We’re now just five days away from the 2024 Royal Rumble, and to say the anticipation is building would be an understatement. Heck, there might be more entrants with a decent chance of winning that at any time in recent memory. There’s plenty of business to take care of first, however, and that’s what has our attention for tonight’s WWE Raw from New Orleans.
What will CM Punk and Cody Rhodes want to talk about?
As it stands right now, CM Punk is the betting favorite to win the Men’s Royal Rumble match. Right behind him? Why it’s WWE 2K24 cover boy Cody Rhodes, of course. And only one of them can actually be the last man standing in St. Petersburg to punch a ticket to WrestleMania.
That’s going to be an issue, because both men really want to win the Rumble. For Rhodes, it’s the most direct way to try to finish his story. For Punk, it’s a way to catapult himself right back into the main event scene just months after returning to WWE.
The thing is that each of them knows that about the other as well. It should be really interesting when the two of them are in the ring together, especially considering the next item on our list of things to watch for …
Is Seth Rollins going to be able to fight through injury?
Seth Rollins is hurting. That’s nothing new for any top level wrestler, but the World Heavyweight Champion is reportedly nursing some serious knee ailments. The question is whether he will be able to work through them, and that’s likely what we’ll find out tonight.
The guess here is that Rollins will gut it out for a few more months if at all possible, with WWE using him sparingly in the ring if need be. Then he’ll take time off to have surgery or rehab, whatever is needed.
There’s a lot of hope for a Punk vs. Rollins match at WrestleMania. If Rollins says tonight he’s out, that changes things considerably — and may even call for him to relinquish his title.
Can Drew McIntyre get some satisfaction by defeating Damian Priest?
While Drew McIntyre has been doing some of the best character work of his career the past few months, we didn’t see Damian Priest getting drawn into his web of people blamed for his current status quo. Like everything else McIntyre has done, though, it makes perfect sense.
The only way the Scottish Warrior has been able to reconcile some of his misfortune is by taking it out on the people responsible for the perceived wrongs. Will Priest be like Rollins and fight McIntyre off, or will be end up a victim?
Also advertised for WWE Raw from New Orleans:
- Ivy Nile takes on Valhalla
- Chad Gable faces Ivar
- The Miz goes up against “Dirty” Dominik Mysterio
The last Raw before Royal Rumble heads our way starting at 8 p.m. ET tonight, and we’ll be recapping it live as always here at Wrestling Junkie.