Royal Rumble loses a title match

It was clear to everyone that, even with 4 - 6 hours to work with, Sunday, Jan. 28’s Royal Rumble card was gonna be tight. WWE knew it, too, and rather than moving a long-running SmackDown storyline and title match to the Kickoff, they’ve moved it to the blue brand’s ‘go home’ show for the pay-per-view (PPV).

PWInsider reported the change last night, and while WWE hasn’t exactly screamed it from the mountain tops, there is confirmation of it on their website - although even that is a little confusing. News the United States title tournament final will now take place on the Jan. 23 episode of SmackDown appears in the story about the tourney which shows up in the list of Royal Rumble match previews:

WWE.com

“The tournament finals will take place during SmackDown LIVE on Tuesday, Jan. 23.”

After this move, the card for Wells Fargo Center looks like this:

• Men’s Royal Rumble match
• Women’s Royal Rumble match (latest official line-up for both bouts here)
• Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Braun Strowman vs. Kane for the Universal title
• AJ Styles (c) vs. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn for the WWE championship
• Seth Rollins & Jason Jordan vs. Cesaro & Sheamus for the Raw Tag Team championship
• Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin vs. The Usos (c) in a Best 2-out-of-3 Falls match for the SmackDown Tag Team titles
• Enzo Amore (c) vs. Cedric Alexander for the Cruiserweight championship