WWE Greatest Royal Rumble: Predicting 10 Entrants Not Yet Announced
Mystery Men
WWE's Greatest Royal Rumble mega-event creates quite the conundrum.
As a fan, there are few things more exciting than the ordinarily annual Pat Patterson master creation. It's a contest of inch perfect execution for everything that makes pro wrestling so exciting, meshing booking fascinations with elements of surprise and the keenly manufactured sense of competition the industry requires to maintain a veneer of believability. Adding 20 more performers in to the usual 30, WWE have put b*llocks on top of bullsh*t to provide the Saudi Arabian crowd with a insane main event for a insane card.
Ethically, it's an absolute mess.
Latest revelations about the problematic presentation have alleged that female fans will not even be permitted to attend the event unless accompanied by a man. This on top of the fact that WWE have consented to sending no female performers over as per archaic geographic regulations casts a shadow over a show already buried under a heap of criticism. In even promoting it to begin with, WWE are willingly engaging in a regeneration programme for the country that itself seems rife with controversy. And all for an astronomical fee.
"But...but...a 50 man Rumble!" screams the voice in your head, and Vince McMahon wins again.
Whilst it's impossible to completely look away from the astronomical issues, it's still tragically all too easy to enjoy the wrestling in spite of it. WWE have weathered greater scandals anyway, and this is the Greatest Royal Rumble after all...
10. Andrade 'Cien' Almas
The newest recruit from NXT to Paige's super-sized SmackDown Live! roster, Andrade 'Cien' Almas confounded expectations in 2017 with one of the greatest career turnarounds in company history.
His pairing with TNA castoff Zelina Vega was lightning in a bottle most already assumed had smashed against one of the brick walls he'd ran into into on NXT.
2018 made good his latter successes the prior year in the grandest possible fashion. A TakeOver: Philadelphia main event against Johnny Gargano was the type of epic few felt him capable of under WWE confines. The former 'La Sombra' was magnificent as the dream-crushing workhorse heel against sentimental favourite and technical wizard Gargano.
Utilising Vega to cheat like an utter b*stard where necessary, Almas was perfect in his execution of his updated character, as he hopefully will on the main roster via the grandest of entrances.
No stranger to mammoth international crowds thanks to his pre-WWE life, Almas could end up the ideal disturbance in the 50-man war. He put in a respectable effort in January's ordinary match just 24 hours after one of the matches of the year. The possibilities are endless considering his relative freshness by comparison.