Now that they've announced the Elimination Chamber aspect, that throws a bit wrench in a lot of situations. For anyone that might have missed the article, it says that this year, whoever wins the Royal Rumble will be able to choose which champion they want to challenge (as per normal rules) but the other champion's title will be involved in an elimination chamber match at No Way Out to determine who will get the shot at Wrestlemania.
I think they did that as an out to control all the different stories they could have going on right now. But let's take a look and analyze this a bit by the brands...
RAW:
As far as the Raw roster goes, do we have 6 people who could be competing in an EC for the shot? We have: Jeff Hardy, Chris Jericho, Mr. Kennedy, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Umaga....what a coincidence, six......the only two other people in the main event possibility range are Randy Orton (champ) and Lashley (but I don't think they'd use him in place of one of the six above). As all those men are legitimate possibilities though some obviously couldn't be in the main event for Wrestlemania (Umaga, lol).
SMACKDOWN:
Batista, Edge, Finlay, Khali, Mark Henry, Kane, Rey Mysterio, and the Undertaker. Knock one of them out for being the champ at the time leaves us with 7, and Henry isn't as likely as Khali though they both suck, so that's the six they'd most likely use.
There's a tricky situation with this, however. As Nin said above me, there's no way they're going to have the Undertaker win the rumble AND the championship at Wrestlemania two years in a row. However, they still need to have him win at 'Mania. If Undertaker goes into Wrestlemania as the champion, arguably the best option is to have Edge as the challenger, and since they're already in a feud, would they really waste that rumble win on him? Not very likely. So by that rationale, since we can almost definitively rule out Khali, Finlay, Mysterio, and Mark Henry...and most likely even Batista...it makes the most logical sense to have Edge win the championship in the triple threat match at Armageddon, retain against probably Batista at the Royal Rumble, have him screw the Undertaker out of a Royal Rumble win out of fear, then have the Undertaker win the Elimination Chamber. That'll give you your option to have him defeat Edge for the title at Wrestlemania.
BUT...(there's always a but, isn't there? lol)...to do that, that would mean that whoever wins the rumble can't challenge Edge. If that's the case, someone from the Raw side of things will be the most likely to win the rumble....here comes another paragraph haha...
Assuming Orton is the champ, I don't see them having Kennedy or Umaga win the rumble. Out of HHH, HBK, Jericho, or Hardy, all four are logical choices, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the two least likely to win are HHH and Jericho. Jericho's being pushed against Orton right now and I think they'll have a rematch at the Royal Rumble, which will count him out, and he'll probably be involved in the Money in the Bank match instead at Wrestlemania or in a feud (Kennedy?). There are a lot of reasons I don't see HHH winning the rumble and I keep thinking of more as time goes by. For one, he's already won a rumble before, and its rare that someone wins more than once unless you're Stone Cold or HBK pretty much lol. Another reason is that it seems like HHH isn't building himself up for a feud with Orton. It appears he's already had that moment when he defeated him for the title and then lost it the same night. That, to me, was HHH's "Orton title feud". So we're left with HBK and Hardy. On one hand, you have Hardy, who seems to be in line for a serious push and it would do wonders for his career if he won the Royal Rumble. On the other hand, you have HBK. If I had to choose, he'd be the most likely option the WWE will take, for the following reasons: 1) Orton says he won't give Shawn another shot at the title and this is a roundabout way of forcing it. 2) HBK is totally cemented as a Wrestlemania show stealer and would give it his all. 3) If the WWE remembers the crowd reaction from last year's rumble, as it got down to HBK/Taker, everyone went apeshit, but the majority of the chants were actually for Michaels. If they want to capitalize on that, as well as pay homage to his two previous wins, he may very well be the final man or the second to last.
So overall, how do I think this will play out?
Royal Rumble winner = HBK or Jeff Hardy to challenge Orton
Elimination Chamber winner = Undertaker to challenge Edge
And if that's the case, it opens up a good debate. Say, perhaps, that it was Jeff Hardy vs Orton, Undertaker vs Edge. Most likely, Jeff will have already lost the IC title, and most likely, that'd be to Kennedy, who would be feuding with either Jericho or Lashley. Also, MVP and Matt Hardy have their feud, so they might have the United States championship on the line at Wrestlemania. So far, the Money in the Bank match has consisted of 6-6-8 wrestlers. If you rule out those guys (Kennedy, MVP, Matt Hardy) and you rule out the guys that probably won't be involved like Batista or Lance Cade or whatever, I could see Money in the Bank involving some combination of these guys: John Morrison (most likely winner), Shelton Benjamin, Bobby Lashley (unless he's in a feud), Finlay (they always put him in there lol), Kane, Carlito, Jericho, Mysterio, or Elijah Burke.
So blah blah blah, that's what I think we might see happening as a result of the next few ppvs...Orton retains the title against the royal rumble winner, Jeff Hardy...Undertaker wins the Elimination Chamber and goes on to defeat Edge for the WHC...Morrison wins the Money in the Bank ladder match and uses it down the line to challenge for a title that allows him to switch over to Raw or Smackdown.
k hes the only main event guy who hasnt had a shot at orton and from what ive heard from another site when he got this injury he should be reurning around rumble time so it would fit.