Royal Rumble Preview: The Non Rumble Matches

Welcome to part 1 of my three part preview of Sunday's Royal Rumble PPV. In this one, as outlined earlier this week, I'll discuss the non-rumble matches. Tomorrow, I'll write about the men's rumble match. And then, on Sunday, the day of the event, I'll preview the match I'm most intrigued by, the women's rumble match.

image credit: wwe.com

The Usos (c) vs. Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin

2-out-of-3-falls match for the SD Tag titles

image credit: wwe.com
I expect this to be a VERY good match, and possibly the opener if they don't start with the Women's Rumble match (which they may, as they probably want to space the two Rumble matches).

Gable and Benjamin need the win to be considered a serious factor in the SD tag division, whereas the Usos can take the loss, and either regain the titles, spend a bit of time without them, or move to Raw to take that division's title.

I wonder if a feud with the Bludgeon Bros in possible for the Usos. Back when they were the purest of pure babyfaces, they had some FIRE matches with Harper and Rowan when the latter were Wyatt Family members.

Prediction: Gable and Benjamin wins 2-1.

Seth Rollins & Jason Jordan (c) vs. The Bar

Raw Tag titles

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As I predict one member of American Alpha to win a tag title, the other is set to defend his. Both Jordan and Sheamus have dealt with injuries lately, with Sheamus' being potentially career ending. Those injuries may hurt the match, but Rollins and Cesaro as so good, and work so well together, this will still probably be very good.

Prediction: Rollins and Jordan retain. On Monday, they may have to deal with either Authors of Pain or SAnitY, if one of them gets called up now instead of after Mania.

AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn

(2-on-1 Handicap Match) for the WWE Championship

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Classic underdog story, with babyface AJ vs. both dastardly villains Owens and Sami. Or is it? After Tuesday's repeated attacks by AJ on an injured KO... yeah, it probably still is. WWE seems to have forgotten that babyfaces are supposed to be, at their core, good guys.

This match will probably be a clusterfuck, with all kinds of interference and with Shane McMahon drawing focus from the workers, a thing true both in storylines and in real life. It'll probably be entertaining, as AJ is basically incapable of having a bad match these days, and KO and Sami are both great.

Prediction: Sami Zain and Kevin Owens are your new co-world champs!

Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman Vs. Kane

WWE Universal title

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This will not be a workrate classic, but it should be entertaining. Expect much of this match to take place outside the ring. Expect one of the three to be taking a long rest at pretty much any point after the first 3 minutes. Expect furniture to suffer all kinds of destruction. This is easily the match I care least about on the entire card. The only one of these guys I actually like is Strowman, who appears to be a delightful human being. and is an incredibly effective worker for his size. I'd like the other two to go away.

Prediction: Brock goes over Kane, who maybe retires to finally spend more time with his political campaign. Strowman will probably be protected.

General observations

Going match by match like this has actually gotten me kind of excited for the non-Rumble parts of the evening. I'm a bit annoyed the women don't have a match outside the Rumble, but this is due to their roster being too thin to fill the Rumble match itself without a bunch of NXT and nostalgia appearances, as I'll talk about on Sunday's post. I really do hope the company is building their roster to actually get some parity. The talents they have, and the talents that are out there who they could sign, certainly merit that.

Related:
NXT Takeover Philadelphia preview