WWE SmackDown got the festivities started with Paul Heyman, and while The Bloodline would make an impact on things soon after, they weren’t at the heart of the biggest revelation of the segment. That came from Heyman directly, as in an exchange with Cody Rhodes, Heyman revealed Roman Reigns was declaring for the Royal Rumble in an attempt to get back his Title. So now the two superstars confirmed for the match are Reigns and John Cena, who many look at as the heavy favorite to win it all. With Reigns in the mix, does that even have a chance at happening?
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This latest development makes sense from the Bloodline storyline perspective. Reigns defeated Solo Sikoa in Tribal Combat on Monday Night Raw’s Netflix premiere, and as Heyman pointed out, Reigns now looks to his next move to reclaim his dynasty-like reign over WWE. The next piece of that is obviously the Undisputed WWE Championship, and Reigns will need to take down Rhodes to get it back.
The most efficient way to make that happen is to win the Royal Rumble and get a guaranteed Title shot at WrestleMania, bypassing any politics or history he has with Rhodes in order to get a Title shot from the Champ.
Reigns would be the immediate favorite regardless of who else was in the match with this declaration, but that brings us to Cena. Cena’s declaration for the Rumble was one that got the crowd hyped and even got Cena hyped for a chance to win his 17th Championship, and the promo really sold the idea that not only could Cena win the Rumble, but he could really get that record in the process during his farewell tour.
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Having someone like Reigns in the match puts that in real jeopardy, both from a challenge to overcome standpoint but also from a main event standpoint. Few people in wrestling lose as rarely as Reigns does, and especially in a spot as big as the Rumble and what it means for WrestleMania 41. Regardless of how much hype is built for Cena winning, there’s got to be a thought that if Reigns is there, he’s winning it, and no one would blame you for that.
The only element that might have some effect on that analysis is the fact that Reigns has actually lost more in the past 2 months than he had over the past 3 years. That included a clean loss to Solo on a major stage, and while the Bloodline was typically involved in his other beatdowns, he was often made an example of to beef up the new Bloodline. That means that this new babyface Roman could feasibly lose the Rumble and clear the way for Cena to win, though it remains to be seen if Reigns would actually sacrifice is chance of winning for some reason to affect that directly in the match itself.
Having Reigns in the Rumble automatically makes the chances of Cena winning it all a bit slimmer, but not impossible, so we’ll just have to wait and see how it all plays out and who else joins them in the Rumble to shake things up even more.
Who do you think will win and who do you want to win the Rumble? You can talk all things wrestling with me on Bluesky @KnightofOA!
