(Quick note, this is the 15th anniversary of the publication of this Counterfactual; thanks for reading. I've got booking through Survivor Series 2020, so I'm going at least that long)
The road to Royal Rumble 2020 starts, of course, with some politics.
The night after Survivor Series (prior to RAW, of course) President Vincent Kennedy McMahon, the 46th POTUS, announces that he will not be seeking re-election. There are some promising treatments for Linda (Linda McMahon, the 45th POTUS, is comatose) and it's time to put her needs first.
The result of this will be the US political timline jumps more closely to IRL, Biden will defeat Trump in November, 2020 and the next 4 years procede as they do; I'm not really planning on talking about it, other than to button up the Linda's in a coma angle once Biden's inaugurated. There is going to be an enhancement heel act called VSG (Very Stable Geniuses; I'm thinking it's Corbin, Elias and whichever is the problematic Fortunate Son). They wear MAGA hats and say things like "climate change is a marxist plot to end Christmas and "the way to stop school shootings is to give everyone a gun" and "defund the pandemic response team and use the money to build that wall" you know, just the stupidest things that only a small fraction of the global population believes but somehow they have power in the US. They'll be constantly humiliated. I'm not going to write any of that stuff (probably, there might be some sort of "masks make you sick" angle if I get irritated enough, but probably not) they never make any PPVs. I just mention it here just as a marker, so you know it's happening in the background over the next year.
Onto the Rumble. 12 big matches and as there will be actual people in attendance (weird thing to mention, it's a PPV, of course there will be people) it makes sense that it might be event filled.
Here's the card:
WWF Championship: Three Way Dance: Tyler Black v. Shinsuke Nakamura v. Samoa Joe
Number One Contender: AJ Styles v. The American Dragon Bryan Danielson
IC Title: Ricochet (w/BWI) v. Aleister Black (w/Underground)
Women's Title: Shayna Baszler (w/Horsewomen) v. Asuka
WWF Tag Titles: The Legendary Rey Mysterio/Kevin Steen v. The Clique (? and ? w/HBK)
Charlotte Flair v. Becky Lynch
Shoot Nation (Brock Lesnar/Chad Gable) v. The Clique (Keith Lee/Matt Riddle w/HBK)
Claudio Castagnoli (w/Gargano) v. La Sombra (w/Zelina)
Io Shirai v. Kari Sane
Drew McIntyre v. Roman Reigns Uso
The Fiend Bray Wyatt v. Bobby Roode
New Day (Langston/Kingston w/Woods and Banks) v. Hooligans (Sheamus/Miz w/Bayley)
Let's go through it.
WWF Championship: Three Way Dance: Tyler Black v. Shinsuke Nakamura v. Samoa Joe
Something going on during the build to the Rumble is WWF is conducting a fan poll of the greatest WWF Champion of all time. It's the focus of a lot of conversation as the current champion Black and every former champion still in the promotion (and any who aren't who we can get to cut a promo, like Bret, Austin, Cactus, for ex) are talking about who the fans will vote for as the GOAT.
That's not the driving force of this match, although it's a wrinkle, as Nakamura and Joe are former champs. This is a pretty obvious matchup; Joe was the color analyst for RAW (replaced by Heyman; Regal does Fight Night when available, Heyman when not; Graves remains on Dark Ride; Nigel is gone with the injury suffered at Survivor Series in the spot with Dunne and Danielson) in the build to Survivor Series and really started the program with Black then. That led to a physical spot with all 3 men at Survivor Series; Nakamura and Joe had a long program, they are the chief rivals of each other in their WWF careers and when the Horsemen added Nakamura for a tag match against the Bullet Club, it really rubbed Joe the wrong way - helping set the stage for that 3 way physical spot with Joe/Black/Nakamura on the floor near the announce table at Survivor Series. An argument could be made that absent that, Nakamura might have beaten Black to regain the title - so that's enough of a crack to allow Nakamura a spot in this match. It's a Three Way Dance, meaning it's an elimination match as opposed to a one fall match.
There's been physicality. so we don't need to keep these 3 guys apart - Black/Anderson/Gallows can mix and match with Joe/Roode/Strong - Nakamura doesn't have guys, but Rey and Steen are babyface champs who will need something to do, so they can be in this mix with him. Throw Charlotte and Lynch and let's say Shirai in to mix and match.
