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2016 Royal Rumble Predictions


Well, another year, another Rumble. Since the last two years have disasters for WWE, it will be interesting to see what direction the company goes, especially with the WWE World Heavyweight Championship on the line in the Royal Rumble match. With six matches confirmed, here are my predictions for the 2016 Royal Rumble.

Pre-Show

Darren Young & Damien Sandow vs The Dudley Boyz vs The Ascension vs Mark Henry & Jack Swagger-Winners get to be in the Royal Rumble

Winners: Henry & Swagger

Ummm...what is this match? Since when are Mark Henry & Jack Swagger a tag team? Why wouldn't Darren Young be teaming with Titus O'Neil? And why is he teaming with Damien Sandow? Wasn't Mark Henry already announced for the Royal Rumble? I'm sorry, but this match makes zero sense. It's tough to pick, mainly because none of these eight have a chance of winning the Royal Rumble, so it doesn't really matter. If I had to pick, I'd pick Henry & Swagger, just because they've hyped up that this will probably be Henry's last Royal Rumble. Give it to the singlet buddies (that's what I'm calling them from now on)

The New Day (c) vs The Usos-Tag Team Championships

Winners: The New Day

The New Day are the most consistently act in WWE right now. They never fail to entertain, and seem to be immune to whatever major star tries to talk down to them (Cena, Stephanie McMahon, and most recently, Chris Jericho). Which is why I'm predicting a win for the New Day. I think it would be a terrible idea to take the belts off of the them while they're so hot, and considering how much merchandise they have on WWE Shop, it would be a bad business idea. I wouldn't put it past the company to put the belts on the Usos though, considering they always are in the title picture. However (despite how negative most of this blog is), I believe in the power of positivity, so give it to the New Day.

Charlotte (c) vs Becky Lynch-Divas Championship

Winner: Charlotte

I don't think it's a stretch to say that a lot of people counted Becky Lynch when she debuted alongside Charlotte and Sasha Banks. While she can hold her own in the ring, she was arguably the weakest promo of the group, and more than likely wouldn't become Divas Champion at any point in time, unlike Sasha and Charlotte. However, in the last month or so, Becky has turned a corner and has become the best Diva on the roster. Her promos have a fire behind them, she has the crowd behind her, and she's currently part of the best Diva storyline of the year (and she didn't even have to make a dead brother joke!) With that being said, Charlotte is winning, because she is Ric Flair's daughter. I don't care how good she is in ring, she is champion because she is Ric Flair's daughter.

Alberto Del Rio (c) vs Kalisto-United States Championship

Winner: Kalisto

The booking of this story has been nonsense. After seeing John Cena's great championship reign was ended by Del Rio, the title went from being a title that meant enough to be put on the line against the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, to a title Jack Swagger was competing for. Kalisto winning it seemed like a step in the right direction, but it was all for nothing, as Del Rio won it back on the next SmackDown, and then Kalisto took the pin on the next RAW. All that did was make Kalisto's win look like a total fluke. He needs to win the belt on Sunday, because this kind of booking can be detrimental to a superstar's career.

Dean Ambrose (c) vs Kevin Owens-Last Man Standing-Intercontinental Championship

Winner: Dean Ambrose

This could be a Match of the Year candidate right here. Ambrose and Owens have a had a solid feud since December, and have been putting on good matches together. This will hopefully be the blow off to the feud so the two can move on to bigger and better things. The rumors are that Ambrose will feud with Jericho for the Intercontinental Championship, and Owens has been rumored to face wither Brock Lesnar or Sami Zayn at WrestleMania 32, so I'm pulling for Ambrose to get the win.

The Royal Rumble Match

Winner: Brock Lesnar

This one was very tough to pick. Sometimes you can just tell who is going to win the Royal Rumble, like the last three years, and sometimes it's still up in the air. This year's match has the added intrigue of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship being on the line, and the winner isn't clear cut yet. Reigns could retain, but then there is who I think is going to win; Brock Lesnar. I think the right decision would be to put the belt on Lesnar, then he can put over Reigns at WrestleMania. Aside from that, here are some other things I predict will happen in the Royal Rumble.
  • Sami Zayn enters, eliminates Kevin Owens
  • Dean Ambrose eliminates Chris Jericho, and Jericho pulls Ambrose out, starting their feud
  • Finn Balor, Baron Corbin and Samoa Joe all debut
  • The Social Outcast eliminate The Big Show
  • AJ Styles debuts
Those are my predictions. Thanks for reading.

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