Predicting the match order at Royal Rumble 2020

It’s one thing to predict the winners and losers at Royal Rumble 2020, but how about taking a guess at the match order on that card?

WWE has announced eight different segments for the main card of this event. Here is my subjective view of how important each of these eight segments rank, ordered from most important to least important.

1. Men’s Royal Rumble
2. Women’s Royal Rumble
3. Becky Lynch vs. Asuka
4. Bray Wyatt vs. Daniel Bryan
5. Roman Reigns vs. King Corbin
6. Bayley vs. Lacey Evans
7. Andrade vs. Humberto Carrillo
8. Shorty G vs. Sheamus

It is important to come up with a list like this to get an idea of which matches are going to be placed in the key spots on the card or take up the most time, and which matches might end up in the cool-down spots or be given the least amount of time.

Pre-show match

This is only the third time where this event will include two separate Royal Rumble matches. The main card in 2018 had 6 total matches and a run time of 4h 13m 06s. The main card in 2019 had 7 total matches and a run time of 4h 53m 16s.

It’s possible that WWE can squeeze eight matches onto the main card in 2020 and keep it within 5 hours, but it seems more likely to me that one of these eight advertised matches will get dumped off to the pre-show.

The only two choices for that spot would be Sheamus or Andrade. Considering that Sheamus has not wrestled on television yet since his return, I really doubt they want his first match to be on a pay-per-view pre-show. As far as Andrade and Humberto are concerned, well, they fought on the pre-show last month at TLC 2019, so that precedent has already been set. I’m moving them to the pre-show again at Royal Rumble 2020.

That leaves me with seven total matches on the main card of this event.

Main event

Like usual, the main event will very likely be one of the two Royal Rumble matches. I suppose it’s possible that Becky could main event if something with Ronda Rousey is planned afterwards, or Bray Wyatt could main event if there is a ring-breaking angle planned after his match. But those latter scenarios don’t seem all that likely to occur.

It’s clear that WWE has put much more emphasis on the men’s Royal Rumble match than the women’s. The hook of Brock Lesnar being the first entrant is just one piece of evidence in favor of that argument. The only way the women’s match will be the main event is if Ronda Rousey returns to win it.

I’m sticking with the safe choice for the main event, which is Brock Lesnar and the men’s Royal Rumble match.

Opening matches

WWE has yet to open a card with a Royal Rumble match, so I’m not going to be bold enough to do that here either. I’m going to focus more on loading the early card up with superstars who might pull double duty. Roman Reigns and Baron Corbin are expected to do just that. I could see Sheamus pulling double duty as well even though he is not currently advertised for the men’s Royal Rumble. As far as the women are concerned, I think Lacey Evans is more likely to pull double duty than anybody else. Becky Lynch is a safe bet to retain her championship, and that’s something she can do in the latter half of the night.

So I’m going to put Roman, Lacey, and Sheamus in the first three segments, with the Women’s Royal Rumble in Segment 4.

Segment 2 often goes to the least important match of the night, so that’s where I’m putting Sheamus.

I expect Roman’s match will be much longer than Bayley’s, so he’s probably a better fit for the opening match instead of going on right before an hour long match. Therefore I’m putting Roman in Segment 1 and Bayley in Segment 3.

That gives me the following card:

Segment 1: Roman Reigns vs. King Corbin
Segment 2: Shorty G vs. Sheamus
Segment 3: Bayley vs. Lacey Evans
Segment 4: Women’s Royal Rumble
Segment 5:
Segment 6:
Segment 7: Men’s Royal Rumble

Everything else

The only thing I have left to do is choose between Wyatt and Lynch for Segment 5 and Segment 6.

I’m not going to have three consecutive women’s matches, which means Wyatt will go in Segment 5, with Lynch in Segment 6.

Finalized card

So here is my final prediction for the match order at Royal Rumble, along with guesses on the bell-to-bell match times.

Segment 1: Roman Reigns vs. King Corbin (17 minutes)
Segment 2: Shorty G vs. Sheamus (6)
Segment 3: Bayley vs. Lacey Evans (10)
Segment 4: Women’s Royal Rumble (58)
Segment 5: Bray Wyatt vs. Daniel Bryan (15)
Segment 6: Becky Lynch vs. Asuka (16)
Segment 7: Men’s Royal Rumble (67)

These times add up to 189 minutes, which means this main card is going at least 4.5 hours.

That’s my prediction for the match order at Royal Rumble 2020. What’s yours?