Saudi Arabia will host the WWE's "Greatest Royal Rumble 2018," a special event hosted overseas for the first time ever. It will feature a historic battle royal comprised of 50 competitors, a steel cage match for the WWE Universal title, and a Fatal Fourway ladder match for the WWE Intercontinental title. In addition, several other championships are up for grabs with one of them set to begin a new championship reign. Here are the latest WWE "Greatest Royal Rumble 2018" predictions that can be determined from match odds and ongoing WWE rumors.
Latest match odds and predictions
There is one championship which will begin a new reign and that is the WWE "Raw" tag team titles. Braun Strowman and his random "WrestleMania" partner Nicholas won the titles from The Bar but had to relinquish them. That set up a special tournament which has continued on "RAW" and led to the team of Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt becoming contenders for the titles against Sheamus and Cesaro. With the latter of these teams now on "SmackDown Live," it seems fitting that Hardy and Wyatt capture the titles. They are currently huge favorites to win at -1050 with the former champions at +550.
Over on WWE "SmackDown Live," the tag team situation has current champions The Bludgeon Brothers defending their titles against The Usos.
The reigning champs have odds of -310 to retain compared to +230 underdog odds for the Usos to win. It seems way too soon for the Bludgeon Brothers to drop their titles right now, but these are the sorts of matches where WWE may decide to do something with less potential viewership at the time slot.
The secondary titles from WWE "Raw" and "SmackDown" are also up for grabs.
Seth Rollins currently leads as the favorite to retain in his defense of the Intercontinental title. Rollins is at -300 with The Miz next at +485. Samoa Joe and Finn Balor are each +800 underdogs to win the match. Two of the competitors, The Miz and Joe, recently joined "SmackDown" which makes a strong case for Rollins keeping the belt on "Raw." In the United States title match, current champion Jeff Hardy (-155) is the favorite to defeat Jinder Mahal (+115).
The superstars from WWE "205 Live" will be on display during the event in Saudi Arabia. Cedric Alexander won the title against Mustafah Ali at "WrestleMania" earlier this month. He'll look to keep the title and the odds say he'll do just that. Alexander is priced at -475 compared to +325 for his challenger Kalisto.
Two non-title matches have some of the WWE's top superstars doing battle. The Undertaker will have his first Casket Match in quite some time. He's fresh off a quick win over John Cena at "WrestleMania 34" and The Undertaker is now a -900 favorite to close Rusev (+500) inside a casket first to win their match. Meanwhile, Cena is expected to bounce back from his loss at "Mania," as he's a -230 favorite to defeat Triple H (+170).
Royal Rumble & top title matches
The premise of this WWE Network special will be the 50-man match featuring some of the biggest stars in the company today. That includes Chris Jericho, Big Show, Kurt Angle, Daniel Bryan, and Braun Strowman. It's no surprise that big man Braun Strowman leads the field with current odds of +105. He's followed by Daniel Bryan (+220), Baron Corbin (+700), Chris Jericho (+950), Elias (+1100), and Dolph Ziggler (+1700.) Kurt Angle has odds of +3200 and may be worth a gamble.
The two major championships are up for grabs in rematches from "WrestleMania 34." Right now, AJ Styles is a small favorite at -180 to defeat Shinsuke Nakamura (+140) on Friday and retain his WWE Championship.
In the steel cage match for the WWE Universal title, Roman Reigns is currently a -305 favorite compared to champion Brock Lesnar at +225. However, there are rumors going on that it would make very little sense for Reigns to capture the title during this time which is a midday during a work and school week for many WWE fans in the United States.
Viewers can watch all of the WWE "Greatest Royal Rumble 2018" matches starting at 12 PM Eastern Time this Friday on the WWE Network.