You're great to talk wwe with, you think along the same lines I do.. But I think most wrestling fans do these days..
Here's some things I'm looking at heading into the rumble.
1. Braun Stroman deserves a title push, won't get one.
This is a guy Vince probably wants to push, but will do too late. Especially with the way they've been promoting him heading into the rumble. Hard to say there's five other wrestlers who should be favored over him, but that generally doesn't end well this time of year. I'd love to see Braun fight in a match that actually means something, but seems like the kind who benefits more from stipulation matches. Let's face it, 1 on 1 there may only be one guy on the roster who has any business beating this guy in a ring.
2. Speaking of that guy, Brock Lesnar has zero shot of winning the rumble. Possibly the dumbest part of this years rumble is that nobody thinks this guys winning. With Golberg signed to additional 3 PPVs you can all but pencil in either he eliminates Goldberg or vice versa, which essentially has them meet up at WM. Goldberg and Lesnar are no threat in this years rumble.
3. Rollins will be eliminated by/with the aide from HHH. Same thing goes for Rolins and HHH. These guys are on a crash course for WM and if HHH is in the rumble, the focus will be on Rollins. Seth is not a great face and I prefer him as a heel, so the sooner this feud ends the better. I doubt HHH finds his way into the RR since that would be two surprise entries in a row, so outside interference is most likely.
4. Jericho is my favorite. Owens Jericho WM is likely and the rumble may build a solid storyline for the pair. Side note: only way Reigns loses to KO is from help from Jericho (lolreignswins). I got a feeling that shark cage may be empty before the match ends.
5. Kurt Angle will make a comeback at the royal rumble. Just wanna hear the you suck chants.
6. If bailors in, bailor wins. Not a fan of Finn, but if he makes his return I don't see how he loses. He is the online betting favorite last I checked.
Yeah, I'm not the biggest Balor fan either, as he's never had a match that wowed me in the WWE/NXT (and I've seen all of his televised matches on both). I haven't really seen much of his Prince Devitt work, so I can't comment on that, but suffice it to say I'm also of the opinion that he's nothing special. Just a decent worker with a great entrance. Meanwhile, I can cite numerous matches from guys like Owens and Zayn and Styles that were incredible from their time in the WWE (and in NXT for Owens and Zayn).
Still, he's not terrible either, and it was refreshing to see him get pushed over Reigns and Rollins right away. They need to do that more often and debut guys like fucking stars if they warrant it. Owens almost got that treatment, but ultimately Vince balked at having him go over Cena. Had he done that, he probably could have held the main title a year earlier than he ended up winning it.
Personally, I think they should start treating anyone who held the NXT Title as important enough to be a main event player on the main roster and push them appropriately right from their debut and book them accordingly. It worked wonderfully with Balor, and would have worked with Owens too had they had the guts to let him beat Cena in their rubber match. His first win over Cena was still one of the most shocking match outcomes I can remember. I honestly didn't think that would happen, especially clean.
My guess for Lesnar/Owens is that Lesnar finally returns the favor and beats the shit out of Goldberg, possibly before the third entrant gets into the Rumble. Either that or they eliminate each other early on. Let's be real here...they are entering at one and two and neither guy has the cardio for an hour-plus long Rumble. I doubt either of them lasts more than ten minutes, and I suspect both might be gone before number three (Jericho?) arrives.
I disagree about Strowman, though. I don't think he's ready for a Universal Title shot. Not yet. He's doing the best work of his career with Zayn right now and I expect that to continue, possibly with Zayn giving him his first loss at Wrestlemania, which could propel Zayn into the main event scene where he belongs and maybe send Strowman on to a US Title run. Regardless, I think it would be a bad idea to push him as Universal Title contender this soon. It would almost be repeating the same mistakes they've made with Reigns after the Shield broke up. They pushed him too soon before he was ready and the fans turned on him. Strowman is a heel, which would help things, but I still think it would be better to bring up guy like him slowly and allow him to earn the respect of the fans in the ring.
I do kind of hope Triple H enters the Rumble, though. It would make a certain amount of sense given that he won it last year. Maybe have Rollins eliminate him, which gives Triple H enough of a black eye to want to get his revenge in an actual match. Make it a street fight and then let Rollins go over by beating Triple H's ass at 'Mania.