As recently as this past September, neither Goldberg, Brock Lesnar or the Undertaker were scheduled to be in the Royal Rumble match. As a matter of fact, of the three, only Lesnar was expected to appear on the pay-per-view at all. WrestleMania was even a major question mark for Undertaker, and Goldberg’s involvement wasn’t supposed to go beyond a potential Hall of Fame induction during WrestleMania weekend.
Now, all three marquee superstars are entering the Royal Rumble match. Lesnar and Goldberg have already announced their intentions on WWE television, and the Undertaker is expected to make it official this coming Monday when he returns to RAW . Brock and Bill are already being advertised as headliners for the match, as the winner, of course, earns a title shot of his choosing at WrestleMania .
As noted, Lesnar wasn’t going to be in the Rumble match originally. Vince McMahon felt The Beast was wasted during his build to and match at WrestleMania 32 , so he had designs of either giving him the Universal Championship (likely beating Kevin Owens for it at the Royal Rumble ) or booking a program between Brock and Shane McMahon to culminate at WrestleMania 33 .
Even when Goldberg agreed to return, it wasn’t supposed to last past Survivor Series as far as wrestling was concerned. But his comeback was an instant success, the two sides agreed to an extension, and their agreement should close out with a WrestleMania match with Brock in April. Fortunately, Vince and the Undertaker mended fences from a frayed relationship coming off WrestleMania 32 , but he still needed to recover from hip surgery to complete his comeback.
So as noted, all three will be featured on the grand stage inside Camping World Stadium in three months. And last week, we reported that at the time, WWE officials had only locked-in three matches for the WrestleMania 33 card. Fast forward to this week, and while those three remain in place, the newest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that several key changes have been made to the rest of the card.
Those changes have yet to be confirmed, but to reiterate, the only three matches booked so far for WrestleMania are Triple H vs. Seth Rollins, Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar, and Shaquille O’Neal vs. The Big Show. Barring something unforeseen, those bouts are done deals.
The Undertaker is confirmed for WrestleMania , but they have still yet to finalize his opponent. As noted, he is booked for this coming Monday’s episode of RAW and should be announcing his entrance into the Royal Rumble match. It has been speculated for the past two weeks that the Deadman is now one of the favorites to win it and go on to challenge one of the heavyweight champions in April.
We’ve reported that Vince is trying to decide between John Cena and Roman Reigns for Undertaker’s WrestleMania opponent, in a match that certainly could be his last. That decision will be made internally in the next two weeks as the complete WrestleMania card will be set by then. Of course, the direction of the ‘Mania card will determine the direction they take with the Royal Rumble .
Aside from Undertaker’s opponent, the rest of the card still seems up in the air. Despite reports that Bayley will be given the Daniel Bryan treatment in a build to a WrestleMania coronation, WWE officials are still debating the plan for the RAW Women’s Division. They have narrowed things down to two options: Bayley vs. Charlotte in a singles match for the title, or a multi-woman match for the belt.
As mentioned, be on the lookout for news regarding the rest of the card in the next two weeks as anything else before that remains speculation and rumor.
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