Edge’s return and match victory at Sunday’s WWE Royal Rumble were shocking not simply because he was not advertised on the card or even because all industry insiders reported that either Triple H or Shawn Michaels was going to win. The true shock is the fact that Edge’s win, on the surface, makes a WrestleMania match with Chris Jericho appear less obvious.
Since he departed to recover from his injury last summer, the plan had always been for Edge to return for a ‘Mania feud with former tag partner Chris Jericho. The assumption from insiders was even that Edge made sure to return to action as quickly as possible to assure their WrestleMania match would get a fair building process.
It thus seemed illogical for Edge to win the Rumble and a WrestleMania title shot against a champion that, as of right now, will not be Chris Jericho. WWE undoubtedly felt compelled to book Edge as winner due to the HBK/HHH plans leaking, but as the main-event for WrestleMania is at stake, the company was most likely not just “hot shotting” an angle; there is a plan in place.
At press time, WWE was still looking to book Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels for the show. Most believed Triple H vs. Sheamus was also in the mix, although that is less certain, given the fact that WWE has not publicly built up that match.
The expectation this weekend was that the WWE Elimination Chamber pay-per-view would have some title implications; when most thought HHH was winning the Rumble, the belief was that Shawn Michaels would either defeat Batista in a one-on-one or in the Chamber match to secure his shot at Undertaker. Regardless, the top portion of the ‘Mania card will be at stake during the February pay-per-view.
As far as Edge’s status, he and Jericho did have an interaction in the Royal Rumble match–Edge eliminated Jericho–but the encounter did not give the impression that a WrestleMania match was inevitable. Obviously, one possibility that exists would be for Jericho to capture Undertaker’s title, turning Edge vs. Jericho into a title encounter at WrestleMania and allowing HBK and The Undertaker to square off without gold on the line.
As far as Triple H vs. Sheamus, there was no immediate word on the status of that match.
Partial Source: F4WOnline.com
i found egde winning as no surprise at all, kind of stupid really. I read forums and websites writing up rumors that edge would return at the rumble and win. Thus setting up a match against chris jericho. Looks like it was right. If the WWE didnt want to have to change thrie plans all the time, they should stop leaking information as to who is wining which match as it would make more sense. For example during the Mr mcmahon’s son story line, it was leaked by WWE that mr kennedy would be vince’s son. After it was leaked, this was changed to hornswoggle. The wwe has gotten to predictable and boring the last few years. The only thing i watch WWE for is to see the undertaker. Nothing else except kane or john cena doesnt grab much attention
Edges return was not really a shock, considering the Cena scenario! However Jericho does look likely to win at Elimination Chanmber which will be good to see as personally im rather fed up of The Undertaker. The main shock of the rumble was Cody Rhodes screwing Randy Orton it leaves a lot of questions of legacy and you may question Ted Dibiase and Randy Orton for the WWE title as Shaemus has proved to be an extremely weak champion! Lets hope someone like John Morrison gets the Money in the Bank at Mania because the feud with Drew has been boring and Morrison does deserve a Main Event Push with all the great matches he had last year against Hardy, Punk, Mysterio!
I was shock when i saw that edge won the match