John Cena comes face to face with his Royal Rumble opponent AJ Styles on an episode of WWE Smackdown. (Photo : YouTube/WWE)
While the Royal Rumble is a grand spectacle with 30 highly skilled professional wrestlers duking it out and trying to throw each other over the top rope, fans should not forget that its main purpose is to setup matches for the upcoming WrestleMania. Other high-profile matches are also sprinkled throughout the event. So it comes as no surprise that this year, a number of upcoming stars and veterans of the sports will take part in the annual pay-per-view to further their respective storylines.
The first match will involve Sasha Banks taking on Nia Jax. Banks is a three-time women's champion, but in the Royal Rumble she is being touted as merely a stepping-stone for Jax towards her road to the title, according to Forbes. The relatively new cruiserweight championship will also be defended at the event, with Neville a heavy favorite to win against current holder Rich Swann with odds of -900.
Up next is a three-on-three tag team match with Becky Lynch, Naomi and Nikki Bella taking on Alexa Bliss, Mickie James and Natalya. Afterwards, Charlotte will be defending her Raw women's championship against Bayley. Both of these matches are good moves for the WWE, who are currently trying to shed the "Diva" moniker, due to the fact that their viewership notably increases when female wrestlers headline events, ComicBook.com reported.
Sheamus and Cesaro will defend their Raw tag team championship at the Royal Rumble against Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, with the latter pair looking to bounce back to their near loss against the former last time out. There will be two referees officiating this contest to prevent such a thing from happening this time around.
The WWE Universal championship will also be defended with Kevin Owens taking on Roman Reigns, who is likely to take the title with him all the way to WrestleMania. Reigns losing the United States championship will allow for this as well as a matchup between Owens and Jericho for the aforementioned title.
Not to be outdone, John Cena will take on AJ Styles for the WWE Championship. Cena currently has three losses and no wins against Styles in pay-per-view matches. However, the Royal Rumble event would prove to be a great place for him to turn things around and gain a rather controversial victory.
Lastly comes the 30-man rumble itself, with veterans Randy Orton and the Undertaker both being steady favorites to win the match when betting odds are concerned. A win for them would also make sense when setting up matches at "the grandest stage of them all." However, Braun Strowman is likely to continue proving that he is an unstoppable object in professional wrestling and earn a title shot at WrestleMania 33.
Watch the 2016 Royal Rumble match in full below:
