The Rager - Royal Rumble 2011 Predictions

Welcome my little Ragers to IBA's first Pay Per View prediction madness. I got together with fellow Awesomite, Joel, and made our predictions to the matches that WWE has listed on the card for tonight. Of course, WWE has been known in the past to throw in matches at the last minute especially when the card is so bare, much like this one. However, this might meen that more time will be allotted for the bigger 40 man version of the Royal Rumble match, which is more than fine by me.

WWE Championship Match

The Miz (c) vs. Randy Orton

Dr. Chris - So I see Miz winning tonight by pulling some sort of hijinks and barely escaping that way someone else can win the championship at Elimination Chamber. I don't think Miz is ready for a Wrestlemania top card draw just yet but he's certainly getting there, maybe next year. However, I don't think WWE is ready to slow Miz down just yet.

Winner - The Miz

Joel - The Royal Rumble is also known as the start of the road to Wrestlemania so I don’t think its too early to start looking at potential matches for WWE’s biggest night. The question is, is there a chance that The Miz will be in the Championship match at Wrestlemania? Looking back a year Miz was still more or less a joke of a wrestler. He’s come a long way in the past year, but I’m not quite sure if the WWE is ready to trust him with that kind of match at Wrestlemania. If he looses at the Royal Rumble then he will also have to loose his rematch against Orton. It makes more since for Miz to keep the belt here and then lose in the Elimination Chamber at the next PPV. This wont leave a whole lot of time to build up a rivalry for the new belt wearer to have in time, but it worked out pretty well for Cena and Batista last year.

Winner - The Miz

World Heavyweight Championship Match

Edge (c) vs. Dolph Ziggler

Dr. Chris - Oddly enough, I can see Mr. Ziggles pulling off the win just they can beat the Vickie Guerrero story through the mat like they did with Edge a couple years ago. And much like the WWE title, he can lose it at the Elimination Chamber in a month and someone more established can take the belt to Wrestlemania.

Winner - Mr. Ziggles

Joel - I am really liking Ziggler as of late. He’s come up fast and has constantly had the skills in the ring to back up claims of potential greatness. Still I don’t think he’s quite at the level of Heavyweight Champion. As long and he has his Vicky on his arm, this loss won’t loose him any heat so there’s not a huge risk in keeping Edge as the champion, at least until the Elimination Chamber.

Divas Championship Handicap Match

Natalya (c) vs. Lay-Cool

Dr. Chris - Hooray bathroom break match. I'm making a prediction regardless of the fact that I really don't care. To be honest, anytime there's a Divas match, I put the television on mute and I either catch up with my friends in the room or I use the restroom...you know, in a sexy, smart, and powerful way. We all know Beth Pheonix will come to Natalya's aid and help her win...unless Pheonix turns heel but that would make too much sense.

Winner - The toilet...but the winner of the match will be Natalya.

Joel - What is the point of turning Melina heel if she’s not even going to be going for the Championship anymore? More than any other current storyline this one shows the problems that WWE has with having their stories make any sort of sense. First of all we have yet to receive any reason for Melina to be mean to other divas out of the blue. Then add to that the fact that the very next week she is being the best of friends with Alicia Fox. Never mind the fact that the week before she had just pinned Fox to become the number one contender and that in fact when Fox had the championship, it was Melina who took it away from her. I know that they’re both heels now but it still seems like there might be some tension between the two characters. They can’t just be best of friends without raising some questions. I want to like the diva matches, I really do. But when this is the amount of time and effort that your going to put into them I don’t think I should have to put in any effort in watching them.

Winner - Oh yeah the match, I dunno…my coin flip came up tails so I guess Natalya.

40-man Royal Rumble Match

Dr. Chris - Finally, the moment I've been waiting for since this time last year. I'm not sure how WWE plans to find 40 wrestlers to fill the line-up, one can assume there will be tons of shocking returns of injured wrestlers or those who have been "future endeavored" magically appear and then disappear the next day...you they drag out really old Hall of Famers so we can all remind ourselves that nothing last forever. I really hope and pray they don't hand it to a returning wrestler who was place at the very end..again. I would obviously love someone like Daniel Bryan to win, I think the more likely choice would be John Morrison due to his recent push. However I think it would be best if the winner was someone that has generated a ridiculous amount of heat as of late, even though he hasn't even been wrestling again until a few weeks ago.

Winner - CM Punk

Joel - When an additional ten men were added to the Royal Rumble I have to admit, my first thought was “Can I even name 40 wrestlers active in the WWE?” This past Monday both the New Nexus and Corre were threatened with not getting to be in the match (can the Raw GM really threaten that of Smackdown’s Corre wrestlers?) I had no real fear since I figured that the Royal Rumble would need literally ever wrestler that it could get.

I suppose that if there is a time for wrestlers to make surprise comebacks, this would be the time. The obvious member of that category would be Triple H. Gone for almost a year, He needs to get back in the ring and challenge Shamus who could use the rivalry to keep from slipping back into mid-card territory.
Some rumors have floated suggesting that Skip Sheffield might turn face when returning to Raw and while he may not win the Rumble, it wouldn’t be a bad place to debut him.
Who I would really like to see come back and make a surprise win is Evan Bourne. After getting a mini push last year, Bourne had to take some time off due to injury. The timing is quite unfortunate as Bourne wasn’t quite out of mid-card purgatory yet and with this extended absence he is running the risk of getting lost in the shuffle and getting lost in the pile.

As for wrestlers who are going to be the match, Del Rio has gotten quite a push and it may be time to give him a legitimate run at the belt. With Edge clearly as a face on Smackdown, the two of them can build a nice rivalry that could lead into Wrestlemania. (Though Del Rio is really just a wild guess. Baring no surprise entrants, any storyline could be furthered in a positive way with a win at the Royal Rumble)

Winner: Alberto Del Rio

Hope everyone enjoys the Royal Rumble, its the most wonderful time of the year. As stated as before, WWE may have some surprises up their sleeves in order to fill the 40 man lineup...for example, the most recent rumor is that WWE may have resigned former wrestlers Booker T and Kevin Nash. I'm not too thrilled about either because both are well past their prime but it would be a huge surprise nonetheless due to the fact that neither man would ever agree to work with the WWE again.