We’re just a couple of days away from the annual Royal Rumble event, where 30 WWE superstars will battle, for only the second time in history, with the WWE World Heavyweight Championship on the line. The first time was in 1992, where the vacant WWE Championship was up for grabs, which was won by WWE Hall of Famer “Nature Boy” Ric Flair.
Vince McMahon announced that Roman Reigns’ WWE World Heavyweight Championship would be on the line in the Royal Rumble match several weeks ago on RAW , and beforehand, he made sure to warn Reigns that Triple H would be coming for revenge, and it would be at a time when Reigns least expects it.
When McMahon initially warned Reigns that Triple H would be coming for revenge, most believed that “The Game” was going to do so as a surprise entrant in the Royal Rumble match, and according to the folks at Bovada , that’s exactly what’s going to happen.
Bovada recently updated their Royal Rumble odds, which previously had Brock Lesnar as the favorite to win the match. Now, Lesnar has taken a backseat to Triple H, who hasn’t appeared on RAW since December.
According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer , WWE is planning on having Roman Reigns take on Triple H in the main-event of this year’s WrestleMania . There’s also some talk that WWE is planning on having Reigns face Brock Lesnar at next month’s WWE Fastlane show.
If Triple H is actually going to win the Royal Rumble , then Reigns vs. Lesnar at WWE Fastlane makes a lot of sense, as it could be a number one contender’s match to decide who ends up facing “The Game” at WrestleMania 32 , and WWE can finally get their desired result in the Reigns vs. Lesnar match, which is to have Reigns defeat “The Beast.”
Furthermore, Lesnar wouldn’t have to lose clean, as there are rumors that the former UFC champ is going to be involved in a feud with the Wyatt Family going into WrestleMania . So, the Wyatts may end up costing Lesnar the match against Reigns.
If Triple H does win the Royal Rumble , it’ll be the second Rumble win of his career, with the first one coming in 2002. It’ll also be the 14th time that “The King of Kings” has held the world title, and it would be the first time he’s been champion since April of 2009.
Up until a certain point, WWE was planning on having Triple H break Ric Flair’s record for most title reigns ever, which would be sixteen. But at some point that changed.
Triple H winning the title for the fourteenth time isn’t an indication that WWE has changed their minds again and now want “The Game” to chase Flair’s record. It just means that they want Reigns to go into WrestleMania 32 as the challenger, and Triple H is the only opponent that makes sense right now.
It does seem odd that WWE would be so willing to take the WWE Championship off of Reigns just one month after he won it and got such a positive reaction while doing so.
On this past Monday’s RAW , Vince McMahon said that Roman Reigns would be the first entrant in the Royal Rumble match, which means that the WWE Champion is going to be in for a long night, as he’ll almost certainly be one of the final two men in the match.
Only two men in WWE history – Shawn Michaels and Chris Benoit – have won the Rumble after being the first entrant in the match, and if the odds end up being correct, then Reigns won’t change that number from two to three on Sunday night.
(Featured image via WWE )