Views From The Turnbuckle: Royal Rumble Betting Odds, Who Should Be Favored And Potential Finishes

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinions of WrestlingInc or its staff

Gambling on wrestling is stupid. The matches are fixed and WWE has been rumored to switch match finishes if too many people are betting on one finish because it is an indicator that the match is going to be too predictable. Don't do it. With that being said, betting odds are fun to make and are a good way to summarize the way things are looking right now in WWE. Without further ado, here are my Royal Rumble betting odds:

The Big Show-10,000:1

The Big Show is not going to win the Royal Rumble; that revelation should not come as a surprise for anyone. With that being said, the fact that The Big Show has never won the Royal Rumble and the fact that The Big Show couldn't be less relevant within the WWE title picture will not stop the announcers from acting like The Big Show is a huge threat to winning whenever he enters the ring. They will ask themselves how on earth his opponents plan on getting a 500lb giant over the top rope, even though it happens literally every year. The announcers make themselves look stupid all the time, but perhaps no time is more egregious than when The Big Show enters the Royal Rumble.

The Field-25:1

The key to a good Royal Rumble is that there has to be a good quantity of people that can realistically win the match. Part of the problem of the last two Royal Rumbles was that it became painfully obvious that Batista and Roman Reigns were going to win the match. The final four last year were Rusev, Kane, The Big Show and Reigns. Everyone knew from that group that Reigns was going to win, which made it a boring Rumble. This year, as weak as the WWE roster seems to be, I think they have a fairly deep roster of talent that can win the Rumble. The Field is a group of people that are not going to be talked about here, but who in theory have a chance to win the Rumble because they are in the match. Kevin Owens probably has the best chance at winning the Rumble out of everyone else, but he seems tied up in a mid-card feud with Dean Ambrose. If Owens defeats Ambrose earlier in the night in their Last Man Standing match, than perhaps he can move beyond Ambrose and into the main event. Chris Jericho announced that he is one of the favorites to win the Rumble, but does anyone have any faith that he will actually win? Also, while it wouldn't be the wisest decision, you can't rule out WWE's continued commitment to Sheamus.

A.J. Styles-10:1

The first of several wrestlers who we are unsure will even be in the Royal Rumble on Sunday, A.J. Styles could make his WWE debut on Sunday at the Royal Rumble, and what better way to get Styles over with the audience then have him win the Royal Rumble and the WWE World Heavyweight Championship? I don't think this would be the worst decision in the world; Styles is known by all hardcore fans and the Rumble is in Orlando, the one city in America where the fans should really recognize Styles and know what he is about. WWE's roster is so thin right now and they really need someone to come in and give them a shot in the arm and Styles is qualified to be that guy.

One of the things people are forgetting about this year's Royal Rumble is that while it is for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, it is not necessarily for a main event slot at WrestleMania. The winner of the match could win the title, but they could easily lose the title at Fast Lane and not be a part of the main event at WrestleMania. That opens the door for more talent to win the Royal Rumble than ever before. WWE might be weary of Styles not being able to get over right away with live audiences, but have you seen (and heard) the last couple episodes of Raw? The current champion gets crickets for a reaction, he doesn't even get booed really anymore, and he just gets indifference. How much worse can it get? If Styles gets the title, it will immediately establish himself as a top guy in the company, and he is impressive enough in the ring to get over with the live audience at least a little bit.

The Undertaker-6:1

Like Styles, The Undertaker has not been confirmed for the Royal Rumble, although it has been made clear that The Undertaker is coming back soon to be a part of WrestleMania. 'Taker would be a great Royal Rumble surprise entrant, will get a huge pop from the audience, and having him win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship would be cool. I think a potential storyline could be that 'Taker wins the world title, gets screwed out of it at Fast Lane, and then puts his career on the line in the main event of WrestleMania. WWE seems like they are scrambling for a main event for their big show, what would be a bigger deal than The Undertaker putting his career on the line in a match, in Texas?

