While they already have some responsibilities on Sunday night, John Cena and Roman Reigns should pull double duty at the Royal Rumble event
This Sunday evening from the Alamodome in San Antonio, TX, the professional wrestling world will be treated to the 30th installment of one of the best matches in the history of the industry, the Royal Rumble. On January 29, 30 superstars will once again be vying for those bright lights of WrestleMania, and when you take a look at the entrants in this year’s edition of the match, it quite possibly may be the most star-studded roster the bout has ever had the pleasure of seeing.
But for all the star power that will be in the match to provide intrigue and uncertainty, there are two distinct names missing for obvious reasons — John Cena and Roman Reigns.
Cena and Reigns, the top two babyfaces in the company, are not on the entrants list because they will both be challenging for their respective brand’s world title. Cena will clash once again with AJ Styles for the WWE Championship as he aims to tie Ric Flair’s record of 16 world championships, while Reigns will battle with Kevin Owens for the WWE Universal Championship. So, with both of these extremely polarizing figures going for top gold, they are automatically eliminated from Rumble contention.
But, the thing is — they shouldn’t be. John Cena and Roman Reigns should be two of the 30 entrants in the Royal Rumble match on Sunday.
We’ve talked about nothing in recent weeks other than just how many top-tier names are in this Rumble match. You have the likes of The Undertaker, Goldberg, Brock Lesnar, Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt and a host of others. As alluded to earlier, the top names in this match has given something to the annual match that it really hasn’t had in quite some time, and that’s uncertainty. This, without a doubt, is one of the more unpredictable Rumble matches in quite some time, which in theory is how this bout should be every year. When you add these two into the mix on Sunday evening, that only goes up ten fold.
Of course, simple logic would tell you that for these two to be inserted into the fold, they would each have to lose their respective title matches in San Antonio, and really there is nothing wrong with that. If the company does want to slap a top strap on each of them, both brands have a pay-per-view between now and WrestleMania in Orlando; Smackdown will be presenting Elimination Chamber in February, while RAW will treat us to Fastlane in March.
Adding Cena and Reigns to the match after they both suffer a defeat earlier in the evening will only turn that unpredictability of the match up to 11. Given the histories of the way both men have been booked throughout their careers, as soon as they make an appearance after that infamous buzzer sounds throughout the arena, a host of fans will more than likely cringe at the notion that they’re not only participants, but one of them may just very well add another Rumble win to their resume; a win for Cena would be his third, tying Steve Austin for most all time, while Reigns standing tall at the end would mark his second career victory in the bout.
And the best part about this is, even though some fans will act as if the sky is falling and the Apocalypse is near with these two making surprise entrances, they don’t necessarily have to be the last man standing when all is said and done. Again, they could each be booked between now and ‘Mania to ultimately take their respective brand’s title.
The sole purpose of having John Cena and Roman Reigns in the 2017 Royal Rumble match is simply to add to the star power even further. If you’re going to bill the most anticipated match of the year as having one of its all-time great pool of talent, then you simply can’t exclude two men the stature of Cena and Reigns. We’re already salivating about the potential confrontations we could see during the bout on Sunday night and the potential for even more interesting ones skyrockets when you include the two top babyfaces in the company at the moment.
All signs at the moment are pointing toward neither of these men actually entering the match on January 29, as the consensus among many is that not just one of them, rather both will be walking out of the Alamodome as the top champs in the company. But in the end, that would simply be the incorrect move to make here.
We’re headed towards indeed one of the most anticipated Royal Rumble matches that maybe we have ever seen in its illustrious 30-year history, and the best move to make here is to slot in both John Cena and Roman Reigns to ultimately make it more memorable.