In a few hours, WWE will present their Royal Rumble premium live event from the Alamodome in San Antonio Texas, which will officially kickstart the company’s Road To WrestleMania 39.
Fightful Select has released a ton of backstage notes ahead of the show, including updates on Cody Rhodes, Ronda Rousey, and current IMPACT Knockouts Champion Mickie James.
-Ronda Rousey is not expected to be competing in the Women’s Rumble this evening. The report notes that WWE knew as far back as her SmackDown title loss to Charlotte Flair that she would not be in the match, which she won last year. This is not a confirmation that she won’t be in it, just what the publication was told.
-IMPACT Knockouts Champion Mickie James is technically a free agent, although she has a lot of future dates with IMPACT booked. She was in last year’s Rumble as the Knockouts Champion, but there is no indication that she will be in it again this year.
-Cody Rhodes has not done any public media this week to promote the Rumble. The American Nightmare confirmed that he would be returning in the match a couple of weeks ago.
-WWE is hoping to keep the entire Royal Rumble event to about four hours.
-At this time WWE has still not decided on a match order. One pitch was to open the show with the Men’s Rumble and close with Roman Reigns vs. Kevin Owens but that is not set in stone.
