We’re about to start the build to WrestleMania season with the Royal Rumble coming up on January 28, 2018 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
As such, it’s time to dive straight into some early predictions and projections for what matches will be going onto the card and how the current feuds that are happening will pan out come January.
Since this is a co-branded event, it deems a split between Raw and SmackDown, and as Clash of Champions 2018 just ended, we’re going to start with the blue brand before circling back to Monday Night Raw’s side of things, as Raw has been in a bit of limbo recently.
I invite everyone to take part in the guesswork by leaving their comments below so we can look back in a month’s time and see what things we were right and wrong about.
With that in mind, here’s my breakdown of the SmackDown Live portion of the Royal Rumble as I currently see things playing out…
CONFIRMED MATCHES
2018 Royal Rumble Match (no competitors official)
Universal Championship Match: Brock Lesnar (c) vs. TBD
POTENTIAL MATCHES
WWE Championship Match: AJ Styles (c) vs. Randy Orton or Sami Zayn
This is very, very tough to call, but I think we can narrow it down to a few options.
Clearly, it isn’t going to be someone like Baron Corbin, Mike Kanellis, Sin Cara or Mojo Rawley. That just isn’t going to happen, given the circumstances all those men are in.
I would say Shinsuke Nakamura is a guarantee for the Royal Rumble, most likely as the victor, so I’d rule him out, too.
For the most part, I think this boils down to Randy Orton, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens.
One of the heels would make the most sense if you’re talking about the classic good guy versus bad guy booking, but I’d actually posit that Orton is the smarter choice for now.
Ideally, I’d love to see Daniel Bryan apologize to how he fast-counted Orton by granting him a No. 1 contender’s match against either Zayn or Owens, which Orton comes out on top for, allowing us to see Orton vs. Styles in a bubble that doesn’t require it to have some bitter feud attached, as that can happen at a later date.
Owens and Zayn would be better suited for the Royal Rumble, to me, and following that up with a title shot for either of the two at Fastlane (preferably Zayn vs. Styles for something different).
I’m going out on a limb with this Orton guess, but I wouldn’t be shocked to see that I’m wrong and it’s Owens or Zayn that gets the title opportunity instead, and given those two, we’ve seen Owens and Styles go at it so many times that they need to switch it up.
United States Championship Match: Dolph Ziggler (c) vs. Bobby Roode
With Baron Corbin taking the pin, I can’t help but feel as though he’ll get his rematch on an episode of SmackDown and come up short in winning his title back.
Roode, on the other hand, wasn’t the one who lost the match necessarily, and we could see his feud with Ziggler renewed to a certain extent with a title shot here without Corbin in the mix.
Ultimately, I think this belt is ending up on Roode instead of Ziggler, but this all really depends on whether WWE wants to go that route or if The Showoff is supposed to hold the title a little longer.
If it’s the latter scenario, Roode and Corbin could continue to fight each other week to week while Ziggler seeks out a new challenger in someone like Tye Dillinger.
SmackDown Women’s Championship Match: Charlotte Flair (c) vs. Ruby Riott
In actuality, I’m starting to believe more and more in the rumors of the women’s Royal Rumble match and I don’t think that we’ll see a title defense happen for either championship, Raw or SmackDown, for the women’s division.
However, to err on the side of caution, they could do both or we can just have a regular women’s title match with no Royal Rumble scenario, so we have to examine those possibilities.
Working under the title match umbrella, Charlotte will be heading into the event as the champion and the only person qualified to challenge her is Ruby Riott, since it would be odd to do a babyface vs. babyface encounter, Lana isn’t in the right spot, Carmella has the Money in the Bank and Tamina wouldn’t be something to interest the fans too much, particularly at the expense of The Riott Squad.
As I said, though, I don’t think we’re getting this title match at all, and I think Charlotte and Alexa Bliss will sit ringside or on the commentary booth to witness the women’s Royal Rumble…which Asuka will win.
SmackDown Tag Team Championship Match: The Usos (c) vs. The Bludgeon Brothers
Perhaps I’m jumping the gun, but after having a Fatal 4-Way, I don’t think WWE can backtrack to any of those tag teams fighting The Usos without it feeling like a lesser match in comparison.
The Ascension, The Colons and Breezango aren’t in a better spot on the roster than The Bludgeon Brothers, either, so if anybody is going to get a title shot, Harper and Rowan certainly have to be at the top of the list.
This could very well be the end of the title reign for Jimmy and Jey, too, if The Bludgeon Brothers keep up the track record they’ve been booked to have since their reformation and return.
The rest of the tag teams will either be featured in the Royal Rumble match or off the card entirely, as this is one of those cards with a lot of time that also has a lot of time eaten up from one match.
It’s very likely we don’t see people like Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin at all on this card, unless Gable’s performance at Clash of Champions won him enough favors to ensure he takes up one of those 30 spots.
Everybody Else…
All other talent not included above is either out of the card entirely or wrestling in the Royal Rumble, depending on their priorities.
As mentioned before, Shinsuke Nakamura will be in the Royal Rumble. The New Day should have at least one representative. Rusev makes sense, as does Baron Corbin if he isn’t in the United States title hunt. People like Zack Ryder, though, might have to sit this out, depending on how many people from the Raw brand are put in the list of 30.
CARD PREDICTION SUMMARY
2018 Royal Rumble Match
Universal Championship Match: Brock Lesnar (c) vs. TBD
WWE Championship Match: AJ Styles (c) vs. Randy Orton or Sami Zayn
United States Championship Match: Dolph Ziggler (c) vs. Bobby Roode
SmackDown Women’s Championship Match: Charlotte Flair (c) vs. Ruby Riott / or Women’s Royal Rumble Match
SmackDown Tag Team Championship Match: The Usos (c) vs. The Bludgeon Brothers
Those are my predictions, but what matches do YOU think will be on the card? Drop your guesses in the comments below!
