WWE Royal Rumble 2018 Winner Needs To ‘Main Event’ WrestleMania

Traditions in the WWE sometimes last forever throughout all of the changes the company goes through, but sometimes they are unnecessarily broken as well.

One of the traditions the WWE has seemingly broken over the years has been the prestige of the winner of the Royal Rumble match.  It hasn’t necessarily been permanently broken, but it’s not at the same level it once was.

How many times have we heard it?  The winner of the Royal Rumble match will go on to main event WrestleMania.  For many years, that rang true.  But in recent years, that has been very inconsistent and not been taken as seriously as it once was.

The Royal Rumble match didn’t start out as a guaranteed main event opportunity at WrestleMania, but it developed into that and led to some of the greatest moments in WWE history.  Royal Rumble match wins for the likes of Shawn Michaels, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Brock Lesnar, and others have led to some of the greatest main event matches in WrestleMania history.

But over the past decade or so, the WWE has blurred the lines between what the main event of WrestleMania is.  Instead of having one true main event, the company tends to have three or more main events at the granddaddy of them all.  While it’s always great having multiple high-profiled matches, this tendency has taken away much of the prestige of winning the Royal Rumble match.

More from Royal Rumble

• CM Punk will return to WWE after 10 years at Royal Rumble 2024 (Prediction)
• Early predictions for WWE Royal Rumble 2024 winners
• Top three moments from the 2023 Royal Rumble
• Listing 5 wrestlers who should have won a Royal Rumble match
• Top five Iron Man (and Woman) performances in the WWE Royal Rumble

When one wins the Royal Rumble match, it was supposed to mean you are in the true main event at WrestleMania.  But over the years, it has developed into you are just in another match on the card.  And in some cases, winning the Royal Rumble match only earns you an opening match of the card honor at WrestleMania.

Since 2000, eight Royal Rumble match winners have not been given the opportunity to be in the last match at WrestleMania.  In fact, two winners in that time frame have been put on the opening match of the night.  Alberto Del Rio’s win in the 2011 Royal Rumble match earned him an opening match loss to Edge at WrestleMania 27 and Sheamus’ 2012 Royal Rumble match win earned him an opening match win over Daniel Bryan in 18 seconds at WrestleMania 28.

While having the best match on the card at WrestleMania doesn’t always mean the last match, it’s important to give individuals a chance to truly main event the biggest show of the year.  If the WWE puts an individual in a position to win the Royal Rumble match, the company needs to go all the way with it.

If you don’t have faith in someone to main event WrestleMania, that someone shouldn’t win the Royal Rumble match.  In fact, having someone win the Royal Rumble match and not be in a truly legitimate position at WrestleMania dilutes the Royal Rumble match’s significance.

It’s all about how that superstar and his feud heading into the big show are booked and treated.  But not being treated as the true main eventer puts the match and feud behind the curve right off the bat.

Just look at Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 33.  Orton won the Royal Rumble match and was in the WWE Championship match at the granddaddy of them all.  However, once the show arrived, it felt like just another match.  And the match itself was very underwhelming and made the situation even worse.

It might seem petty or too much of a traditionalist approach, but the winner of the Royal Rumble match needs to be the “main event” at WrestleMania.  Not the first match, not the fifth match, but the final match.  That was how the Royal Rumble match was built on for years and despite many believing it’s not important in the grand scheme of things, it definitely is to some.

One of the biggest reasons, among others, why CM Punk ultimately left the WWE was because he wasn’t given the chance to be part of the last match at WrestleMania.  It cost the company one of its top stars over the past decade, so there’s no denying it can mean a lot to top stars like Punk was.  Winning the Royal Rumble match should mean you have arrived.

Next: 5 Possible Women's Royal Rumble Swerves

Traditions aren’t supposed to be broken on a whim and the WWE needs to return the Royal Rumble match winner back to its original roots of being part of the last match at the granddaddy of them all.