WWE will officially kick off its "Road to WrestleMania" tomorrow night (Sun., Jan. 26, 2014) at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with the Royal Rumble pay-per-view (PPV) that will crown not only the WWE world heavyweight champion but the next challenger to the title.
The winner of the Randy Orton vs. John Cena bout will face the winner of the Royal Rumble match, or at least that's the idea attached to the gimmick.
As it stands now, actually, that's the plan. That's according to the rumored WrestleMania 30 match card.
Let's take a look, shall we? Remember, plans change and none of this is official (obviously), so take it with a big grain of salt for now, though the folks at PW Insider have reported on this:
- Batista vs. Randy Orton
This likely means Batista is winning the Royal Rumble and Orton is retaining the WWE world heavyweight title in his match with Cena.
- Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar
This one has apparently been planned for years now, and WWE was even trying to put it together when Lesnar was still with the UFC. The timing is right for it now, so it's going down.
- John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt
This is with the belief that Wyatt is a big main event level star in the making and Cena is going to help him get there. Call it "star power by association". If this happens, it's fair to wonder what quality of match can be expected.
- Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus
There's no telling how they'll get here, but there's plenty of backstory to use, namely the fact that Sheamus beat Bryan for the world heavyweight title at WrestleMania 28 in a record-breaking 18 seconds. Sheamus isn't even back on TV yet, though, so we'll see.
- CM Punk vs. Triple H
The television direction right now makes clear that this is the direction. Otherwise it would be Punk vs. Kane and I don't think anyone wants to pay money for that match, though it could be a good stop gap for Elimination Chamber in February to set up Punk-Triple H at WrestleMania.
Those are the top matches that are heavily rumored to be booked for the big show. Your thoughts, Cagesiders?