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Triple H Hints That He’ll Return To The Ring At ‘Royal Rumble’

By Aaron Sass
Published on: 18:02 PST, Oct 2, 2016

Even though he hasn’t been on WWE television since late August, most of the recent episodes of Raw have been built around Triple H, and why he decided to stab Seth Rollins in the back.

If you’re hoping to see Triple H back in a WWE ring anytime soon, then you’ll probably be disappointed when you hear that — according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter — he’s not planning to return until the NFL season is over. Why? Well the answer is simple; the ratings for Raw always take a hit during football season because of the fact that they’re going head-to-head with Monday Night Football, and Triple H doesn’t want to return on a show that’s going to have a smaller audience than usual.

Shortly after WWE announced that, for the first time in 20 years, the Royal Rumble event will be returning to the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, Triple H sent out an interesting tweet, which suggested that, much like last year, he’ll be a surprise entrant in the 2017 Royal Rumble match.

As previously mentioned, Triple H returned to the WWE ring after a long absence in this past year’s Royal Rumble, where he entered at number 30, and he not only won the match, but he also won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship by last eliminating Dean Ambrose. “The Game” then lost the title to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 32, and up until the August 29 Raw, where he returned to assist Kevin Owens in winning the WWE Universal Championship, his WrestleMania 32 match was his last in-ring appearance.

The 2017 Royal Rumble takes place on January 29, which is just a week before Super Bowl LI. So, if Triple H does return at the event, he won’t have to worry about Raw going head-to-head with Monday Night Football because the NFL’s regular season will be over by then.

WWE is obviously building towards a Triple H vs. Seth Rollins match at WrestleMania 33, so the timing of Triple H’s rumored return makes a ton of sense. Also, WWE is hoping to break the previous Royal Rumble attendance record — 60,477 — and having Triple H return at the event would help sell a lot of tickets, even if it’s not officially announced ahead of time.

Even if Triple H doesn’t return during the Rumble show, there are a couple of big WWE names from the past who could show up at the event. According to What Culture, we could end up seeing the return of Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels — who are both Texas natives — and Rey Mysterio, who hasn’t been with the company since February of last year.

Unlike with Triple H, Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels aren’t expected to wrestle again, as they’ve both been retired for several years, and they’ve made it clear that they’re very content with staying retired. But, that doesn’t mean that both men can’t make some sort of cameo appearance at the event. Who knows? Maybe they’ll end up getting somewhat physical, like they did at WrestleMania 32.

If Triple H does end up returning during the Rumble match, it would make sense for him to do something with Seth Rollins during the match because, as previously mentioned, WWE is building to match between the two, which will presumably take place next spring.

Most people already know that Triple H vs. Seth Rollins was planned for WrestleMania 32, but unfortunately, Rollins ended up blowing out his knee just a couple of months before the show, so Triple H ended up wrestling Roman Reigns. Nobody knew if WWE was going to re-book Rollins vs. Triple H for WrestleMania 33, but as of right now, it looks like that’s exactly what they’re building towards. But, who knows? Plans often change in WWE, so both men could end up facing someone else at the event.

[Featured Image by WWE]

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News wrestling Sports steve austin WWE Raw royal rumble wrestlemania RAW Shawn Michaels roman reigns kevin owens Triple H
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