10 Booking Steps For The Rock's WWE Return
7. He DOESN'T Win The Royal Rumble
The instinct to have The Rock win the Royal Rumble will be utterly huge. It makes sense in many ways in both a business sense and in terms of how the audience will react. The Rock winning the Rumble to set up his match with Roman Reigns three months in advance is a good way to get early WrestleMania tickets sold, it's guaranteed to result in a seismic pop and it puts significant attention on WWE as they get ready for their biggest show of the year.
However, the Royal Rumble is often used to boost main eventers who have already been established instead of using the Rumble's prestige to elevate new talent. The Rock doesn't need to win another Royal Rumble and in recent years, we've seen the potentially negative consequences of booking a returning Hollywood star to win the event. He can easily get to the WrestleMania main event against Roman Reigns without winning this match.
Instead, it would be wonderful to see a wrestler like Damian Priest or Cesaro pull out an unlikely victory to fight for the WWE Championship, as they are workers who would get big pops for winning and create a compelling narrative leading to Texas.