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WWE News: Royal Rumble Kickoff Matches Revealed, Updated Card
A look at the updated lineup for Sunday’s Royal Rumble!
Now that WWE’s Monday Night RAW and SmackDown Live are in the books, the WWE Universe’s attention turns to this weekend’s big events, more specifically Sunday’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view.
Since WWE revealed a number of participants this for the Women’s Royal Rumble Match this past Sunday on Twitter, there haven’t been nearly as many updates to the card as we saw the previous couple of weeks. That’s not to say there weren’t any however, as it looks like WWE may be removing John Cena from the Men’s Royal Rumble (see the latest here), while Titus O’Neil declared his entry this past Monday on top of Alexa Bliss announcing her return for the women’s side, as well as Lacey Evans revealing she too will enter.
Tonight during SmackDown Live, WWE officially moved two matches over to the Kickoff which will now see Rusev defend the US Title against Shinsuke Nakamura, plus a Fatal 4-Way for the Cruiserweight Championship when Buddy Murphy faces Hideo Itami, Kalisto and Akira Tozawa.
Here’s a look at the updated card for Royal Rumble this Sunday, airing live on pay-per-view and the WWE Network at 7PM EST with the Kickoff beginning at 5PM and also available on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter:
Men’s Royal Rumble Match
R-Truth (#30), Drew McIntyre, Xavier Woods, Big E, Kofi Kingston, Jeff Hardy, Bobby Lashley, Dean Ambrose, Jinder Mahal, Seth Rollins, Rey Mysterio, Andrade, Samoa Joe, Baron Corbin,
Elias, Apollo Crews, Mustafa Ali, John Cena, Titus O’Neil, Randy Orton
Women’s Royal Rumble Match
Carmella (#30), Natalya, Bayley, Ember Moon, Ruby Riott, Sarah Logan, Liv Morgan,
Lacey Evans, Alexa Bliss, Alicia Fox, Mickie James, Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville, Lana,
Charlotte Flair, Dana Brooke, Zelina Vega, Nia Jax, Tamina, Billie Kay, Peyton Royce, Naomi, Nikki Cross
Universal Championship
(C) Brock Lesnar vs. Finn Balor
WWE Championship
(C) Daniel Bryan vs. AJ Styles
RAW Women’s Championship
(C) Ronda Rousey vs. Sasha Banks
SmackDown Women’s Championship
(C) Asuka vs. Becky Lynch
SmackDown Tag Team Championship
(C) The Bar vs. The Miz & Shane McMahon
Kickoff – United States Championship
(C) Rusev vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
Kickoff – Fatal 4-Way for the Cruiserweight Championship
(C) Buddy Murphy vs. Akira Tozawa vs. Kalisto vs. Hideo Itami
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Did your picks win points?
The AEW Continental Classic is underway, with almost everyone competing. Check in here if you haven’t seen the winners and losers of week 1!
Here are your Gold League standings!
- Jon Moxley: 1-0, 3 points
- Swerve Strickland: 1-0, 3 points
- Jay White: 1-0, 3 points
- Rush: 0-1, 0 points
- Mark Briscoe: 0-1, 0 points.
- Jay Lethal: 0-1, 0 points
Here are your Blue League standings!
- Brody King: 1-0, 3 points
- Claudio Castagnoli: 1-0, 3 points
- Daniel Garcia: 0-1, 0 points
- Eddie Kingston: 0-1, 0 points
- Bryan Danielson: Yet to Compete
- Andrade El Idolo: Yet to Compete
My Thoughts:
Nothing too crazy, nothing too wild, this tournament only just got started. The only disappointing point is that they could not get Bryan “cleared to compete” Saturday night. Not sure how much of that is shoot given the bad eye, but this was kinda the problem of wanting him in the tournament over tons of other choices. Bryan wants to face Okada for WrestleKingdom 18, how is Bryan supposed to do that at his best if he’s also gonna be in a round robin, doing five top level matches in about as many weeks? And it takes away from Andrade being able to do something. Also a little surprised we didn’t even hear from Andrade on Saturday.
Now as we heard on Saturday, round two’s matches are set. Gold League will see Mark Briscoe VS Rush, White VS Swerve, and of course, Moxley VS Lethal. Nice variety there, a couple 0-1 guys facing off, as well as two 1-0 guys, and then 1-0 VS 0-1. No offense to Lethal, but he feels like an 0-2 going up against Moxley. Hard to call the other ones but that’s the fun of it. Meanwhile, Blue League sees Brody VS Claudio in a showdown to be 2-0, then Bryan and Andrade finally jump in, Bryan against Eddie and Andrade against Garcia. Sadly, feels like Eddie and Garcia are going 0-2, no way Tony Khan is booking Bryan and Andrade to lose their first shots.
In fact, that could be half the reason they did wait on those two, that’s almost too good for just a first round opener. But I still would’ve done it, same as NJPW does stuff like that for round robins, which this is all modeled after anyway.
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Tony Khan Reveals the Blue and Gold “Leagues!”
Originally livestreamed, Tony Khan and Tony Schiavone officially announced the twelve total entrants and divided them into the two round robin blocks known as the “Blue League” and “Gold League.” If you don’t feel like sifting through the almost 30 minute video, the groups are:
Blue League
- Bryan Danielson
- Andrade El Idolo
- Brody King
- Claudio Castagnoli
- Daniel Garcia
- Eddie Kingston
Gold League
- Jon Moxley
- Swerve Strickland
- Rush
- Mark Briscoe
- Jay Lethal
- Jay White
Tony Khan also explains the rules for the Continental Classic:
- Every match has a 20 minute time limit
- The winner of each match earns 3 points, losers earn 0, 1 point for a draw
- EVERYONE ELSE is banned from ringside for true 1v1 action
Eddie Kingston also joined the selection special as his “life’s work” is on the line in this tournament, both the ROH World Championship and NJPW Strong Openweight Championship on the line as part of the modern day North American Triple Crown Eddie, Tony Khan, AEW, ROH and NJPW are looking to create together. Gold League competes tonight on Dynamite while Blue League will have their start this Saturday on Collision. Look for more articles like this one to keep up with the Continental Classic standings over the next six weeks of tournament action!
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