5 eliminations that have to happen in the Royal Rumble

Is Dolph Ziggler going to return and win the match and rejuvenate his career? Or, against all odds, will Daniel Bryan shock the world and come out of retirement to try and main event WrestleMania for the second time? Royal Rumble is only a few short days away, and speculation is running rampant. Who will win? Is it going to be Nakamura, en route to a dream match against AJ Styles at WrestleMania? Will Randy Orton go back-to-back, winning his third Royal Rumble match? Maybe Roman Reigns will infuriate Philadelphia again just like he did in 2015 and win the Rumble to a gigantic chorus of boos. Is Dolph Ziggler going to return and win the match and rejuvenate his career? Or, against all odds, will Daniel Bryan shock the world and come out of retirement to try and main event WrestleMania for the second time?

There are tons of possibilities this year, far more than the ones I illustrated above. Today, however, let us not focus on who is going to win, but rather five eliminations that need to happen, in order to intensify the build to WrestleMania as we truly kick off the Road to WrestleMania this Sunday.

#5 Jason Jordan eliminating Seth Rollins

rollins and jordan — Would you trust a man who smiles at you like that?

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Rumor has it that WWE is getting ready to go all-in on Jason Jordan’s heel turn, and I believe that it may begin in earnest this Sunday at the Royal Rumble. It’s also rumoured that Rollins and Jordan will face off at WrestleMania. A good scenario could see Jordan and Rollins about to win their tag team title match only for an unfortunate miscommunication leading to The Bar regaining their titles and becoming 4-time Tag Team Champions. Jordan and Rollins, mad at each other, could get into a shoving match after the contest is over and end up in a pull-apart brawl.

This scenario would be escalated in the Royal Rumble match. As of this writing, only 17 of the 30 men have been announced, and it’s very likely that two of the 13 remaining participants will be Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan. It would be a smart idea to have Rollins be a fairly early entrant spend a good amount of time in the match (maybe even being the iron man in his second ever Royal Rumble match, while being the competitor who lasted second longest in his first back in 2014).

When Jordan enters, Rollins would thusly be tired and worn down. Nonetheless, Seth would want to go after Jordan immediately. Being so tired and having a fresh Jordan entering the match, Rollins could attack too aggressively, leading to Jordan getting a fairly easy elimination after sidestepping his oncoming foe. The next night on RAW could see Jordan gloating about how easy it was to eliminate Rollins, showing that clearly, Seth was the weak link between their tag team and the reason they lost the titles. Instant WrestleMania feud.

#4 Randy Orton eliminating Finn Balor

I’m thinking that the Final Four in this year’s Royal Rumble match is going to be Randy Orton, Finn Balor, Shinsuke Nakamura and Roman Reigns. Nakamura is likely to be the eventual winner and I expect it to happen after eliminating both Orton and Reigns, but Balor could be the first of the last four men to be eliminated. Why Orton? To further the heel turn, of course. "The Viper" may draw a later number and spend his time in the Rumble match acting a little different than the usual aggressive Randy Orton than we’re used to.

A heel turn is coming, and after hitting the RKO on Nakamura this week on SmackDown Live, I think a great set-up would be for Nakamura and Orton to be together picking their numbers from the tumbler backstage (I hope they bring that gimmick back this year), with Orton promising Nakamura that what happened on SmackDown wasn’t just a statement, but a warning. Orton’s done playing nice, and that was only the beginning.

When the last four men are left in the ring, Reigns and Balor would pair off, as would Orton and Nakamura. To add drama and even more tension between the men, Orton coud toss Nakamura over the ropes only for Nakamura to hang on without Randy realizing. Just at that same moment, Finn Balor will be on the verge of eliminating Roman Reigns, allowing Orton to sneak up from behind and dump Balor out of the ring and taunt the crowd, instantly garnering big heat, because not only will the crowd surely be behind Finn, but Orton will have also saved Roman from being taken out of the match.

Nakamura didn’t get eliminated, as established above, and Orton could turn around after eliminating Balor only to see Nakamura taunting him with his classic “Come On!” gesture. The perfect comeback for Shinsuke would see Orton charge at him, only for Nakamura to sidestep and toss Orton over the top. Nakamura could go on to also eventually eliminate Reigns to win the match. After being eliminated it would make sense for Orton to challenge Nakamura for his #1 contender spot at Fastlane.

