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