Under Pressure: WWE Needs To Deliver With Royal Rumble

This Sunday, wrestling fans get to sit back and enjoy the annual January fun that is Royal Rumble. For me, I know every year I’ve looked forward to the Rumble because it means surprises. Surprise returns, surprise debuts, otherwise retired legends coming in for a cameo. It’s a fun event that kicks off things on the road to WrestleMania. Last year, WWE doubled down and gave us a long overdue women’s Royal Rumble too. This year? This year, the company is under pressure. WWE needs to deliver with Royal Rumble. Here’s a look at some of the reasons why.

First off, Vince McMahon, backed by his children and son-in-law, made a very public declaration in late 2018. They wanted to give fans what they wanted. New faces. New superstars. It was in response to sagging ratings and disappointing attendance. It was also no doubt a preemptive strike for what would become official in the beginning of 2019: All Elite Wrestling.

There’s the second, and much more challenging reason why this years Rumble is under a great deal of pressure. While we don’t know (and may never know) the timelines of WWE’s negotiations with what became the foundation of AEW, it’s entirely possible that when McMahon made his RAW proclamation he still had optimism of bringing someone like Kenny Omega or Cody Rhodes in. Now, we know with 100 percent certainty that The American Nightmare is otherwise employed, and all signs point to Omega signing with AEW too, once he’s officially out of New Japan.

So why is this a challenge? Because most of the hot, popular or available free agents-basically all the talent fans have been clamoring for-have been signed up. Even WWE veterans like Chris Jericho jumped to All Elite, meaning we won’t see Y2J in this years rumble.  When McMahon said new names, most fans knew he meant NXT talents. However, many also took it to mean talent not currently under a WWE contract. With debuts like AJ Styles a few rumbles back, there’s an expectation that fans want that level of a surprise, or close to it.

We can expect all the announced NXT talents to show up-that just makes sense. Seeing a few others, like Adam Cole did last year, makes sense too. However, with all due respect, those guys don’t quite move the needle (unless WWE shocks the world and puts a debuting NXT star like Cole over and into the main event at WrestleMania…which I just don’t see happening.).  Getting injured stars like Kevin Owens in the Rumble seems likely too. There’s even chatter that Roman Reigns could be an option, though knowing what we know about cancer treatment, I’m not sure he is a viable option.

So without the possibility of Cody Rhodes or The Young Bucks or any other members of The Elite, WWE may have really limited options to knock our socks off come Sunday. Will the NXT options be enough? What about guys coming back from injury? The jury is out, but the pressure is on. I think the success of the 2019 edition will come down to how good the creative team can be. I think this will mean more creative spots than ever, and perhaps a unique ending sequence too. It may not be what fans had hoped for, but if it’s done well, it may just be what we need.