WWE ROYAL RUMBLE PREDICTIONS – Tom Gets it Wrong: Lesnar vs. Strowman vs. Kane, Styles vs. Sami & KO, Women’s and Men’s Royal Rumble

Royal Rumble 2018 Predictions – Tom Gets It Wrong

Follow Tom Colohue on Facebook and @Colohue for updates.

So it’s possible, even likely, that I’m going to get all of these wrong.

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1. Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson vs. The Revival (Pre-Show)

A last minute match to get these four on the card and potentially fight back against some of the backlash that has come from fans after The Revival put over DX and The Club at Raw 25. All four have a chance to show what they can do here but given the short time that they’ve had to prepare I would expect this to be a standard Raw match more than anything else.

Revival need some heat back.

Winner: Revival

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2. Bobby Roode U.S. Title Open Challenge (Pre-Show)

I’m hoping for Neville; I’m expecting Dolph Ziggler. Either way I’m expecting Bobby Roode to lose. At least that would put some heat on the Ziggler/Roode feud that nobody really cared about.

To be fair, it could also be literally anybody else, for example Cedric Alexander. Either way, I really can’t make a prediction for a match up I don’t know.

Winner: N/A

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3. Kalisto, Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado vs. Jack Gallagher, Drew Gulak and TJP (Pre-Show)

This is a crowd pop match so I’d expect the faces to win.

Winner: Kalisto & Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado

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4. Women‘s Royal Rumble Match

Both Royal Rumbles have quite a few potential winners this year and most of them would leave things moving forward very positively. As much as anything it will be awesome for both women’s divisions to finally have some storylines again.

There are a number of favourites. Ronda Rousey is a favourite but there’s no guarantee she’ll show up and, if she does, she can line up against either Charlotte or against Asuka if Asuka wins the title in the Elimination Chamber. Asuka and Jax are also favourites. For me, Bayley is a dark horse as she has unfinished business with Alexa Bliss.

For me though, Raw’s storylines seem fairly clear. Smackdown does not seem so set. If Charlotte holds the title going into mania, who is her opponent? The only logical draw match that they really have is against Becky Lynch, her best friend.

Makes perfect sense to me.

Winner: Becky Lynch

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5. Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan vs. The Bar (Raw Tag Team Championships)

The fact that we’ve seen Seth Rollins in the ring with The Bar for the better part of six months already shows how weak the Raw tag division has been for almost a whole year. First it was Bar vs. Hardys, then Bar vs. Shield and now Bar vs. this unholy alliance. Going into mania someone is going to need to be in place to compete for these titles and right now there’s no one.

Unfortunately, for me, that suggests that The Bar will be taking the belts back.

Winner: The Bar

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6. A.J. Styles vs. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn (WWE Championship)

Insert sigh here.

Why is everything about Shane McMahon? McMahon and Bryan are both going to get involved in this. I’m already annoyed about it.

Owens is injured. He’s also kayfabe injured so I’d imagine his involvement in the match will be increasingly limited. That does mean we get more Styles vs. Zayn, which we had last week but I’d be very happy to see more of.

That said, it seems to me as though Styles is retaining given how ham fisted the co-champion concept has been.

Winner: AJ Styles

7. The Usos vs. Shelton Benjamin & Chad Gable (SD Tag Team Championships Two Out Of Three Falls Match)

These two teams have had plenty of time in the ring together but haven’t actually gone two on two very often. This is a very good thing because filling a two out of three falls match isn’t easy when you have to have chemistry but also keep things interesting.

The Usos are undoubtedly going to be very involved going into Wrestlemania but as Benjamin and Gable are really the only heel team currently active they seem the right choice to help develop a big mania moment.

Winner: Shelton Benjamin & Chad Gable

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8. Brock Lesnar vs. Kane vs. Braun Strowman (WWE UV Championship)

Brock has to stay champion. Going into Wrestlemania he has to look strong in order to put Roman over properly. I know a lot of people think Strowman will be buried if he doesn’t win but they also thought that as Fast Lane when he lost to Roman and at No Mercy when he lost to Lesnar.

Kane goes down to an F5 while Strowman is on the outside. Long post match stare down but Lesnar comes away with the red.

Winner: Brock Lesnar

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9. Men‘s Royal Rumble Match

Well this is all over the place in the most delightful way.

I’ve been saying since June that Roman will not win the Rumble, instead taking the number one contendership spot at the Elimination Chamber because, let’s be fair, why would Lesnar bother to show up at Elimination Chamber? A lot of people are suggesting a Raw winner could move to Smackdown and this is an exciting concept for Balor, Rollins or The Miz.

There are also a couple of Smackdown favourites who could be a little out of the blue. Daniel Bryan has been mentioned but I don’t see WWE ever letting him wrestle again. If he entered he’d have to win or the crowd would completely mutiny. Dolph Ziggler as a surprise entrant could be a good winner, resulting in a good match but he’s now the favourite to challenge Roode.

A lot or arguments against Nakamura is that he hasn’t done much yet but WWE would have three months to make him a big deal going into Wrestlemania, starting with a big win over Randy Orton at Fast Lane. He’s beaten Cena and Orton clean already, and competed well in the Money In The Bank ladder match. His match against Corbin this last week was a very good one.

For me, Styles vs. Nakamura at Wrestlemania makes the most sense.

Winner: Shinsuke Nakamura

I’ll see you for another live Twitter session during Royal Rumble 2018.

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NOW CHECK OUT PAT MCNEILL’S RUMBLE PREVIEW: Anything You Can Do, We Can Do Better: McNEILL Previews WWE Royal Rumble 2018! (with a Wrestling History Lesson)