Look, we get it: you might not be in the business of trying to read Royal Rumble rumors or potential spoilers, especially with the Rumble just a week away. I understand that. If it wasn’t literally my job to keep abreast of everything, I wouldn’t read spoilers, either. I understand that it’s tough to avoid them, and that’s why we do our best to warn y’all about potential spoilers right when you hop into an article here.
So … you’ve been warned!
Hey there, everyone who’s stuck around. Welcome. Apologies to you, also. This year, with two Royal Rumble matches for the first time ever, there are twice as many sets of rumors and rumblings and spoiler-y things to go around. Over on the topic of the women’s Royal Rumble match, we’ve already seen some odds shifting and some heavy indications of the biggest spoiler of all that might be happening among those 30 Superstars. But now we’ve got some real intrigue on the men’s side, as well. Some REAL intrigue.
A couple of days ago, sports betting site Paddy Power suddenly jumped Daniel Bryan’s odds of winning the men’s Royal Rumble match from a serious longshot — down there with Curt Hawkins and Apollo Crews — to being the third-biggest betting favorite to win the thing. Shinsuke Nakamura remains the odds-on favorite to win the match, but Bryan’s sudden shift in the odds is … surprising and alarming.
The current odds:
Shinsuke Nakamura – 11/8
Roman Reigns – 5/2
Daniel Bryan – 5/1
Dolph Ziggler – 4/1
John Cena – 9/2
That’s wild. (Honestly, Ziggler at 4/1 is EVEN WILDER, but let’s not digress.) When this move (which has actually gotten stronger) first happened, many thought it was just a sucker’s bet and was oddsmakers trying to stir the pot, but one sports book insists there’s actually fire to this smoke. Odds Checker sent the following statement to WrestleZone:
“We’ve seen a lot of movement in Royal Rumble market with odds changing on some surprise movers and shakers within the WWE roster.
“Fan favourite Daniel Bryan has seen a plethora of attention, despite apparently not being medically clear to compete.
“There may be something in this story, however, with our sources claiming that the storyline between Bryan and Shane O Mac coming to fruition and resulting in a fairy-tale return win, for the constantly over superstar.”
That would be … incredible, to say the least. And even with this report, a Daniel Bryan return in the Royal Rumble would be something we never would have seen coming. We’ll have to see if this amounts to anything at all, but … wow.
(Check out our must-listen McMahonsplaining podcast with WWE Superstar Matt Hardy. Subscribe on iTunes or Google.)
[protected-iframe id=”8ee32a5d307e61b10f1b5bb3ea37c2e0-60970621-76566046″ info=”https://omny.fm/shows/mcmahonsplaining/episode-23-matt-hardy/embed?style=artwork” width=”100%” height=”180″ frameborder=”0″]
