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The next pay-per-view (PPV) on the WWE schedule is the Royal Rumble event set to take place on Sun., Jan. 26, 2013, at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the company's annual beginning of the year showcase that will crown the next number one contender to the WWE world heavyweight championship.
We're still a full five weeks out from showtime and only one match on the card is official. There aren't many rumors either, but there's a general idea.
- Royal Rumble
Although the 40-man Rumble match in 2011 was fun, there are no indications that a plan is in place to do it again. As far as a winner, well, that's anyone's guess. The same goes for surprise returns, though reports got out yesterday that Batista could be one of the big returns happening here. It's also possible the recent WWE.com article on Sheamus' injury was a work and he's actually still scheduled back for the match. We shall see. No entrants are confirmed for the match at this time.
- Randy Orton vs. John Cena (WWE world heavyweight championship)*
This is just a rumor at this time but what other direction could they possibly go? Unless they find a stopgap challenger so Cena can enter the Rumble, this is probably what we're getting, a rematch from TLC. It's been floated that Cena could win the belt here with Daniel Bryan winning the Rumble match leading to a WrestleMania main event between the two. If that happened, it's likely Orton would be added to make it a triple threat. That makes sense considering the low number SummerSlam drew with Cena vs. Bryan for the title as the headliner.
Elsewhere, it should be expected that Big E. Langston will defend his Intercontinental title, the Wyatt Family will be going after the tag team champions (Cody Rhodes & Goldust), and AJ Lee will be putting her Divas title up for grabs.
That's the card so far, Cagesiders. Your thoughts?