There is now less than a week to go until the 2017 Royal Rumble and it has already been shaping up to be a great pay-per-view (PPV). As of this afternoon, there were only 18 names officially announced as entrants in the 30-superstar over-the-top-rope battle royal, but right before Monday Night Raw , another huge man joined the fun. Making things even better is that WWE also officially announced another title match for the show as well.
Right before Monday Night Raw began, Mike Rome was outside the arena and dropped the news that a big superstar had officially entered the Royal Rumble . Yes, one of the biggest athletes in history will compete for the chance to main event WrestleMania 33 as Big Show is in the match.
Big Show has not been seen on WWE television much of late, but a match between him and Shaquille O’Neal is still being teased for WrestleMania 33 in Orlando. While he’s been off of TV, Big Show has been working out and looks to be in the best shape of his life.
As confirmed by the official preview page for the Royal Rumble , Big Show makes 19 announced entrants in this year’s match.
Monday Night Raw :
- Goldberg
- Brock Lesnar
- Big Show
- Seth Rollins
- Big E
- Kofi Kingston
- Xavier Woods
- Braun Strowman
- Chris Jericho
- Cesaro
- Sheamus
SmackDown LIVE :
- The Undertaker
- Dean Ambrose
- Dolph Ziggler
- The Miz
- Bray Wyatt
- Randy Orton
- Luke Harper
- Baron Corbin
More entrants may be named this week, but it is expected that some of the remaining spots will go to surprise entries.
While the majority of the fans are looking forward to the Royal Rumble match itself, there are a number of titles up for grabs too. Not long after the show took to the air on Monday, a new title bout was added and it will surely be a hard-hitting one.
On tonight’s show, Luke Gallows took on one-half of the Raw Tag Team Champions in Cesaro, and that is when the new title bout was announced. On the Kickoff Pre-Show, Cesaro and Sheamus will defend their titles against the team of Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson in a feud that has been building up for weeks now.
Gallows picked up the victory on Monday night, but he and Anderson will have to do a lot more to win the titles on Sunday. The interesting thing about this match, as confirmed by WWE ‘s preview page , is that there will be two referees covering it so that nothing is missed.
As of this writing, the current card for the Royal Rumble is:
- WWE Championship: AJ Styles (c) vs. John Cena
- WWE Universal Championship: Kevin Owens (c) vs. Roman Reigns
- Cruiserweight Championship: Rich Swann (c) vs. Neville
- Raw Women’s Championship: Charlotte Flair (c) vs. Bayley
- Raw Tag Team Championship: Sheamus & Cesaro (c) vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson – Kickoff Match
Please, remember that the card is subject to change and anything can be altered if need be.
That’s a lot of titles on the line and one of the biggest opportunities each year as well. Sheamus and Cesaro have their work cut out for them, though, as they will pull double-work with defending their titles and then taking part in the Royal Rumble later in the night.
On Sunday, 30 superstars are going to enter the ring and look to be the main man in WWE for the night. If they win the Royal Rumble match, they will go on to main event WrestleMania 33 and stand on the grandest stage of them all. Now, things were only made more difficult with the addition of Big Show, but anything is possible to happen. Adding the Raw Tag Team Title match also makes this card one of the best in a quite some time, so, let’s hope it lives up to the hype.
[Featured Image by WWE]