10 Reasons To Be Nervous For WWE In 2020

3. The Royal Rumble Conundrum

Seth Rollins Royal Rumble winner
WWE

Picking genuinely popular Royal Rumble winners is the first big challenge of the year.

WWE have to balance what those who watch all-year-round want with what those casual viewers diving back in for WrestleMania season would expect. It's tough, and recent history proves that. Booking the right Rumble winner was troublesome on the male side of things long before Batista sh*t the bed in 2015.

Seth Rollins was widely accepted as the right winner in 2019, but before that one would arguably have to go all the way back to 2010 for Edge's crowd-popping return triumph. Since that pre-WrestleMania XXVI set up, winners like Alberto Del Rio, Sheamus, Roman Reigns and more have all failed to bridge the gap between hardcore happiness and casual buzz.

The female side is less of an issue; it's a relatively new concept, and so WWE can rely on surprises to make it work. The men's one feels different, and 2020's version must have the right winner so 'Mania 36's lead-in doesn't feel like a popcorn fart. As the New Day boys might ask though, "Who!?".

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.