3 Biggest Storylines Heading Into the Royal Rumble

Credit: WWE.com

1. Finn Balor’s Potential Career-Altering Opportunity

You’d be hard-pressed to find a superstar that the WWE universe has been more upset with in terms of its creative direction than Finn Balor. His main roster career in the WWE has been something of an ESPN 30-for-30 caliber film with the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.

As the story goes, Balor became the first-ever Universal Champion at SummerSlam 2016, but was forced to relinquish the title the following night after suffering an injury that kept him out of action for several months. Since his return in April of 2017, Balor has dealt with more creative misdirection and confusion than arguably anybody on the main roster, failing to ever truly get back to the Universal Championship picture again.

A lot of that has to do with the fact that the title is almost never on TV with Brock Lesnar as champion, but after waiting and waiting, Balor will get his chance at shocking the world when he challenges Lesnar at the Royal Rumble for the Universal Championship. This match started out as Braun Strowman as Lesnar’s challenger, but after last week’s developments, Balor earned his way into the opportunity instead.

Let’s make this clear, Balor probably has zero chance to actually win the Universal Championship.  However, the bigger picture surrounding this match is what really matters here. If Balor can prove his worth in a high-profile world title match against Lesnar, it should be a statement to the WWE that he is here to stay as a main event level talent.  Most fans already view him as such, but the WWE brass obviously needs some reassurance.

A great match and overall performance will mean more to the leader of the Balor Club at the Royal Rumble than a win in the grand scheme of things.