Like 3 weeks before the Rumble, the top 3 in the fan poll for greatest WWF Champ of all time is announced (it's worked, incidentally; whatever winking has to be done so fans don't feel like they're being screwed we do, because this is a worked poll) 3rd is Brock, 2nd is Shawn. 1st is Angle.
Angle's going to receive some sort of belt in the go home RAW, it's in the main event slot - he's alone, for some reason that was established Shoot Nation is someplace else, he's going to give a nice speech, say whatever a person would say in this spot - because he's about to get written off the show - the Bullet Club (not Devitt, he's been gone since Summer Slam and not Becky, she left the week before to go train for the Rumble) shows up, Black says the poll is bullshit, Angle's bullshit - Black's the best ever - and then the Bullet Club does the full burial of Angle; everyone gets their stuff in - even Renee kicks him a couple times for good measure - he's buried under the flag, he's dead and gone and we never see him again.
There may be consequences.
Number One Contender: AJ Styles v. The American Dragon Bryan Danielson
Winner to go to Mania and fight for the WWF Championship in the main event. Or so it would appear.
So - a reminder - Danielson was the ace, then he got hurt, AJ arrived and became the ace. They had friction when Danielson was WWF Commissioner; AJ constantly a Danielson antagonist (occasionally I make good booking choices; even prior to the IRL announcement that Danielson was returning to the ring, I started the program here; it was less that I thought Danielson was going to come back to the ring, I just wanted a ready to go program if he did; often times I'll set up storylines that wind up not being used, because I wanted to create avenues to drive down if events allowed) Danielson returned and the two had a giant Mania showdown - AJ won and then won again on TV; AJ would then leave the Bullet Club and become a fan favorite - Danielson has slowly morphed into an antagonist - so as we set up this match; two men, both on winning streaks, both with claims as the greatest WWF Champion of all time (after the vote's announced, Danielson tries to explain to the fans why they're wrong - as always, he makes good points in an irritating way). Danielson makes one attempt at trying to take AJ to school in this build, he stops a Styles match midway to give AJ a wrestling lesson. AJ isn't just offended, he makes it clear to Danielson that he can't son him - he can't big time him - maybe he can get away with that with everyone else - but until Danielson is able be beat him, AJ isn't here for the lessons, thanks.
As it gets closer to fight time, Danielson gets more serious - and in whenever his final promo is, Danielson is completely serious, he makes clear there's no nonsense about this match, no fun, no "hey, let's stop the match and do some teaching" - Danielson makes clear everything he's done in the past year has been to get back to this moment - it's really a babyface promo, no smarm - a "look, I know I'm kindof an asshole now, I know you don't love the way I am now, but you understand, that guy beat me and it was a lot to handle, but now I'm ready to beat him and then I'll be the guy you like again" - that's the subtext - just trust me, I'll be your guy again, I just have to beat Styles first.
Danielson, in one match, can really get his veneer back - of being the best in the world - and can then go to the main event of Wrestlemania, win back the WWF Title (Danielson hasn't been WWF champ in 6 years, Mania 6 years ago, 2014, is where he lost the belt last) and his comeback will be complete (stakes, it's good to have stakes) and for AJ - look, he lost the WWF Title a last year's Mania when Black cashed in the briefcase - he wants his title back, the way one does.
IC Title: Ricochet (w/BWI) v. Aleister Black (w/Underground)
Most of the talk is about Danielson and Styles being a bout to determine the unofficial best wrestler in the promotion, but there's another guy who might take issue with that conversation. Ricochet's a win away from heading to Mania as the IC Champ a year; each match better than the previous, just stealing show after show. BWI resumes its feud with Underground for this build; even when Ricochet was facing Murphy at Summer Slam, Black was always in the shot, and so we relaunch that program; probably with some type of beatdown in order to get some heat - neither of the two top matches on the card have a heat angle (the Angle beatdown is at the end of the build and isn't really about that match; so any attack on BWI would come early). There's no real limit to how many guys can be considered parr of Underground since it's the home for anyone in developmental theoretically - but the one development in this build is that Apollo Crews joins the stable and an attack on BWI is a good time to do that.
