title opportunities at WrestleMania, and nearly every championship on the main roster will be on the line.
Finn Balor seeks to dethrone Brock Lesnar to regain the Universal Championship he held for one day back in 2016, AJ Styles will continue his rivalry with The New Daniel Bryan, Ronda Rousey and Asuka have their work cut out for them against two of the Four Horsewomen in Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch, among others.
Much like during the event, when fans are fixated on the timers for entrants, our clock is ticking down to get in our final predictions for what is going to happen at WWE Royal Rumble 2019.
Here's one last round of thoughts on which Superstars will be victorious and what will go down at the event.
Cruiserweight Champion Buddy Murphy vs. Kalisto vs. Akira Tozawa vs. Hideo Itami
1 of 9
Normally, when WWE doesn't feel confident enough in two singles stars' ability to draw on their own, one of the go-to fixes is to just throw more people into the match.
That is the case with the Fatal 4-Way for the Cruiserweight Championship, as there haven't been any babyfaces built up strongly enough to challenge Buddy Murphy on their own for it to be worth checking out beyond a random exhibition.
Kalisto and Akira Tozawa are former champions, but momentum and immense popularity isn't on their side, and Hideo Itami is a heel who is still struggling to find his way.
All four men are talented, and this will undoubtedly be a fun match, but its position on the Kickoff and WWE's inability to update the graphic on the website to fit with the rest of the non-generic backgrounds prove this won't be a big deal.
As such, no title change should be expected. This will be a run-of-the-mill defense that will be quickly swept under the rug while the 205 Live roster continues to not get the credit and attention it deserves.
Final Pick: Murphy retains the championship.
United States Champion Rusev vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
2 of 9
After Shinsuke Nakamura won the United States Championship in July, he and the belt were pushed aside and treated like afterthoughts on SmackDown Live.
Rarely did he make any appearances, and when he did, they were inconsequential.
Sadly, this bad luck and negativity has transferred over to Rusev since he captured the title in December. This feud has barely been given a chance to formulate itself, let alone pick up any steam.
It's likely the only reason this match is even happening is because WWE needed pre-show filler, and getting these two guys on the card in some fashion was considered a bigger deal than showcasing the Raw Tag Team Championships.
This is a match that WWE doesn't care about, and it's not going to move the needle.
Final Pick: Rusev retains the championship.
SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Bar vs. Shane McMahon and The Miz
3 of 9
Normally, when there's a weird stipulation, an oddball pairing of two unlikely partners and an interesting what-if scenario put out there, that is the direction WWE decides to go.
The temptation of going down that path is too much to resist, even if there aren't any plans about where to go from that point, as if the powers that be are just as hyped to see what comes next as the fans.
For that reason alone, it's easy to pick The Miz and Shane McMahon to win the SmackDown Tag Team Championship belts from The Bar, as Sheamus and Cesaro have held them long enough that their credibility won't be shattered by this loss.
Plus, keeping The Bar as champions means the next few months will consist of matches against The New Day, The Usos and the usual suspects, which isn't as interesting as the story of how The Miz and McMahon will coexist.
Whether they keep the titles heading into WrestleMania is one thing, but for this particular match, those two seem poised to upset The Bar and capture the titles before WWE figures out the next step after that.
Final Pick: The Miz and McMahon win the titles.
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WWE Champion Daniel Bryan vs. AJ Styles
4 of 9
This feud between AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan has gone on long enough that it's turned largely into a debate about whether hot dogs are a proper meal.
That goes to show how much WWE has stretched this out and how it needs to end. Styles has had enough rivalries that have extended past their expiration dates, such as his feuds with Shinsuke Nakamura and Samoa Joe.
After having such a long title reign, it seems The Phenomenal One isn't in a great position to regain the WWE Championship, but don't count him out entirely.
A clear and obvious challenger has yet to be established for Bryan at WrestleMania, yet Randy Orton seems the logical next feud for Styles.
WWE could put the title back on Styles in order to make that a championship feud while trying to sort out what to do with Bryan, if those plans haven't been settled.
It's at least food for thought—hopefully more nutritious food than hot dogs—but when push comes to shove, it's always a smarter bet to pick the champion to retain rather than drop the belt at this time of the year.
Final Pick: Bryan retains the championship.
Universal Champion Brock Lesnar vs. Finn Balor
5 of 9
When in doubt, always go with Brock Lesnar to win every match that he's in, particularly if he's holding a championship.
That prediction gets magnified with each extra element to this contest against Finn Balor, as the Universal Championship has especially been Lesnar's baby, The Beast Incarnate is twice the size of Balor and we're heading into WrestleMania season.
February and March will be relatively easy for Lesnar to skip out on, since fans will be distracted by Elimination Chamber and the build to WrestleMania around Fastlane, allowing him to opt out of a title defense until the big one itself on April 7.
Balor, in the meantime, will fight the good fight here but come up short. As a consolation prize, he'll be able to talk about how he did his best and how he's proud of that and considers that a win, but it will still not net him the belt.
The inaugural universal champion may never get to hold the title for more than his 24-hour reign or his time may come somewhere down the line to erase that black mark. But the time for that run isn't now.
