7 New Directions For WWE After Royal Rumble 2026

The demons of 2015 have been exorcised. They were decked, Roman Reigns shouted 'ooooooo-waaaaah', then he smacked them with a Superman Punch-into-spear combo that sent them straight to hell. Meanwhile, he's going straight to WrestleMania 42. 2026's Royal Rumble officially closed the book on 11 years of torment for the 'OTC',

This year's Rumble winners will surely prove more popular with the fanbase than 2025's. Jey Uso felt legitimately fresh, but his main event push sagged in-ring after a while, and Charlotte Flair winning the women's bout was just never an attractive prospect. In that sense, Roman and Liv Morgan getting the nod is a dual improvement.

So, where does Triple H and his incredibly jet-lagged roster take things next? 'Mania is on the horizon, but WWE has to contend with Elimination Chamber on 28 February before 100% focusing on April's weekender. As always, the Chamber PLE will shift some chess pieces around the board and throw up a few new matches across both nights come Las Vegas.

The Rumble revealed new/old female tag-teams, cleared the way for a WWE Title clash that's been on the cards all month and set up some tasty looking championship bouts for the grandest stage. There were some debuts too, Oba Femi is set to rule the roost, Raw will have more mystery man shenanigans and heck only knows what's coming for one AJ Styles.

If this is actually the end of his iconic career, then it'll be a surprise. Then again, nobody thought he'd lose over in Saudi Arabia in the first place. We move! Possibly onto all of this.

Anyone who grumbled their way through Nikki Bella's bouts vs. Becky Lynch at Clash In Paris and vs. Stephanie Vaquer at Survivor Series: WarGames will be chuffed to see her sister Brie back in WWE. Of course, it remains to be seen if 'Brie Mode' will engage for longer than a cameo spot in the women's Rumble, but it'd make sense if The Bellas were set to indulge in some twin magic.

Again, some of Nikki's solo matches have been a tad rough in places, so having Brie as backup to assault the women's tag-team division sounds like a solid enough plan. The legacy duo would be fine opponents for champs like Rhea Ripley and IYO SKY, sure, but here's something else to chew on: The Bellas could, in theory, work a non-title feud elsewhere that further fleshes out WWE's renewed interest in women's tag wrestling.

There's nothing stopping Nikki and Brie from going at it with Nia Jax and Lash Legend, for example. Or, failing that, why not present them as the kind of double act aspiring challengers for RHIYO have to power through if they have a hope in hell of gunning for gold? There are certainly worse ideas than that.

Brie complained that her hubby Bryan Danielson's AEW status had scrapped previous WWE comeback plans. Apparently, whatever the hitch was there has been solved. That's good news, because it seemed rather silly that Bryan working for Tony Khan bothered Bella's career prospects at all.

Collective sigh of relief that Nikki could well be moving into doubles action soon then.