Wrestling

Greatest Royal Rumble live stream: Start time, how to watch online, and match previews

WWE are putting on a massive overseas show with every men’s title on the line.

Apr 27, 2018, 7:54 AM UTC

WWE has entered into a unique partnership with Saudi Arabia, and the first fruits of that partnership are coming to form in the shape of a the Greatest Royal Rumble event, a massive show built around the first-ever 50-man Royal Rumble match in WWE history, featuring major names like Daniel Bryan, Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, Braun Strowman, and Shane McMahon.

But elsewhere on the card are a whopping seven title matches, with every men’s title on the line in Jeddah. Both the Universal Championship and WWE Championship will be defended in rematches from Wrestlemania, but both matches will have a very different feel to them. Brock Lesnar will defend the Universal title against Roman Reigns inside a steel cage, with Roman hoping to finally overcome The Beast after never quite being able to beat the sheer overwhelming brutality that the seemingly UFC-bound Lesnar brings to the ring.

AJ Styles will be hoping to retain his WWE Championship against Shinsuke Nakamura, and gain a measure of revenge against the man who has haunted his every moment ever since Styles won what was supposed to be a dream match at Wrestlemania. Nakamura has been a different and more sadistically calculating man since losing to Styles, and has tortured Styles with one cheap shot to his nuts after another after another in the weeks since they faced off in New Orleans.

The Intercontinental Championship and United States Championship will be defended in matches heavily impacted by the recent Superstar Shakeup that saw numerous wresters jump between Raw and SmackDown Live, with the Intercontinental Championship defended by new champion Seth Rollins against Finn Balor, The Miz, and Samoa Joe, with the latter two having moved to SmackDown. Jeff Hardy won the United States title in surprising fashion in his return from injury the night after WrestleMania, then immediately hopped to ex-champion Jinder Mahal’s former home of SmackDown. Mahal will be hoping to take the belt back to Raw, and it will be interesting to see which shows the two secondary WWE titles wind up on after Friday.

Both tag titles are up for grabs as well, with the Usos hoping to re-claim the SmackDown Tag Team Championships from the brutal force of The Bludgeon Brothers after losing them in a WrestleMania Triple Threat match. The Raw Tag Team Championships are in a rather more complicated picture — The Bar earned their spot in the match for the titles by being the former champions, losing to Braun Strowman and his 10-year-old tag partner Nicholas before fourth grade responsibilities meant they had to vacate the titles, while the newly-formed and massively bizarre duo of Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt had to earn their way here in a tournament. But The Bar moved to SmackDown in the Superstar Shakeup, so their future seems to be very much tied to what happens in this match.

The Cruiserweight Championship is also on the line on Friday, with Cedric Alexander defending against former champion Kalisto after the leader of the Lucha House Party faction that’s formed on 205 Live won a gauntlet match to become the contender for the title.

There’s also two intriguing non-title matches on the card, with John Cena and Triple H renewing a rivalry that dates all the way back to WrestleMania 22, with the two being involved in several big matches against one another over the last 12 years, trading wins in each direction. This might be the last time we see them face off one-on-one, making this a must-watch match just for the sheer gravity of the history between them.

The other non-title match will see the Undertaker take on Rusev in a casket match, an often-brutal type of match that the Undertaker hasn’t been a part of in nearly a decade, and that hasn’t been seen in WWE at all in over three years. Rusev has become massively popular with the fans thanks to his Rusev Day movement, but this is a match that Undertaker rarely loses. The aging veteran looked like he was in fantastic shape and form against John Cena at WrestleMania, so Rusev is going to need to be at his absolute best to beat him, reaching back to a level that we haven’t seen much of from the Bulgarian Brute in several years.