10 Reasons Why The 2019 Royal Rumble Will Be The Best Ever
3. 30 Men Enter; No One Obvious Man Wins
This decade has largely followed a tiresome trend: the fans select a guy (Daniel Bryan, Dean Ambrose), the office selects a guy (Roman Reigns, Roman Reigns), and the office project squashes the organically popular star in the end.
2019 is fascinating, in that neither of those things feels true. WWE has telegraphed Seth Rollins' victory on RAW, but there's always the sense, what with him being popular among the customers (what a company this is to write about), that WWE may not pull the trigger on his headlining WrestleMania 35. It's difficult to escape that when, sprinting towards him at the top of RAW is an ultra-ripped, taller, more imposing Vince McMahon guy in Drew McIntyre - a guy who in late 2018 received the sort of babyface reactions that might convince Vince McMahon that he can move the needle Rollins hasn't yet.
But then, the slightly inconsistent Rollins on his best day is a machine of stamina. The Rumble is a match perfectly suited to the best version of himself.
Neither of the two RAW frontrunners is despised by nor wholly uninspiring to the audience, and neither is depressingly over-familiar. Braun Strowman is the unknown quantity here, too. We no longer know the extent to which Vince wishes to protect him; if nothing else, his appearing in the match adds another layer of fascination to it. And Christ knows what WWE has in mind for SmackDown, a brand with no clear top, 'Mania-worthy babyface beyond AJ Styles.
The fabled Road to WrestleMania is obscured by fog, but that's far more preferable than the clear, cynical route travelled this decade.