In the previous incarnation of Underground, Nemeth/Sheamus/Barrett really stood as the leaders (other thn Regal) so Crews now joins Black and Murphy at the top of the crew; and there can be some mixing and matching in this build, with Ricochet/Alexander/Tozawa (Blood Warriors International) on the other side of that feud. Regal says its time for Underground to regain their belts, as all WWF belts belong to Underground - Ricochet looks to continue his roll as a dominant champion - and he and Black collide at the Rumble.
Women's Title: Shayna Baszler (w/Horsewomen) v. Asuka
Asuka's still undefeated - following her beating Rousey at last year's Mania, the Horsewomen (Rousey out, Ripley in) attacked her, forcing an abdication of her title; Bayley won the vacant belt, then lost it to Baszler at Survivor Series and here we are - Asuka, still undefeated, challenging for the title belt.
No physicality needed at all in this build - you want to see them go at it - Baszler really blew through Bayley in taking the belt, she's the big bad villain and Asuka's never lost. They do a contract signing, Asuka beats either Shafir or Duke (is one pregnant - I don't know, as long as one of them is able to work, that's fine). It's big on big - undefeated Asuka against the current big bad villain who took her out.
WWF Tag Titles: The Legendary Rey Mysterio/Kevin Steen v. The Clique (? and ? w/HBK)
For years, Steen rode stablemates Pac and Generico about the need to get rid of their masks to ascend to the next level at WWF. Pac lost a mask match against Kalisto, resulting in the breakup of GDI, the creation of Trash, Pac losing a Loser Leaves Town Match against Steen. Steen then adopted the persona of a veteran Canadian luchador, created a masked wrestler tournament, resuting in the return of Mysterio to WWF, all designed to culminate in a mask match between Steen (as Kid Canada) and Generico. Generico won - but Steen still yanked off Generico's mask, revealing, for the first time in his career, his actual identity as Sami Zayn. Mysterio excised Steen from the promotion; pulling the veteran locker room leader card and saying the betrayal of the mask stip was a bridge too far; violative of a cultural tradition in a way outside of acceptability. Steen left; meanwhile Zayn would return as a referee, kept out of any angles, never having any contact with Steen. Steen would return, brought back by Danielson and would eventually be needed to aid Mysterio (multiple times - I recognize the arc of this sounds like it's aping the IRL Mysterio/Murphy angle - in fact, this predates that significantly, you can, as they say, look it up) that aid eventually wins Mysterio over and the two men form a team and they took the tag titles at Survivor Series.
Riddle and Lee went over Fish and O'Reilly at Survivor Series; one of the stips being the winning manager (the one not leaving town, bye Maria...mmmmMaria) gained a tag title shot. If that language seemed a little clunky (why not just say Riddle and Lee got the shot) it was intentional, Riddle and Lee have another high profile match at the Rumble - but the title shot is going to...well, it's a surprise.
So, there's not really build for this match, other than its an announced match, so there's speculation about who Shawn is bringing in - that's why Steen and Msyterio are part of the main event angle; Michaels will be working the Lee/Riddle program that we'll talk about in a second.
Charlotte Flair v. Becky Lynch
It's the war that never ends; Flair turned on her 4-Ground stablemates (Lynch, Banks, Paige) and later Lynch turned on Banks. Paige was forced to retire with injury, she gave her spot to Bayley (Bayley came to the aid of the other 3 women, who were forced to band back together to fight Rousey and the Horsewomen - it took something as seismic as Rousey to bring 4-Ground back together) but despite Paige's best efforts, they couldn't maintain the peace as the war rages on, threatening to consume all of their careers. Lynch and Charlotte focused on each other in a 3 way mixed tag match at Survivor Series, resulting in both getting pinned by Banks. So, now they fight.
Shoot Nation (Brock Lesnar/Chad Gable) v. The Clique (Keith Lee/Matt Riddle w/HBK)
As it will turn out, there will be a real split between the top half of the card and the bottom half.
Because - when the Bullet Club kills Angle dead in the go home RAW, the result will be at the Rumble, the decision is made that Shoot Nation must appear prior to intermission, they will be escorted out of the arena following their match; none of the non wrestling members will be allowed in the arena - and the Bullet Club will not arrive at the arena until Shoot Nation has departed. The possibility of violence is just too great, reports of Lesnar's rage are significant.
