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‘Royal Rumble’ 2017: What Fans Know So Far

By Bernadette Giacomazzo
Published on: 03:50 PST, Dec 29, 2016

With just a few weeks to go before the much-anticipated Royal Rumble 2017, this writer decided to take a look at what fans know so far about the event that’s coming up on January 29 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.

First, and foremost, the premier match in the Royal Rumble 2017 is the 30-man elimination match, according to Den of Geek. Thus far, it’s only certain that Goldberg and Brock Lesnar are scheduled to participate — and it’s interesting that the WWE creative is keeping this storyline going, to be sure.

The winner of the 30-man elimination match will become the number one contender for either the WWE World Championship or the Universal Championship. This suggests that Bill Goldberg is, in fact, on his way to making a title run for his comeback, since it doesn’t sound like Brock Lesnar is interested in ever holding a title.

Lesnar is, however, interested in getting back at Goldberg for that 90-second humiliation at the Survivor Series, according to his spokesman, Paul Heyman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgvFziw_W2I

The next match to keep an eye out for at the Royal Rumble 2017, according to Heavy, is the match between Kevin Owens and Roman Reigns. Clearly, WWE creative is going to play this rivalry into the ground, but it makes for some great storytelling, so fans can live with it.

The complexity of this rivalry is, of course, two-fold: there’s the BFF (best frenemies forever) relationship between Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho, and there’s also the tag team of former Shield stablemates Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. The latter is what it is — a delight to fans of one of the greatest wrestling teams in history — but the former presents an interesting wrinkle in the storyline. Can Kevin Owens really hold on to the Universal title without the interference of Jeri-KO?

No less than Raw’s general manager, “Mankind” Mick Foley, wants the answer to that question. He told Kevin Owens — and the audience — that the only way Chris Jericho is going to be allowed to watch the match between Kevin Owens and Roman Reigns is if he’s suspended from a cage at the top of the ring.

Who’s taking bets on whether Jeri-KO will either figure out a way to get out of the cage or throw things at Kevin Owens from the top of the ring?

Finally, according to Sky Sports, the last big Royal Rumble 2017 match fans have to look forward to is the match between John Cena and AJ Styles, which is the most recent match to be announced.

The Face That Runs the Place and The Phenomenal One are facing off for the World Championship title, currently being held by Styles. Obviously, Cena is making a title run, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s making a heel turn. More than anything, according to the outlet, it seems like Cena wants to prove to the WWE audience that despite his battles with the company and his recent Hollywood success, he isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

And, it seems, why not make history in the process? If Cena succeeds in taking the title from Styles, he will be tied with Ric Flair for the most number of titles held.

What do you think of the Royal Rumble 2017 so far? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

[Featured Image by WWE]

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