2017 Royal Rumble is truly unpredictable, and that’s great

Wrestling fans have been accustomed to not buying into the hype that typically precedes a major event, but Sunday’s Royal Rumble is already delivering.

The Royal Rumble match combines the unpredictability of the NBA Draft Lottery balls with the added bonus that the participants are already superstars and major players. And just like the Draft Lottery, some have better odds than others. More often than not, fans already have an indication on who will be the last competitor in the ring who will receive a championship match at WrestleMania.

In 2017, though, for the first time in a long time, there is no clear winner entering the event. There is no Roman Reigns ready to assume the position as the Rumble’s tour de force. He’s in a championship match against Kevin Owens. There is no Triple H, who won last year’s Rumble as the deus ex machina to prolong a championship narrative (though he may show up during the event for non-Rumble match purposes).

Instead, fans sense a general feeling of unpredictability that is both refreshing and what fans yearn for in the first place. Much of that is attributed to the legends and the new (revisited) dynamic of brand competition.

The match itself is headlined by the big names of wrestling’s past appeal to the most casual fan. To kick off the road to WrestleMania, they’ve appeared more frequently. Among these wrestlers are Brock Lesnar, Goldberg, and The Undertaker. All three of them closed the last episode of RAW standing in the ring, not doing anything and allowing their cumulative clout in the squared circle to speak for itself.

As cool as it was, seeing this combination of superstars in the ring is perplexing in and of itself. One is a principle representative of the WWF during the Attitude Era. The other is one of WCW’s counterparts from that same time. The third is a UFC fighter who gained popularity in WWE a decade ago, who hoisted WWE’s top prize, and headline WrestleMania 31 just a couple of years ago. Given all these credentials, the odds could greatly favor any of the three despite their age.

However, in a staple event like the Royal Rumble match, the added attention could be used to prop up a wrestler who hasn’t quite achieved the fame of a Goldberg and company. And this is where it gets interesting, because of WWE’s brand split that took place in July of last year.

With the roster being split in two, establishing competition within the company, every competitor has been looked at through a different perspective. The parity now seems greater than it once was; a younger wrestler like Baron Corbin probably wouldn’t have had the opportunity to go up against the likes of John Cena under the old format. But with the brand split, Corbin stepped in the ring against Cena in a SmackDown main event and looked like a convincing foe.

Corbin, who made his main roster debut just 10 months ago, could win. Braun Strowman, WWE’s pet monster heel who first appeared as the fourth member of the Wyatt family, could also be a surprising yet believable winner.

The same goes for super stars like Sami Zayn, Dolph Ziggler, and The Miz, all of whom have flirted with the main event scene but are one grand moment from being a mainstay. Winning the Royal Rumble match could be that moment.

There’s even a shot that someone who isn’t on either roster could be the last man standing.

On top of that, there’s also the yet-unmentioned idea that someone from one brand could challenge for the championship of the other brand. Someone like Smackdown’s The Miz could win it and challenge for RAW’s Universal championship. It’s all been intentionally vague to fortify the Rumble match’s unpredictability, but that’s only helped with the intrigue.

Goldberg, Lesnar, and Undertaker don’t need a Rumble win to create a memorable match-up at WrestleMania. The same goes for Reigns and Cena and AJ Styles, none of whom are even in the Rumble match. Their absence — and the lessened chance of the the big three will win — doesn’t take away from the Rumble, though: it just enhances it, since WWE is able to promise the chance for being both old and new at the same time.

With no clear winner in sight, I suggest you just kick back, believe in the hype, and count to 10.