A very special WWE event, "Greatest Royal Rumble," will air live on the WWE Network at 12 PM ET on Friday, April 27. It will emanate from the King Abdullah International Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. There will be a one-hour pre-show at 11 AM ET. Reports by Wrestling Inc provided most of the information used in this article.
With this year's superstar shake-up complete, this event is the next thing to look forward to on the WWE calendar. Ordinarily, "WrestleMania," which just took place on April 8, is considered to be the biggest show of the year for the sports-entertainment company.
The "Road to WrestleMania" is a phrase often used on WWE programming to build up matches. The time period begins at the annual "Royal Rumble," which takes place at the end of January each year, and culminates at the biggest stage.
This year, with WWE announcing the "Greatest Royal Rumble" event would take place just weeks after "The Granddaddy of Them All," the script flipped, with the match card for this event becoming stacked to the point that it is expected to be bigger and better than "WrestleMania."
Announced match card to date
50-Man Greatest Royal Rumble Match: Announced so far are Daniel Bryan, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, Braun Strowman, Bray Wyatt, Big Show, Kane, The New Day, Baron Corbin, Apollo Crews, Shelton Benjamin, Sin Cara, Elias, Chad Gable, Goldust, Titus O'Neil, Mojo Rawley, and Dolph Ziggler.
WWE Universal Championship Steel Cage Match: Brock Lesnar (champion) versus Roman Reigns
WWE Championship Match: AJ Styles (champion) versus Shinsuke Nakamura
John Cena versus Triple H
Casket Match: The Undertaker versus Rusev
WWE Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match: Seth Rollins (champion) versus The Miz versus Finn Balor versus Samoa Joe versus Bobby Lashley
WWE United States Championship Match: Jeff Hardy (c) versus Jinder Mahal
"Raw" Tag Team Championship Match: The Bar (Sheamus and Cesaro) versus Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt
Note: Match is for the vacated titles after Braun Strowman and Nicholas relinquished them the night after winning them at "WrestleMania."
"SmackDown Live" Tag Team Championship Match: The Bludgeon Brothers (Luke Harper and Erick Rowan; champions) versus The Usos (Jimmy and Jey Uso)
WWE Cruiserweight Championship Match: Cedric Alexander (champion) versus TBD
Note: The winner of a Gauntlet Match on "205 Live" the Tuesday before will earn an opportunity to face Alexander for the title.
Concerns the event will cause
The first major concern with this event is that the women's superstars are missing entirely.The division has been elevated in recent years, but this is a major step back. The "Greatest Royal Rumble" could be one of the best nights of sports-entertainment in history for the fans, and the women who have worked so hard to become an integral part of the industry are not able to compete at it.
A Royal Rumble Match is always exciting to watch. There were two of them this year at the annual event in Philadelphia. By holding a second event with the same concept in the same year, it hurts the special feeling when the "Royal Rumble" event does come around its one time per year. Combine that with the fact that a major prize doesn't appear to be in order for the winner of the biggest Royal Rumble match ever. If this is being advertised as such a huge deal, a huge prize should be attached to it.
Also taken away, is the prestige of being the biggest event of the year for the WWE, "WrestleMania." By holding this event less than three weeks removed, with several rematches taking place so soon after, a good portion of "WrestleMania 34" loses its value.
With that being said, the event will undoubtedly be full of action-packed excitement that any WWE fan can look forward to. A WWE Network special live event every few months would be a great idea, even though one of this magnitude certainly has its upside and downside at the same time.