10 Early Wrestling Predictions For 2017
2. The Royal Rumble Will See...
...The Undertaker return as a surprise entrant.
Both Triple H and Vince McMahon have, via Twitter, promised the 'WWE Universe' that a surprise entrant will appear in the Royal Rumble match. This happens every year, but it seems apparent that they're not referring to someone like Todd Pettengill.
Despite the 20th anniversary hype, there probably aren't many clues hiding back in 1997. That event was built around hometown boy Shawn Michaels, but the man has repeated ad nauseam that he is happily retired. Steve Austin, too, is finished. It would be funny to see Kane reprise his role as Diesel II, and even funnier to see Mil Mascaras eliminate himself again, but perhaps mercifully, WWE beginning this year seem to be in the process of scaling back the overt comedy element.
One entrant of the '97 Rumble will make his first appearance the 30 man spectacular in years - The Undertaker. All too often this decade, his WrestleMania matches have been initiated with an appalling lack of intrigue. CM Punk won a run-of-the-mill Fatal Four-Way in 2013. A heel Vince McMahon ordered him to Dallas (!) this year.
2017, with the Rumble needing something to electrify its stadium setting, presents a perfect opportunity for WWE to wheel out a beloved trope of years gone by - the intra-Rumble match feud instigator. If 'Taker were to dispatch Cena - only for Cena to return to the ring to avenge the elimination - it would light up what has become a faded institution.