Bray Wyatt-5:1

The ending on Raw Monday greatly increased the odds in favor of Bray Wyatt. I really liked that WWE allowed someone else to stand tall at the end of Raw, it made it way less predictable than just having Reigns or Lesnar cleaning house and standing tall at Raw. WWE seems interested in increasing Wyatt's role at WrestleMania and rumors have been floating around that Wyatt could be an opponent of Brock Lesnar. WWE has used Wyatt in feuds with both The Undertaker and Roman Reigns, although he came up well short in both of those feuds. Winning the Royal Rumble would immediately help rectify those losses and make him a more feared challenger to someone like Brock Lesnar. Honestly, it shouldn't be that hard to make Wyatt that legit of a challenger, he can cut decent, if sometimes incoherent promos, and he has a group of big, physical guys that can beat down his opponents and give him the physical advantage, even over someone as tough as Lesnar. He is still a longshot to win, but he moved much closer to relevancy in the match on Monday.

Triple H-3:1

Triple H has emerged as the actual favorite to win the Royal Rumble according to the Las Vegas sports books, with the obvious logic being that he will return to the ring and cost Reigns his championship, setting up another match between the two, likely at WrestleMania. While that certainly makes sense and could very well happen, I think Triple H coming out as an entrant for the Rumble would be too obvious. According to Vince McMahon and Stephanie, Triple H is going to get his revenge "when you never see it coming." Wouldn't it make more sense for Triple H to come through the crowd as a non-participant and toss Reigns out, similar to the way Brock Lesnar tossed out Goldberg in 2004? Of course, Triple H is the one calling all the shots and it would surprise absolutely nobody if he booked himself to eliminate Reigns and win the Rumble and the title, but I think the smarter and the ultimately more likely thing would be for Triple H to not be an entrant in the Rumble and screw Reigns that way.

Brock Lesnar-2:1

Lesnar is arguably the favorite to win the Royal Rumble, considering how strong WWE is in protecting his character, it makes sense for him to toss out a million guys and win the Royal Rumble. If WWE is comfortable with anyone overthrowing Reigns cleanly and without any real assistance it would be Lesnar. Lesnar has been someone that WWE has leaned on to bail them out of having a ridiculously thin roster and it is conceivable that Lesnar could be called on to carry the title into WrestleMania itself. Lesnar could also be one of the guys to benefit from Triple H screwing Roman Reigns, leading to a match at Fast Lane against Reigns and then a new opponent for WrestleMania, maybe Bray Wyatt.

Roman Reigns-3:2

Despite the hypotheticals floating around about the potential of Roman Reigns getting beaten on Sunday, I still think he is the favorite to win the Royal Rumble. WWE has been so protective of Reigns lately and I think they will be cautious with his booking from here on, particularly because he already has won the title, lost the title and won it again. I think WWE really wants to commit to a long-term title run for Reigns, because by shifting the title on and off of him, it hurts the reliability of both Reigns as a champion and the championships importance.

Reigns getting put in at number one is interesting because fans of questioned his conditioning, but that shouldn't really matter because the Royal Rumble is a match where a wrestler can just lay unconscious in the corner for 20 minutes and most fans won't even notice. While there are plenty of reasons to believe that Reigns is not going to retain his championship, I think WWE's over-protectiveness of Reigns will end up winning out and Reigns goes the distance in what the commentators will undoubtedly call the greatest performance in Royal Rumble history.

If I were booking the show, I think the match should be built around Triple H screwing Roman Reigns by running in from the crowd and tossing him out. Ideally, I think that should happen not at the exact end of the match, maybe right after #30 comes out. With Reigns out of the picture I think it make the match much more intriguing, and a final four of Brock, The Undertaker, Wyatt and someone else (Styles, Owens, Jericho) would be tremendous and make for one of the most exciting Rumble finishes in recent memory.