10 Shocks WWE Could Pull At The Greatest Royal Rumble

Rowdy Arabia

Shinsuke Nakamura
WWE

Is there any way WWE's Greatest Royal Rumble ultimately disappoints?

It is perhaps the most loaded card in WWE history not named WrestleMania. Seven title matches support two feature contests pitting John Cena against Triple H and The Undertaker against Rusev. All of those sit in the shadow of the real main event - a 50 man Royal Rumble. 50 f*cking men. There's quite literally never been a match like it. There almost certainly won't be one again.

Only once have WWE messed around with their most treasured gimmick. In 2011, Alberto Del Rio won the only 40-man variant of the clash to earn an opening match loss at the subsequent WrestleMania. Such indignity won't await the winner of this marathon match, though the audacious trophy currently lined up for the winner doesn't really seem quite a fitting enough reward.

The promotion of this event has proven just how much WWE are willing to stretch themselves to impress their Saudi sugar-daddies. Merely just delivering upon the lofty expectations of the near-60,000 likely to file in to Jeddah's King Abdullah International Stadium seems like the least they'll do to make good on assisting the country with its worryingly aggressive rebranding.

10. The Main Event

Shinsuke Nakamura
WWE.com

John Cena, Triple H, The Undertaker, AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns will all compete in contests that could objectively be considered Greatest Royal Rumble's 'main event', despite the fact that the show's headliner is a 50-man f*cking Royal Rumble.

Though littered with questionable geo-political ramifications, the stacked card reads like the WrestleMania redux it was perhaps always intended to be. WWE presumably didn't have loads of input as to the hows and whens of the event, but its insertion on the calendar drastically altered at least one 'Show Of Shows' clash.

Rumblings on Brock Lesnar's newest contract have posited that he'll earn half a million dollars per appearance going forward - an astronomical rate considering WWE's current financial model - which seems to imply that the company have had to fork out big in order to delay their major title change for the Saudi supershow.

The aesthetic benefits Roman's potential Universal Title win substantially more than the glum hum of a p*ssed off New Orleans crowd, and WWE may double down on that by putting 'The Big Dog' in the battle royal's catbird seat as well. John Cena or Triple H will lose a high profile clash on the night itself too - could one of them look to rectify things by making history at the expense of 49 other victims?

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 30 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz", Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 50,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett