10 Shocks WWE Could Pull At Royal Rumble 2019

Demon, meet Beast Incarnate. Beast Incarnate, Demon...

by Jamie Kennedy
braun strowman
WWE.com

It's official: WWE beat us to the punch by pulling their first Royal Rumble shock before the event even happens. Braun Strowman's scheduled Universal Title match with Brock Lesnar has been cancelled, and Finn Bálor has been slotted in instead.

According to Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer, that's been the plan for weeks. Vince McMahon decided he didn't fancy seeing Braun lose to Lesnar again, and so he put someone expendable in there. Hey, don't direct hate this way. Those are Vince's feelings on Finn, not ours.

It does leave his writing team with quite the dilemma though.

Bálor has hardly been on a tear since the last time he held Raw's top title, and it'll take more than one Fatal-4-Way win to ready him for Brock. This may necessitate some last-minute booking that, in storyline, stuns 'The Beast' and his advocate Paul Heyman.

Then, there's the not-so-small matter of both Royal Rumble matches, the WWE Title, both Women's belts and more. Could the Rumble be a night of surprises? Yes, yes it could, and it'd be nice to see a few of these happen...

Advertisement
In this post: 
Royal Rumble
 
Posted On: 
Contributor

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.