Royal Rumble 2010 Previews and Predictions
Previews and Predictions of all the matches scheduled to take place at The Royal Rumble 2010.
The Royal Rumble is one of the biggest events in the WWE Calendar, but mark it in your calendar for something else folks;The event that saw GRuz return to WWEBlog!
As always for all the JayD fans out there he’s put the effort in and written the formal articles, which you can find at the links below.
Here’s the link for JayD’s Raw matches preview:
WWE Royal Rumble 2010 Championship Matches Preview
Which covers:
-Michelle McCool (c) Vs. Mickie James for the WWE Womens Championship
-Ezekiel Jackson Vs. Christian (c) for the ECW Championship
-Sheamus (c) Vs. Randy Orton for the WWE Championship
-The Undertaker (c) Vs. Rey Mysterio for the World Heavyweight Championship
and here is the link to his Smackdown/ECW matches preview:
WWE Royal Rumble 2010 30 Man Rumble Match Preview
Which covers:
…well, if you can’t work it out I’m not going to tell you.
GRuz’s Views
This year’s Royal Rumble event will feature four championship matches, all leading up (possibly, depending on how the creative decide to book it) to the hotly-anticipated 30-man Royal Rumble match.
So which champions will retain their title? Which champions will be knocked from their throne? And which superstar will come out on top in the Royal Rumble match, with a WrestleMania title shot as a reward? Read on and find out what I predict will happen…
WWE Womens Championship Match
Singles Match
Michelle McCool
Vs.
Mickie James
This rivalry has followed the tried-and-true cycle of many WWE rivalries – the heel humiliates the babyface for weeks, if not months, leading up to the big match-up. What generally happens at the end of these rivalries?
Yeah, the good guy finally gets their revenge in the end.
I don’t see this one turning out any differently.
Michelle McCool has outwitted Mickie James at every turn, defeating her in matches, making a fool out of her in segments, you name it. This culminated in McCool, Layla, and Beth Phoenix beating the snot out of James last week and shoving her face into a pig-shaped cake.
This will come to an end at the Rumble, as I don’t see this turning out any way besides a James victory.
That would save viewers from more terrible segments that feel two hours long and consist mainly of awful fat jokes for humor.
It would also give Beth Phoenix something to do, as the Glamazon inexplicably falls out of contention for a title that she held for nearly a year, whenever a heel happens to be champion.
How else do you explain her beating up James several times and aligning herself with the current titleholder?
Shouldn’t she want to establish a rivalry with the person who’s holding the belt that she believes is rightfully hers?
Outcome: Mickie James wins the WWE Women’s Championship and mercifully spares us from any further segments surrounding this awful rivalry.
ECW Championship Match
Singles Match
Christian (c)
Vs.
Ezekiel Jackson
Since returning to the WWE, Christian hasn’t taken long in establishing himself as the leader of WWE’s most pointless brand.
No matter my feelings about the current ECW incarnation, Christian is undoubtedly a talented wrestler and a worthy champion in any brand. He has effectively disposed of challengers like William Regal and Shelton Benjamin with relative ease.
Ezekiel Jackson will be no pushover, however. The Guyanese Goliath has torched the ECW undercard in the past couple months, even dismantling his former partner Vladimir Koslov, on his way to a title shot.
Jackson will have a clear strength advantage, against Christian’s quickness and experience.
So who comes out the victor in this new rivalry?
With Christian being champion as long as he has, it would be a waste to strip the title from him to a relative newcomer.
It would be a shock if Jackson won, and the writers love to throw a shock or two into every card, but I don’t expect one here.
Outcome: Christian will retain the title, one way or another. Jackson will control most of the patch with his power, but the crafty veteran will find a way to win. Look for a bitter Koslov possibly assisting Christian by throwing in a cheap shot at some point.
WWE Championship Match
Singles Match
Sheamus (c)
Vs.
Randy Orton
Yes, folks, it’s the extremely rare ‘heel vs. heel’ match-up for the title.
Sheamus, in a fairly big surprise at TLC, defeated John Cena, and instead of just making a rematch, the writers showed some initiative and pitted him against the Viper at the Rumble.
There are a few good angles here and they all seem to be pointing in one direction.
Upon winning the title in controversial fashion, many expected Sheamus to be little more than a bump in the road in Cena’s quest to regain the gold.
However, he has steamrolled every opponent since, becoming a WWE champion to be reckoned with.
On the other hand, Randy Orton has had his hands full with his Legacy teammates in the preceding months, with the group having been on the verge of falling apart a number of times.
However, it was Legacy that assisted him (in typical underhanded fashion) in earning a title shot at the Rumble.
So will Legacy be what Randy Orton needs to become champion once more, or may this finally be the PPV where Orton, DiBiase and Rhodes finally implode as a fighting force?
With the ever-increasing push that Sheamus is getting, combined with the shaky state of Legacy, I can’t see this resulting in an Orton victory.
With John Cena waiting in the wings and chomping at the bit for another title shot, he won’t care whether he fights Sheamus or Orton, seeing as how he despises both of them, so that is a non-issue for this particular match.
Outcome: Sheamus to win and retain the title. I’ll also go out on a limb and say that Legacy falls apart right here. With only 2 months to WrestleMania, an Orton Vs. DiBiase or Rhodes match-up at the biggest show of the year would be perfect to start setting up right now.