The Beast Incarnate will take down even The Demon King, if that's the version of Balor that shows up, as he's keeping that title until at least WrestleMania, if not longer.
Final Pick: Lesnar retains the championship.
Raw Women's Champion Ronda Rousey vs. Sasha Banks
6 of 9
Let's cut to the chase and state the obvious: As good as Sasha Banks is, there's no way she's taking the title away from Ronda Rousey at this point.
WWE wouldn't have bothered giving Rousey the championship to begin with if the plan wasn't to have her keep it until WrestleMania, where she will most likely defend it against both Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch.
Meanwhile, Banks has the Women's Tag Team Championships in her sights, as she and Bayley are going to be perhaps the most prominently featured team in that Elimination Chamber match, as well as the most likely winners.
WWE isn't going to put both titles on Banks or sacrifice Rousey's drawing power for the sake of giving The Boss her fifth title reign in the hopes that it will last more than one defense, unlike the others.
This is an open-and-shut case and one of the easiest matches on the card to predict the outcome for.
Final Pick: Rousey retains the championship.
SmackDown Women's Champion Asuka vs. Becky Lynch
7 of 9
If everybody and their mother wants Becky Lynch to face Ronda Rousey at WrestleMania and WWE has been well aware of this since November, there's no way the company makes the mistake of avoiding that match, right?
Surely WWE can't make the same mistake that happened twice with Daniel Bryan in 2014 and 2015, with the hopes that the alternative ideas will be good enough to keep people quiet in an era when it is trying to convince fans that the audience's opinion matters.
For that to happen, Lynch can't be holding the SmackDown Women's Championship and still fight the Raw women's champion, so Asuka must keep the title here.
The only alternative to that is to switch it to Lynch, take it off Lynch again and find another way to give her a shot at Rousey. But that's all too complicated and making things harder than it needs to be.
Whether it's an outright loss or some kind of shenanigans come into play, with Rousey, Charlotte Flair or someone else interfering, by hook or by crook, Lynch must fail to regain the title.
Final Pick: Asuka retains the championship.
30-Woman Royal Rumble Match
8 of 9
Plenty of talented wrestlers are already announced for the 30-woman Royal Rumble match who would be able to put on great shows at WrestleMania, such as Ember Moon facing Asuka to rekindle their NXT feud or Bayley challenging Ronda Rousey for the Raw Women's Championship.
However, unless WWE has some trick hidden up its sleeve, there are only two possible winners for this match—and one of them isn't even announced for it.
The front-runner is definitely Charlotte Flair, and that is who everyone should place their bets on. A win for her would check off all the boxes.
She's WWE's golden child of the women's division and is given every accolade in the book because her level of talent and management's perception of her as someone the promotion wants to be that figurehead legend mix together to make the perfect concoction of a Superstar who wins more often than not.
A Royal Rumble win, if not several, is a guarantee for her career. And the only reason she didn't win last year's Battle Royal is because she was already the champion and was set to be the one to end Asuka's undefeated streak instead, which was a great alternative prize.
Flair's feud with Rousey hasn't concluded, and since WWE is so infatuated with The Queen, she's not going to be left out of the mix come WrestleMania. She's definitely winning this.
But since WWE obviously knows many fans are clamoring for Becky Lynch to be the one to challenge Rousey, they might split the difference by having The Man show up after failing to beat Asuka and go with both as winners.
Reminiscent of the 1994 Royal Rumble, when Bret Hart and Lex Luger both went over the top rope at the same time, Lynch and Flair can do the same thing in order to set up a Triple Threat at WrestleMania.
That way, WWE gets the Flair vs. Rousey match it wanted, the fans get the Lynch vs. Rousey match and everyone can have their cake and eat it too.
The only question is whether WWE goes with Flair by herself and spends February and March setting up a scenario for Lynch to get her way in the title match or if everyone cuts to the chase and just establishes a Triple Threat here instead.
Final Pick: Flair wins the Royal Rumble either on her own or as a co-winner alongside Lynch.
30-Man Royal Rumble Match
9 of 9
Not knowing who could challenge for the WWE Championship makes the men's Royal Rumble match troublesome to predict, as there could be a fun swerve in store like having Shawn Michaels face Daniel Bryan or something that seems farfetched until viewed in hindsight.
We can all speculate on possible surprises, but random guesses and hopeful leaps in logic aren't as sound arguments as what's staring in front of you.
If WWE is going to just go with the obvious, Seth Rollins will win the Royal Rumble in order to challenge and dethrone Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania.
This piggybacks off the good will of Roman Reigns by having Rollins take his place as the guy who wants to bring the title back into prominence to save Raw, it positions The Architect as the clear top babyface on Monday nights and it doesn't ruffle any feathers.
Sadly, that means it won't get people buzzing all that much, as many fans will write it off as boring and predictable. But that's where WWE's job becomes selling everyone on why we should care to see this match again rather than expect fans to love it by default and just go with the flow.
Anything can happen in WWE, and the Royal Rumble has seen many shocking outcomes in the past. Rollins isn't the one and only guarantee, but he's the favorite to stand tall in the end.
Final Pick: Seth Rollins 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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