Worst Possible Outcomes at The Royal Rumble

Ahhyessir, the Royal Rumble is but a few weeks away. No one is really 100% sure just who is winning the thing. There’s a lot of excitement. There’s a lot of anticipation. What could be the worst way to ruin everyone’s dreams and excitement?

Here are the worst possible outcomes for the 2018 Royal Rumble.

A Roman Reigns Victory

I don’t hate Roman Reigns. I think he is a great wrestler who has proven on multiple occasions that he can be a top guy. That said, I would hate it if he won the Rumble.

We all know that Roman “The Big Dog” Reigns is going to defeat Brock “The Beast ‘Conqueror’ Incarnate” Lesnar. That plan’s been in motion since a year ago when Lesnar defeated Bill “Goldberg” Goldberg and became the Universal Champion. Everyone just wants it over with so that Reigns can just get the title and hold it until the heat death of the universe.

Since we all know that’s going to happen, most people would rather not waste 4 hours of their lives to see Roman Reigns win the Royal Rumble. Most people would at least like to see someone new and exciting win the Rumble. They want someone who can and will challenge for the WWE Championship, since the Universal Championship pretty much has Roman Reigns’ name on it.

A Bad Winner

People want someone new to win the Rumble, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to love it if Mojo Rawley was entry number 17 and eliminated 25 people to win the Royal Rumble. Unexpected? Yes. Surprising? Yes. A good idea? Absolutely not.

The Royal Rumble is treated as something sacred, so generally the winner is someone that WWE likes or has plans for (Orton, Cena, Batista, Del Rio, Edge, Undertaker, Sheamus, etc.). They’re not going to let Primo Colon or Curtis Axel win the whole match. What is this, 2K18’s Universe Mode?

Still, WWE does love surprises. Orton winning last year was a shock to anyone who didn’t work for WWE or wasn’t looking at betting odds. Surprises can go wrong, though, so expect a riot should Curt Hawkins win the Royal Rumble, defect to Smackdown, challenge AJ Styles for the WWE Championship, and win.

The Actual Winner Gets Eliminated

You have to assume that WWE has an idea of who will win the Royal Rumble, right? I’m sure there’s an intricate web of details for the match. Who gets eliminated? Who eliminates the people who eliminated the other people? It can be tricky enough. What if the person who was supposed to win, for some crazy reason, gets eliminated?

Let’s assume they pick John Cena to win the 2018 Royal Rumble. During a routine “he almost gets eliminated but hangs onto the ropes” spot, Cena loses his grip and falls. Because of Cena’s absence, Mojo Rawley wins the Royal Rumble and challenges AJ Styles for the WWE Championship.

Before he can do that, he must defend his Royal Rumble victory and his Wrestlemania match spot at some other time and place, or whatever. Whatever WWE can do to retcon the situation.

The Ring Breaks During the Universal Championship Triple Threat

The eponymous Royal Rumble match is probably going to be the main event come January 28. That means that any and all other matches on the card will take place before the battle royal. One of those matches will be Kane v. Braun Strowman v. Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship.

What if, during Lesnar’s title defense, they set up a tower of doom spot and cause the whole darn ring to implode upon itself. It would be crazy. People would love it. However, it would cause problems for the Royal Rumble.

With a broken ring, there would be no top rope to throw people over, so the match just turns into a full-blown King of the Hill scenario where superstars push people out of the collapsed structure. Eliminations are much harder to judge, and people get eliminated more often because of the unbalanced platform and the lack of ropes. Finally, amidst all the chaos, one man emerges victorious.

That man is Mojo Rawley.