We don't know any of that during this build however. The impetus for this match is that fan poll for greatest WWF Champ ever - that allows us to do some "Shawn and Angle walk down memory lane" stuff; the two men sitting together for a WWF Network documentary - taking us from Young Lesnar's vicious attack on Michaels, to the war between Team Angle and The Clique and these two men squaring off. And that sort of "hey, which one of these guys was better" thing is turned into "which one of these two teams is better" Riddle starts to needle Lesnar on twitter; Lesnar doesn't know what Twitter is, Lee and Lesnar wind up in the ring together, Lesnar says "who the hell is this big fucker" - and there's a "is Gable the next Angle, is he better on the mat than Riddle" - thing.
Once Angle is announced to have won the fan poll; that's clearly a burr under Michaels' saddle (Lesnar, noteably couldn't care at all; he and Angle have grown very close, particularly through the Walter program as Heyman clearly broke all ties with Brock) there's no level of jealousy at all from Brock (Brock doesn't care about a fan poll, come on - Brock only knows who a handful of the WWF Champs are anyway). But Michaels has no time for any poll that says anyone but Michaels is best ever (he does make sure to note that Bret didn't make the top 3).
So, the whole build is done - and then Angle's killed in the go home - we go into the Rumble wondering how that will play out in the event - how Lesnar, specifically, will react.
Claudio Castagnoli (w/Gargano) v. La Sombra (w/Zelina)
Okay. This has been going on for awhile; I mentioned in the build to Survivor Series that this is when I'd flesh it out. Claudio's old partner, Chris Hero, announced that he will retire at the end of this wrestling year (Mania, 2020) but having never won a title in WWF, wanted to take a shot at Walter's Dark Ride title. He lost, twice, the second match a real war, many wrestlers in the back watching - rooting for Hero, the veteran, to come through - one of those wrestlers was Claudio.
Similarly, we've seen Claudio's current partner, Gargano, lose the blowoff match in the feud against his former partner, Ciampa, many wrestlers in the back watching, rooting for Ciampa - but with them, clearly rooting for Gargano, was Hero.
Trash, clearly, has been on the wrong end of match results for awhile. And we see tension between Gargano and Claudio increase, steadily.
Meanwhile...
Sombra is a technico, managed by Zelina. He was injured at Mania and has been on the shelf. Zelina then took on a rudo tag team, Angel Garza and Humberto Carillo, Dioses del sol Retorcidos (Twisted Sun Gods). Sombra now returns - and clearly does not fit in at all with Zelina's other charges; she tries to navigate that space, but seems more inclined toward the heels.
Dioses del sol Retorcidos beat Trash just prior to Survivor Series and that led to some dissension, "how are we losing to these kids". and in this build, the rudos just clown Trash; old, slow, yesterday's news. They beat Trash again, Gargano and Claudio clearly not on the same page.
Claudio and Gargano argue post-match, it looks like they are finally about to go to blows - this we've reached the end of the road for this team - this argument is interrupted by Hero.
Hero, total babyface veteran on his last legs babyface - says they need to stop. Says the problem isn't Claudio. The problem isnt Gargano. The problem isn't even their tag team. The problem is Trash.
Hero says - you guys aren't Trash. You're Kings.
Hero pulls out a Kings of Wrestling t-shirt.
Hero says this was the symbol of excellence in the sport of wrestling; wrestling fans around the world knew that if the Kings of Wrestling were on the card, they were going to see one of the best matches of their lives.
Hero says he's on the E, almost entirely out of gas - he's got one more in him - The Dark Ride Rumble (Walter was Dark Ride Champ, but worked Survivor Series, and that means he has to relinquish the Dark Ride Championship - now, he actually refuses to do that, heads back to Europe with the physical title belt, but he's stripped, and when there's a vacancy the result is a Dark Ride Rumble to crown a new champ - that's just like IRL Royal Rumble but with pinfalls and submissions; it'll occur on the go home Dark Ride) Hero says its his last shot to win this title; he wants to win this title and retire.
And when he retires, he wants the Kings of Wrestling to live on. And he wants it to be Claudio and Gargano.
