One of the biggest WWE events of the year is less than a month away, and the company has already started a lot of the build-up for the 2017 Royal Rumble . For a couple of weeks now, there were two big names in the 30-superstar over-the-top-rope battle royal as Goldberg and Brock Lesnar joined in early December. Last night on Monday Night Raw , the card for the pay-per-view (PPV) grew by one huge title match and five more entrants into the Rumble itself.
When Goldberg officially joined the Royal Rumble match, it only took a few days for Brock Lesnar to throw his name into the match as well. Since then, many fans have been wondering when WWE would start building up the match more, and they finally have done so.
The world has been waiting to see who else would become an entrant in the match, and last night’s Monday Night Raw didn’t disappoint. Early on in the show, three big names were entered when The New Day officially joined the match, but there were still two more who would join the Rumble later on in the night.
During the main event, which was “The Kevin Owens Show,” it was revealed that both Chris Jericho and Braun Strowman were in the Royal Rumble match as well. The official preview page on the WWE website lists these seven entrants as officially ready to fight for the main event spot at WrestleMania 33 .
- Goldberg
- Brock Lesnar
- Big E
- Xavier Woods
- Kofi Kingston
- Chris Jericho
- Braun Strowman
While it has changed back and forth over the years, entrants will enter the ring every 90 seconds for the 2017 Royal Rumble . There are still 23 open slots that will be filled by stars from Monday Night Raw , SmackDown Live , and possibly from NXT, with a few surprises thrown in as usual.
There were already two big title matches on the Royal Rumble card, which would have the top championships from both brands on the line. AJ Styles will defend the WWE Championship against John Cena while Kevin Owens will defend the WWE Universal Championship against Roman Reigns, but another big title match was just added last night.
Last night on Monday Night Raw , Bayley defeated Nia Jax, as recapped by the official website of WWE, and became the number one contender for the Raw Women’s Championship. Now, Bayley will take on Charlotte Flair for the title as “The Huggable One” looks to claim gold for the first time since she was called up to the main roster.
It is expected that at least one more match will be added to the card before everything is finalized. With the Rumble match, not much more time needs to be filled for the PPV, but there is also the Kickoff Show that will need another bout or two on it.
As of this writing, the current card for the 2017 Royal Rumble is as follows.
- WWE Championship Match: AJ Styles (c) vs. John Cena
- WWE Universal Championship Match: Kevin Owens (c) vs. Roman Reigns
- Raw Women’s Championship Match: Charlotte Flair (c) vs. Bayley
- 30-superstar Royal Rumble – Seven entrants confirmed as of Jan. 2, 2017
This is one of the best events of each year, and the Royal Rumble is set to take place at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, on January 29.
The Royal Rumble is always exciting as even when some think they know what will happen, the unexpected takes place. So far, there are seven entrants in the 30-superstar match and three big title matches on the card. Monday Night Raw has added a lot of big names to the battle royal, but there are still 23 spots to fill. It is expected that SmackDown Live will begin adding its superstars to the huge PPV very soon as well.
[Featured Image by WWE]