One of WWE’s oldest traditions is the Royal Rumble. The twenty-first edition of one of the most popular concepts the company has presented on PPV comes our way live on January 27, from Madison Square Garden in New York City. Historically, the Rumble has always been a huge deal in the company, as it’s usually ranked third in importance from all the PPV shows, trailing only WrestleMania and SummerSlam. In the last few years, the company has added the stipulation that the winner of the Royal Rumble goes on to WrestleMania to face the World Champion, hence calling the night of the Royal Rumble the first day of the road to the “Showcase of the Immortals.”
Things aren’t much different in 2008. With a few booking ideas planned, Vince McMahon’s WWE is gearing up for the big event. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter indicates that Michael Hayes and Pat Patterson (known for his exceptional booking of Rumbles matches) got together on January 2nd to book the Rumble match, and produced a list of thirty superstars that will be involved. They went over everything from order of entry/elimination, high spots, and the like. Hayes met with McMahon the next day to OK the plans, and Vince was good on most of the suggestions. The final step in the process of the Rumble match is to get the OK of the participants involved in the match. The winner had been decided a few months ago, which is where we come in.
The most natural pick for a winner of the 2008 Royal Rumble match is one of the headliners on the SmackDown! brand. While it has not yet been announced, the plan for the RAW brand is an Elimination Chamber match at the February No Way Out PPV to determine the #1 contender for Randy Orton‘s WWE Championship. The company had long felt that the No Way Out PPV had no drawing power, being stuck between the Rumble and WrestleMania with most storylines for WrestleMania already known by its fans, hence the decision to build up the February event in a big fashion by giving the audience an Elimination Chamber match, and a #1 contender pick. The booking idea, which changes on daily basis in WWE these days, as of this writing was for Triple H to win the Chamber match and go on to face Randy Orton at the PPV — a main event that had actually been planned since Triple H returned at SummerSlam in 2007.
All signs indicate that this idea is still on, as Triple H was eliminated from the Royal Rumble match on RAW a couple of weeks ago, when William Regal caused him to lose against Ric Flair via DQ, saving Flair’s career. Since Triple H is the one expected to headline WrestleMania from the RAW side of things, and he’s not winning the Rumble, then naturally the spot falls for a SmackDown! guy to get. There’s always a possibility that they’ll decide to switch things around — that is have Triple H win the Rumble match, and save the Elimination Chamber for SmackDown! guys at No Way Out, but this would be a lot of work, as they’d have to come up with a storyline as to why is The Game back in the Rumble. Also, whether it’s coincidence or not, since WWE split up into two brands, the Rumble match has always been won by a SmackDown! superstar if you don’t count the 2005 controversial win, where Batista and John Cena both won, but ultimately Batista (who was on RAW at the time) was declared the winner.
While the company still has a few ideas for a SmackDown! main event at WrestleMania, the heavily favored man to win the Rumble is The Undertaker. The original plan for 2007 was a huge push for The Undertaker (possibly one last big run before retirement) to begin at the Royal Rumble, continue through WrestleMania with him winning the World Championship, and then end later on in a feud with a well-groomed Edge. While some of these plans came together, due to an injury bug that infected WWE last year, ‘Taker’s run was cut short. He did beat Batista at WrestleMania in a great match, but had to surrender the belt shortly after. Ironically, he lost it to Edge, who also got injured as soon as he won the title, hence creating a short-term curse on the belt. The Undertaker/Edge program took off with Edge’s return at Armageddon where he caused Undertaker the belt, and one would think that’s the direction they’re headed for WrestleMania.
Unlike the RAW main event at WrestleMania, however, things aren’t as “locked” on SmackDown!. Batista is a good wild card choice, as he seems to wipe off beliefs that he doesn’t belong on top of the card by upping his game quite a bit since his return. Also, perhaps due to the injury bug in the company, Batista ended up being the worker with the most matches in the company for 2007 at 161 matches, which was pretty unexpected. I don’t see him winning the Rumble match as this would result in major plan changes, but he’s definitely going to play an important role in the decision as well as the short-term booking plans when it comes to the direction of the Friday show.
We broke the news yesterday that The Big Show is returning to the company. One would imagine that the perfect opportunity for him to step back into the ring if he’s ready is indeed during the Rumble match. WWE loves having a surprise pick in the participants, and this would definitely make sense. His involvement would be interesting to see, as well as which brand he’ll end up on. Speaking of brands, ECW has taken the role of complete “C” brand, and has not even been discussed in any of the plans. CM Punk might end up defending his title in another meaningless midcard match (against Chavo Guerrero?), unless they stick him in the Rumble match, which makes no sense to me.
It should still be a great Rumble match, and historically WWE has done a great job with this concept. Unlike TNA, which uses this type of match every show, they’ve managed to keep it fresh, and special, so it’s rarely a disappointing PPV. I urge you to play Oscar’s Royal Rumble Game (you might have an edge after reading this column!), and win a copy of the 2008 Royal Rumble PPV on DVD once it comes out! Good luck and thanks for reading!
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