Temperature Scale = Scorching > Hot > Lukewarm > Temperate > Chilly > Cold > Freezing
Heat Index is my assessment of how interesting the segment is, including how excited I am for the match and how intriguing the feud has been. The hotter, the better. Scorching translates to not being able to wait to see it, while Freezing means I couldn’t possibly care less and think it will be awful.
Heat Index = Scorching
Prediction: Daniel Bryan wins.
Thoughts: Every single Royal Rumble will always be a Scorching for me. It’s my favorite overall match of the year that I’m the most interested in no matter who is involved. Give it to me. As much as there is a chance they pick someone I don’t like and that retroactively makes me hate the match, the journey to get to that point should be fun.
Heat Index = Scorching
Prediction: Rhea Ripley wins.
Thoughts: Copy and paste everything I said about the men’s Royal Rumble match and apply it here. In some ways, I’m even more interested in the women’s one, though. There’s more of an opportunity for special surprise entrants to be involved since there aren’t 30 women on Raw and SmackDown. Could we see Melina? Victoria? People from NXT? Ronda Rousey? I’m always down for a Royal Rumble. Now just don’t go with something as stupid as last year’s idea of Charlotte Flair beating Rhea Ripley. Don’t go with Flair winning in order to beat Asuka, either. I’m 50/50 on Bianca Belair or Ripley winning. However, WWE goes ass-backwards sometimes with Royal Rumble winners happening before champions are crowned, so now, I think Flair beats Asuka for the title at Elimination Chamber, Fastlane or on Raw and she drops the belt to Ripley, who wins the Royal Rumble.
Heat Index = Chilly
Prediction: Drew McIntyre wins…hopefully.
Thoughts: Do not give the belt to Goldberg. Good lord, don’t do it. Don’t you dare. If that happens, I’m going to be so annoyed. That’s part of the reason I’m not high on this, because I’m scared it WILL happen. The other part is because I know it’s just going to be a few spears and Claymores and such and not much more. Goldberg isn’t a wrestling machine. This isn’t about watching a good match. It’s about getting his name on the marquee and they’ve already done that.
Heat Index = Chilly
Prediction: Roman Reigns wins.
Thoughts: To be honest, I’m disappointed we aren’t getting the Adam Pearce match. I’m a huge fan of Kevin Owens and I think he’s been erroneously overlooked the past few years. I want him as a multi-time world champion. He should have held that belt at least another one or two times by now. But he already lost his opportunity at TLC. Pearce was a more interesting setup. This is just a rehash of what we have seen before with a different way for Owens to lose. I’m not into it as much as the Pearce intrigue was. These two should have a fine match, but if it’s not special, it will be something I look at in retrospect as kind of a waste of time.
Heat Index = Chilly
Prediction: Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler win.
Thoughts: It would be typical of WWE to do something like ignore Asuka, put her in a tag title match where the focus is on Lana, then have Lana get replaced by Flair, only for Asuka and Flair to have 2 separate side feuds for the next month and then drop the titles right back to Jax and Baszler, wouldn’t it? It’s absurd and chaotic and crazy. That’s exactly why I think it will happen and this whole thing will have been pointless.
Heat Index = Cold
Prediction: Sasha Banks wins.
Thoughts: Interesting that WWE has mentioned this match as taking place for two weeks, yet there isn’t a single graphic that has been up on the screen once, nor a tweet about it, nor a post on WWE’s website. It’s almost like nobody cares. Oh wait. Maybe that’s true, because this match already happened. This is the type of pointless stuff I hate. Banks and Carmella in and of themselves are not the problem. Redoing the same match we saw before just because you have no other better ideas in mind (or just don’t want to put in the effort to try
to think about an alternative idea to begin with) is the problem. Banks wins. People use this as a bathroom break because everything else on the card has more of a reason to watch it. Then, we move on.Heat Index = Scorching
Thoughts: This is one of the most monumental events of the year, every year. Even if the card looks like it sucks any particular year, it still has two Royal Rumble matches on it. If you’re not anticipating the hell out of Royal Rumble, why even bother watching anymore? I’ll be looking at this as a two-match card, but at least those matches will take up two hours.
What do you think is going to happen at WWE Royal Rumble? Which matches are you most excited to see? Keep the discussion going in the comments below!