Hero puts over both guys - offers them shirts - we think for a moment they'll accept them - but they exit, and exit separately.
The only guys eligible to be Dark Ride Champ are guys who haven't wrestled on PPV in the previous calendar year; so lots of guys aren't eligible here - The Clique, Trash, GDI, lot of guys. I'm not going to go through it - but Hero is entrant 1 (there are 20) and he lasts until the end - and his staying alive throughout the hour of this match draws all the locker room attention, as guys crowd around monitors - both Hero and Gargano migrate - separately clearly cheering for Hero even despite themselves.
Hero falls short - Angel Garza becomes the new Dark Ride Wrestling Champion; there's some spot where Sombra (not in the match) has to help Garza (it would have to be that Garza eliminated some heel, who tried to come back in the ring to attack him - and then Sombra, still a babyface, stopped the heel from doing so - because although Sombra's a technico and Garza's a rudo - they're both Zelina guys and Sombra's loyal). Garza wins - he, Carillo, Zelina - and Sombra celebrate in the ring postmatch.
That's a lot, I appreciate.
So - it's Claudio, still a heel, with Gargano, still a heel, although they aren't getting along at all - Against Sombra, still a babyface, with Zelina, who is now basically a heel.
Io Shirai v. Kari Sane
Shirai and Sane are aligned, but they turned on each other at Survivor Series in an attempt to win the number one contender's match and that antagonism continues, they both remain babyfaces but they're going to go at it here in a much anticipated workrate match.
Drew McIntyre v. Roman Reigns Uso
Two guys in similar spots, the powerhouse members of trios; so it makes sense that they are often rubbing up against each other. Hooligans are just babyfaces, not ideal, but its needed right now; IRL Reigns heel persona is easily his best, so that's going to be the trajectory of his character here. Presently, Usos are tweeners, but they're in this 3 way program with Hooligans and New Day, both babyface teams, so it makes sense that they pull in a firmly heel direction. This match and the opening tag are connected in the build; it's really all the same program - all 3 Usos and Trinity (I assume sometimes I call her Trinity and sometimes Naomi, whichever name you like better is fine) all 3 members of New Day (Woods is probably still hurt) and Banks and all 3 members of Hooligans and Bayley, which I'll get to in a second.
The Fiend Bray Wyatt v. Bobby Roode
Following the end of Luke Harper's WWF life at that hands of Wyatt, the next photo to show up in the Firefly Funhouse belongs to...Charlotte Flair. Wyatt's embarrassment by Flair is the inciting incident in what is clearly a massive psychotic breakdown that led to the development of the Fiend. Flair's busy, obviously, so she doesn't get involved - coming to her defense are Strong and Roode, Strong has to take the beatings in the build and that leaves Roode for the Rumble.
New Day (Langston/Kingston w/Woods and Banks) v. Hooligans (Sheamus/Miz w/Bayley)
And as just discussed - there's a 3 way program here with these two squads and Usos - and the work that has to get done in this build is to really heat up Banks/Bailey animosity. Banks is hot because even after pinning Charlotte and Becky in the same match, those two are on the Rumble card and she's not. At one point she interrupts a Charlotte/Becky promo to express that irritation - and that threatens to turn into a 3 way. Bayley is hot because none of the other 3 women ever came to her aid in her Baszler program; when it was the 3 of them getting their asses kicked by the Horsewomen - who always stepped up was Bayley. But when it was her, down 4 on 1 - who was there for her? No one.
Banks responds to this - Banks is a babyface, so she has some level of sympathy, but we need some animosity here; Banks says the truth is Bayley isn't one of them. Banks goes through a "here's what it meant to be in 4-Ground" history; shows her a tattoo that she has, that all 3 of them have and the truth is that even though Paige gave Bayley her spot, she's not really part of that. Banks says Bayley needs to go find people of her own, like she found New Day.
And who that turns out to be is Hooligans - there's some sort of New Day/Hooligans thing where Banks interferes, gets a spot in on Miz - and Bayley runs in, wearing the hockey jersey, and runs Banks off allowing a Hooligans win.
And that's the card. 12 big matches, coming to you in January from Houston. Royal Rumble 2020! It's going to be a happening.