#3 Rusev eliminating Bobby Roode

Bobby Roode is the new United States Champion and will be defending the title in an Open Challenge on the Royal Rumble kickoff show, but he will surely find himself in the Royal Rumble match this Sunday as well. Rusev declared his entry weeks ago, and as much as I would love to see him get the shocking victory, that’s not in the cards this year. I have a feeling that Roode’s challenger for WrestleMania is going to be Rusev, and that storyline could begin with Rusev eliminating Bobby Roode from the Royal Rumble match.

He could go on to claim that it makes him the number one contender for the United States Championship. I think it’s too soon for Roode to lose the US Title which means another WrestleMania loss for the Bulgarian Brute, but that’s okay. I’m thinking that Rusev could feasibly destroy Nakamura at SummerSlam to win the WWE Title. I mean, that’s a complete pipe dream and it will never happen, but a man can have his wishes.

#2 Apollo Crews eliminating Titus O’Neil

This may not be a big deal to most people, but I loathe Titus Worldwide. I thought it was cute in the beginning, but I just find the whole gimmick to be loathsome. I think we’re supposed to like them, but I’m not quite sure because they’ve never really been defined as faces or heels. They have gotten a bunch of wins in recent weeks, but that’s not going to actually go anywhere. Titus O’Neil is a pretty charismatic guy, but he is a really bad pro wrestler. Apollo Crews doesn’t have chops when it comes to talking on the microphone, but he’s the kind of guy whose in-ring work can speak for itself.

In the final months of 2016, Apollo had a number of matches against The Miz, and the crowd was very much behind him and would have been happy to see him win the Intercontinental Championship. Of course, the fact that he was taking on a red-hot Miz was a big factor, but it looked like WWE was actually looking to start trying something with the amazingly athletic young star and people were receptive to it. Sadly, the stupid Superstar Shakeup landed Crews on Monday Night RAW and he lost every bit of momentum he had. WWE has no clue what they have in Crews, and it’s a damn shame.

Obviously, it's extremely unlikely that we will see Apollo Crews vs. Titus O’Neil at WrestleMania (which is good, because that is definitely not a 'Mania calibre match) but having Crews abandon Titus Worldwide would be a good start in rebuilding him. Titus Worldwide is a go-nowhere low-card comedy gimmick, and it’s not funny or entertaining. I think Titus is an absolutely outstanding human being, but he’s pretty much the opposite when it comes to being a pro wrestler and being associated with him won’t help anybody. You can just feel the entire crowd deflate when that terrible music begins to play.

To make a long story short, I would have Crews eliminate Titus but smile at him and shrug his shoulders because it’s every man for himself. This enrages Titus, who eventually attacks and lays out Crews. They could have a match on RAW (or at Elimination Chamber if they’re desperate for matches) that sees Apollo take the victory before moving on to bigger and better things. A feud with Elias wouldn’t be the worst idea.

#1 Elias eliminating John Cena

If WWE wants to get behind him and go for it, they have a potential gigantic star in Elias. I don’t think most people felt that way when he was in NXT, but as Triple H has said in interviews, Elias wasn’t made for NXT. His character, style, and personality fit in perfect for Monday Night RAW. He’s a very strong wrestler and he’s only going to get better. He has great comedic timing and can cut a strong serious promo and he knows how to control a crowd. Elias is a damn star.

In recent weeks, Elias has had a pair of confrontations win John Cena. Cena beat him in a match on RAW a few weeks ago but this week on the 25th Anniversary episode Elias bounced back and took Cena out with the exploding guitar. Now, I’m not going to get too excited, because that means that it’s about 150% guaranteed that Cena will be eliminating Elias from the Rumble match on Sunday. But what if it goes the other way?

Elias could eliminate Cena and gloat about it on RAW. Cena, being a part-timer, wouldn't be likely to give an immediate response. Eventually, after weeks of claiming to have emasculated Cena, John could appear on RAW and challenge Elias to a match. In a scenario that would build to the match that Cena is rumoured to be having at WrestleMania, Elias would win the match after The Undertaker turns out the lights and distracts Cena. Because yes, apparently they just HAVE to trot The Undertaker out for one more match.

In the meantime, Elias probably won’t end up getting a match on the main card of WrestleMania, but I would advocate for him winning the Andre Battle Royal and then actually following up on it and making him the first winner of that match to actually benefit from the victory.

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Edited by Shruti Sadbhav