WWE Royal Rumble 2017: Complete Match Card

The Road to WrestleMania is in full swing and it starts with the 2017 Royal Rumble.

The 2017 Royal Rumble is finally upon us and we will soon know half of the WrestleMania main event. In the first Royal Rumble since the brand split Raw, SmackDown Live and possibly NXT Superstars will compete for the opportunity for a World Championship match at WrestleMania. While the winner of the Rumble will know their fate, it’s not so clear for the current World Champions, as both titles are on the line with pay-per-view for each brand in between now and Wrestlemania.

On the Raw side of things, every title, with the exception of the United States Championship, will be on the line. The headliner for the red brand is the WWE Universal Championship match between current champion Kevin Owens and the challenger Roman Reigns. There are two elements to this match as it is No Disqualifications and Chris Jericho will be suspended above the ring in a shark cage. While the end result seems to be obvious to most fans, one has to imagine that with the unpredictability of the Royal Rumble might play into the result of this match.

Next, the Raw Women’s Championship is on the line. The “Queen of Pay-Per-View” Charlotte Flair will defend her title against Bayley. With this feud just kicking off and WrestleMania right around the corner, you would think this won’t be the last time these two meet up. Could we finally see the debut of Emmalina with her getting involved in this match?

This brings us to the Cruiserweight Division. Rich Swann will defend the WWE Cruiserweight Championship against the self-proclaimed “King of the Cruiserweights, Neville. Neville looks primed to carry the title to WrestleMania but in the past weeks, Rich Swann has shown a new aggressive side to him. Neville and Swann have the opportunity to put the Cruiserweight Division on the map to the casual viewer that tune into the big events such as the Royal Rumble. Given time, which they should get with the new four-hour format, they could possibly steal the show.

The only Smackdown match on the main card could very well be the best match of the night. The Phenomenal AJ Styles defends the WWE Championship against John Cena. Styles looks to finally get Cena off his back while Cena chases history. With a win on Sunday, John Cena would tie Ric Flair’s title record with a 16th World Championship. With the year Styles has had he’s more than deserving to headline a WrestleMania. This match follows the theme of this entire PPV that is the unpredictability.  With a WWE Championship Elimination Chamber match set in 2 weeks, we might see these two clash again in that chamber.

And now, the main event of the evening. The 2017 Royal Rumble Match is the first Royal Rumble in a few years that has that element of surprise. WWE has managed to keep the winner under wraps for this long and it could pay off big time when things are said and done. The fact that there’s a handful of superstars that have a chance of winning instead of having a clear front runner definitely brings the excitement level to a new height. We could see surprise entrants, returning superstars and maybe even a debut or two.

With this in mind, here’s a look at the full match card for the Royal Rumble:

Becky Lynch, Naomi and Nikki Bella vs Alexa Bliss, Mickie James, and Natalya

Sasha Banks vs Nia Jax

Raw Tag Team Championship Match
Cesaro and Sheamus (c) vs The Club

Cruiserweight Championship Match
Rich Swann (c) vs Neville

Raw Women’s Championship Match
Charlotte Flair (c) vs Bayley

WWE Championship Match
AJ Styles (c) vs John Cena

WWE Universal Championship
Kevin Owens (c) vs Roman Reigns

2017 Royal Rumble Match

Next: Ranking Every Rumble Match Winner

Who do you see standing tall as the 2017 Royal Rumble winner?