WWE Heavyweight Championship Match
Singles Match
The Undertaker (c)
Vs.
Rey Mysterio
Before I break this one down, does anybody besides me hate that Smackdown’s title is called the “World Heavyweight Championship” and Rey Mysterio is once again competing for it?
Half of the women’s roster outweighs the guy but he’s got another chance at the ‘Heavyweight’ title… sigh…
Anyway, let’s get to the match.
One unfortunate thing here is that there are so many rumors about the Undertaker’s current well-being, fans are expecting him to lose the title, and lose it soon.
It doesn’t help that the rumors include 2010 being the Taker’s last year.
As I said in the previews article, it is a rare athlete who can stay at the top of his game for as many years as the Undertaker has, but nobody can keep it up forever.
So now the writers have to give him an exit deserving of his stature.
How to do this? Well, for one thing, I don’t think losing his title to Rey Mysterio is part of the plan.
Rey is a great wrestler and a dangerous opponent for anyone, no matter their size or ability, but rumors are flying around Rey nowadays as well. Word on the grapevine is that Rey is wrestling on a ‘loose wheel’ and is holding off surgery until after Mania to make sure he’s at the biggest event of the year. An event he doesn’t have a great track record at.
You don’t give a title to somebody who can’t participate in a match again for a month or two, which is the state Mysterio could be in after this one.
Yeah, the writers will soon be penciling in a gracious exit for the Taker, but until then, he’s still the Undertaker, and he’s still a dominant force in the WWE.
Outcome: The Undertaker retains the title, despite a valiant effort by Rey in his inevitable underdog role. Batista may make an appearance to lay a beatdown on Taker/Rey/both, but I would guess that he won’t. Look for the Taker to defend his belt against Batista at WrestleMania, a match with possible retirement implications for the Deadman.
The Royal Rumble Match
30 Man Over the top rope Battle Royal Match
View the full list of confirmed participants here.
How do you predict the outcome of a match where you only have a 1-in-30 chance of being correct? By watching the trends, knowing how the WWE writers think, and taking your personal feelings out of the equation.
Never in the history of the Royal Rumble has a truly surprising winner emerged from the ranks – a mid-card or unknown. Never.
While I commend WWEBlog’s JayD in picking Ted DiBiase Jr. to win the Rumble match, I just don’t have the guts to make that kind of pick.
It would be refreshing to see a firm mid-carder like DiBiase or Shelton Benjamin win, but the WWE has never shown a tendency to reward someone like them with a huge game-changing win, so I can’t believe guys like DiBiase or Benjamin have a real shot.
Instead, what you’ll see is about 22-23 guys participating who don’t have a prayer to win.
Here is the short list of the entrants who have ANY chance of winning: Chris Jericho, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Batista, John Cena, and CM Punk.
Yeah, I know. The same handful of guys who always win EVERY big match and EVERY title shot. But that’s how it is with the WWE. You’ve got half a dozen guys at the top and everyone else scratching and clawing to get to that level someday.
So those are the 6 guys who have a shot….or is there maybe one more name?
When I initially pondered this match, my first pick to win was Shawn Michaels. I thought the WWE was playing up the DX angle a bit much, what with Triple H and Michaels getting a little snippy with each other regarding the Rumble.
I was also thinking that Michaels has got to be retiring soon, too, so why not give him one more title shot before he hangs up his boots?
But for some reason, I’m not comfortable with that pick now.
I don’t know about this match. Something feels odd. Maybe it’s the ‘face vs. face’ and ‘heel vs. heel’ championship matches leading up to it. But even though I named 6 wrestlers who I feel have a legitimate shot at winning, I’m going to name one more, the guy who not only has a chance to win but WILL win the Royal Rumble and have a title shot at WrestleMania. Call me crazy, but that guy is….
Kofi Kingston.
Does anybody else see Kofi having a great chance at lurking about in this match, while all these other participants with built-in rivalries go after each other, ignoring Kingston until it’s too late?
I do.
And while I may not think that guys like DiBiase or Benjamin have a chance to become the first “mid-carder” to win the Rumble, I consider Kingston to be a bit higher than “mid-card” status
Jericho and the Show will be fixated on each other.
Michaels and Triple H will be fixated on each other.
Batista and Cena have animosity from way back in the day.
I love Punk and his whole ‘Straight Edge Society’ nonsense, but who sees him actually winning this?
Kane, The Great Khali, Mark Henry – big 400-pound monsters haven’t won a Rumble since Yokozuna won in 1993.
They’re just there for the muscle, but have no shot at winning. And so on. And so you have somebody like Kofi Kingston, who is SO close to breaking into the top ranks. A win at the Rumble could catapult him to those top ranks.
Outcome: In a near-Ted-DiBiase-like shocker, Kofi Kingston wins the Royal Rumble. Consequently, I expect him to pick the WWE Championship to compete for, putting him up against either Sheamus or Randy Orton at Wrestlemania.
The End Bit
Hope you enjoyed my Predictions article for the Royal Rumble this Sunday, January 31. Don’t forget to follow WWEBlog’s LIVE results, as they happen, courtesy of JayD.
Thanks for reading and we hope to see you for the Rumble!
GRuz (on behalf of the WWEBlog Team)
