WWE Had Late Changes To Men’s Royal Rumble Match
While the 2020 Men’s Royal Rumble was generally a good event, it had it’s share of changes. Several notable names were advertised for the match, only to end up not being in the match.
Some notable names that had been mentioned, to some extent or other: Kane, Heavy Machinery, Buddy Murphy, Rusev, Bobby Lashley and Cain Velasquez. At the beginning of the match, the WWE announce team provided fans with an update on two of those names. Per storylines, WWE said that Lashley and Rusev had brawled to such an extent that they were not cleared to work in the Rumble.
There is no word on what specifically happened to the others mentioned, but Wrestling Observer had some observations about it all the same.
What happened?
There’s no word on whether Kane was backstage or not. Relative to Heavy Machinery, we did see Otis, though he worked to extend his angle with Mandy Rose as part of her run in the women’s match.
Buddy Murphy was kind of involved in the men’s Royal Rumble. Specifically, he did accompany Seth Rollins to the ring, along with stablemates Authors of Pain. With Rollins entering at number 30, the group came down to the ring and created some chaos. Eventually, Murphy and AoP brawled with the eliminated Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe and Aleister Black. When the men went to the back, Rollins lost his numbers advantage and was quickly eliminated.
With Cain Velasquez, plans obviously changed but no explanation has yet been given. While many expected Velasquez to challenge Lesnar again at WrestleMania, that does not seem to be in the cards now. Drew McIntyre eliminated Lesnar on his way to claiming his first Rumble victory. It would seem likely based on the exchanges between the two that we will seen Lesnar-McIntyre at WrestleMania.
I’ve spoken before about the loss of faith that #WWE management have had in Cain Velasquez.
To have told him that he was in the #RoyalRumble, only to pull him at the last second, is not a promising sign for his future career with the company.
— Tom Colohue (@Colohue) January 27, 2020
In the grand scheme, as WWE has more Superstars to involve and fans still crave surprises, should WWE consider expanding the Rumble in some fashion?
Does WWE Have Big Plans For Killer Kross?
That seems to be the idea, if rumors are to be believed. Keep in mind, there hasn’t been an official signing announced yet. That said, the Observer shed some light on talks that happened recently between Killer Kross and WWE’s Triple H.
According to Dave Metlzer’s folks, that meeting went well. More to the point, WWE may have big plans for the indy star. Specifically, Kross indicated that, should he sign with WWE, the expectation is he’d be fast-tracked.
I’ve spoken before about the loss of faith that #WWE management have had in Cain Velasquez.
To have told him that he was in the #RoyalRumble, only to pull him at the last second, is not a promising sign for his future career with the company.
— Tom Colohue (@Colohue) January 27, 2020
Now, what that entails is not entirely clear. Many times, an indy star comes in and does some time in NXT before jumping up to the main roster. This happened for some bigger indy stars in recent times, including Kevin Owens and Samoa Joe.
That, however, was not the case for AJ Styles. Styles debuted as part of the Royal Rumble a few years back, in one of the bigger Rumble moments in recent years.
There has already been some rumblings that Kross could debut in some fashion at WrestleMania, or perhaps on the RAW or SmackDown immediately after. This is all dependent on Kross signing on the dotted line, of course.
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