WWE Royal Rumble 2017 Match: 5 Ways to Make the Main Event Interesting
Royal Rumble, Credit: WWE.com
With the WWE Royal Rumble 2017 main event starting the Road to WrestleMania, there are ways to make the 30-man battle royal more interesting for the fans.
With a week before the WWE Royal Rumble takes place, there’s a lot of excitement brewing within the WWE Universe. It’s understandable considering what time of year it is in the world of professional wrestling. The Royal Rumble has been known to be the first stop on the Road to WrestleMania.
Since the 1990s, the 30-man main event of the pay-per-view has featured a title shot in the main event of WrestleMania.
Last year was a little different with the WWE World Heavyweight Championship being on the line; which was won by Triple H. This would set up the long-rumored match between Roman Reigns and Triple H at WrestleMania 32. But this year’s WrestleMania could be a little bit more interesting.
The current main event champions are part of a new era of WWE. AJ Styles is currently the WWE Champion on SmackDown Live. And at the moment, Kevin Owens is the WWE Universal Championship on Raw. That could change depending on how Styles does against John Cena and Owens against Roman Reigns.
But the Royal Rumble could be a big indicator of what the WWE has planned for WrestleMania 33 in Orlando, Fla. The speculation would become a little bit clearer after we see who will have the main event opportunity. But there are additional ways for the 30-man main event battle royal can be interesting.
The following is a list of five ways to make the Royal Rumble main event even more interesting and to get the Road to WrestleMania started on the right foot.
5. Include Championship Match Losers to Enter
It might be a tough task to ask of any WWE superstar to work two matches in one night. It’s something that has commonly been booked in WWE and other major television promotions. So it’s not something that would be viewed as a surprise. But it would help provide a boost in the number main event caliber wrestlers in the Royal Rumble match.
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With the winners in both matches for the WWE Championship and the WWE Universal Championship, it’s hard to predict who will retain. If Roman Reigns is unsuccessful in defeating Kevin Owens, he could billed as a favorite to have another impressive run in the Royal Rumble. However, having Owens enter the match after losing his championship might make the Prizefighter a little more vicious in the ring.
The same could go for the two SmackDown superstars facing off for the WWE Championship. John Cena would probably be extremely motivated to do well in the Royal Rumble if he came up short of tying Ric Flair’s record. And for AJ Styles, competing in the Royal Rumble match would feel like completing his first year in WWE in a full circle.
Either way the two championship matches go, the main event would be a little more interesting with the championship match losers to be entered.
4. No Surprise Legend Entrants
The WWE Performance Center has been a big part of the WWE’s focus for the future. In order for the promotion to survive on a long-term basis, they need to keep moving forward. That means no longer going to the past in order to make a pay-per-view interesting. However, the Royal Rumble has always been known for having legends make a surprise appearance during the 30-man match.
This seems like an unnecessary booking decision; especially with the recent brand split with plenty of choices between Raw and SmackDown. Throw in the superstars who are sitting patiently in NXT, there’s really no need to have legends who are past their prime entering a match for a championship opportunity at WrestleMania.
I’m not going to lie, sometimes a legend’s surprise entry has brought us some entertaining moments. But I would rather see a spot in the Royal Rumble go to someone who has been dedicated to the WWE in recent years. Give that kind of spot to someone like Tyler Breeze and/or Fandango. Both men have put up with some poor booking decisions. They deserve being able to compete in the main event Royal Rumble match.
Besides, not having any surprise legends might come as an unexpected surprise for the fans watching.
3. But Book Kurt Angle as a Surprise Entrant
After spending the last slide explaining why there shouldn’t be any surprise legends in the Royal Rumble match, this might seem like a contradictory point. Kurt Angle is a legend who was just announced for this year’s class for the WWE Hall of Fame. We promise, there’s a good reason to justify this “contradiction.”
For one, it would be a timely booking decision. There’s a lot of buzz going around regarding the Olympic gold medalist who developed quite the resume from the mat to the ring. In the WWE, he’s a six-time world championship, and won every single championship imaginable in the WWE since the 1990s. This includes the current United States Championship, the European Champion and the Intercontinental Championship.
He’s won tag team gold and even won the King of the Ring in 2000. But the one thing that Kurt Angle has never done in his WWE career is winning the Royal Rumble match. That’s not to say that Angle should be a favorite to win the 2017 Royal Rumble match. But it would be a talking point if he happened to be announced for the match in the week leading up to the pay-per-view.
Nothing has been announced as of this writing, but Kurt Angle would be the best choice for a surprise entry in the Royal Rumble.
2. Allow Samoa Joe to Go on a Run
There is some speculation that Samoa Joe could be called up to the WWE main roster very soon. It would make a lot of sense after finishing up a feud for the NXT Championship with current champion Shinsuke Nakamura. The long-tenured veteran doesn’t have as much time in his prime years as some of the other NXT superstars.
Samoa Joe has a lot of notoriety and would likely get a huge pop from the crowd in the Alamodome. With all things considered, one would hope that the WWE is going to give Joe a decent push right away. The Royal Rumble match would be the perfect venue to debut the Samoan Submission Machine to the WWE Universe.
But in an effort for him to be taken seriously by the WWE Universe, he’s going to need to go on a dominant run once he hits the ring. Even if the WWE doesn’t plan on him winning the match, they need to have him eliminate nearly everyone in a crowded ring and look strong in the process.
Despite being a dominant star in NXT, many younger WWE fans may not have seen his work in NXT on the WWE Network. They may also be too young to have seen his work in TNA Wrestling or through the independent circuit. So for the younger audience to view Samoa Joe like older wrestling fans do, he needs to run over people in the way Samoa Joe has done for years.
1. Have an Underdog Go Deep in the Royal Rumble
One of the best things about watching the Royal Rumble is that just about everyone could end up winning the match. Sure, there are favorites in the match who have been in the championship picture for a while. Then there’s the tier of Royal Rumble entrants of up-and-coming talents who could be just one big match away from joining the upper tier of WWE superstars.
However, there’s a weird tier between that up-and-comer teir and the rest of the mid-card group of WWE superstars. A number of WWE superstars who the fans would completely support if given a main event push at any given moment. But they would still be a long shot to win the Royal Rumble after rough booking decisions leading up to the start of the Road to WrestleMania.
It would be an unexpected surprise to see someone like Sami Zayn have a deep run in the Royal Rumble match. But the fans would cheer for him with plenty of passion. It would be a crushing defeat for the fans who support the Underdog from the Underground. But it would provide some extra excitement if Zayn found himself in the final four of the match.
It has happened in the past. In 2011, Santino Marella almost upset Alberto Del Rio as the fans roared in what looked to be a huge victory. However, Marella would be eliminated suddenly and the heel Del Rio would move on to WrestleMania XXVII against Edge for the WWE’s World Heavyweight Championship.
Zayn could have a moment where the fans get behind him; possibly setting up a main event push later.
