What if Andrade Cien Almas wins the Royal Rumble?

#2 Almas stays planted on SmackDown

Andrade Cien Almas may be a SmackDown mainstay.

For any talent Vince McMahon takes a special interest in, there’s a chance they’ll end up on Raw before too long.

Despite SmackDown going live and in many ways being treated more like Raw’s equal in the current brand split, McMahon still seems to favor Raw as the stage for marquee acts like Roman Reign and The Shield, Brock Lesnar, Braun Strowman, and the venue to play out part-timer rivalries like Triple H vs. The Undertaker et al.

If Almas wins the Rumble, it provides a clear route for him to get to the WWE Championship. If he can make good on both of those career-making wins, the odds are he’ll stay on SmackDown for another year, on the more work rate centric brand, and out of the shadow of Raw’s giants.

If he doesn’t win the Rumble, then his future is more open-ended, and he may be pushed to sink or swim on Monday nights sooner than later.