On the latest edition of Corey Graves’ After The Bell podcast, he made the bold prediction that Big E could be a candidate to win the men’s Royal Rumble and possibly go on to face The Fiend for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania 36.
This is a fantastic idea. It makes total sense from a business standpoint. Big E’s New Day brother Kofi Kingston had one of the greatest moments in WrestleMania history just last year when he won the WWE Championship. It would make perfect sense for WWE to make an effort to take advantage of that and try to organically create a similar standout moment for another New Day team member.
Let’s not forget that Big E is a more than capable in-ring competitor. He held the NXT Championship for approximately five months and the Intercontinental Championship on the main roster about a year later for roughly six months before joining The New Day. People forget how good he is between the ropes because of his hips that do not lie.
Since Corey is an announcer with SmackDown on FOX, there is a very good chance he may have the inside scoop on what may transpire within the company for ‘Mania. Based on that, this very well may be the route that WWE decides to travel down heading into the biggest event of the year.
Another dark horse candidate to win the men’s Royal Rumble and go on to face The Fiend at WrestleMania 36 is The Demon Finn Balor. Perhaps this option would be a little more within context since he was the first man to ever face The Fiend at SummerSlam. He did not use his Demon persona (he obviously lost and underwent a transformation that culminated with moving back to NXT).
It would make for a great story if he were to return to Royal Rumble winning it so he can dethrone The Fiend at ‘Mania in Tampa Bay as The Demon.
Over to the women’s side, a great candidate to win the Women’s Royal Rumble is Shayna Baszler. She had to have lost the NXT Women’s Title for some reason. She would be guaranteed to not only have a great match with Becky Lynch but it could also serve as an avenue for WWE to integrate Ronda Rousey back into a major storyline in WWE since the two women are great friends.
A Finn Balor or Shayna Baszler victory would be a powerful step towards attracting more eyeballs to WWE on third brand NXT. Becky Lynch could make some appearances on NXT, as she did not too long ago, or the company could air some episodes of Firefly FunHouse.