WWE Royal Rumble 2018: Predicting The Quality Of All 6 Matches

The Royal Rumble has suffered a reputational battering in recent years.

Last year's show, despite boasting a superb undercard, yet again failed to deliver an inspiring climax. Randy Orton was such a pedestrian winner that even WWE knew it; Roman Reigns entered in the #30 slot to ostensibly set up his WrestleMania 33 bout with the Undertaker - but, in the subtext, he neatly deflected attention away from Orton's umpteenth push. The man who has failed with the rocket more times than the 1960s space race was, in contrast to Roman, the lesser of two deeply uninspiring winners.

In 2016, Triple H captured the WWE Championship to instigate his WrestleMania 32 programme with - yes - Roman Reigns, further reducing the match from measure of meritocracy to maintenance of malaise. In 2015, of course, Reigns won the eponymous match to a brutal reception. When you wipe years of dust from the cover of the Rumble record book, you have to turn the pages back all the way to 2012 to stumble upon a winner that did not bore or antagonise fans into submission. Or, if he did, Sheamus was somebody different, at least. This year's January spectacular looks more than promising on paper - but with such an eclectic and gifted roster, which WWE pay-per-views don't?

That reputation isn't altogether lost - and the inherent magic of the Rumble leads one, involuntarily, to forecast excellence...

It's not altogether difficult to gauge the quality of Sunday's SmackDown Tag Team Title clash; the teams have wrestled three good-to-very good telvised tag bouts throughout the winter months in addition to several more singles and multi-man affairs.

The Usos, in particular, are master craftsmen of the doubles art. The hot tag spot all too often looks contrived, with flailing lariat attempts thrown into the air only to miss. Not in the hands of Jimmy and Jey; they frantically duck underneath their opponents with a sense of do-or-die urgency, refusing to just stroll through to the next spot. They do so much to sell the combined threat of their opponents. And with a sound psychological rationale; Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin, thrown together, attracted 'American Beta' accusations. In the heel role, they have elevated that act's suplex-throwing schtick with a palpable menace. Gable especially transmits legitimate danger; the added oomph to his Chaos Theory spot re-contextualises it from wonderful babyface hope spot to wince-inducing babyface killer.

The 2 Out Of 3 Falls stipulation is often rendered as contrived as the idea to simply replace Jason Jordan with another amateur-leaning African American - but the Usos have already drawn on their immense creativity to maintain interest in their second consecutive prolonged programme.

Provided the layout does not burden the psychology, this should be a killer match - especially since the Usos have something to prove on the Big 4 stage proper.

Anticipated Star Rating: ****