I think it has been made almost a formality that Bryan will retain now. Having watched Smackdown, it looked as if Henry picked up a legitimate injury.
I don't think it was the original plan to have the main event finish off-air, so I'm assuming the injury was too serious for Henry to continue. If it is, I doubt he will make the Royal Rumble.
I also have heard that Big Show is carrying an injury.
I don't see Regal being a major player in the Rumble. If that were so, I'd have expected him to have some momentum coming into the event, instead he just danced with Clay two weeks back and has otherwise remained anonymous.
He doesn't need a good Rumble showing to get a match with Bryan, a simple backstage segment between the two one Smackdown would provide enough reason for it.
Kofi was the only person that came to mind for a possible US feud with Swagger but I do feel he is much better suited in the tag division.
Perhaps a team of Kofi & Dibiase? I don't know, it seems like just chucking two random faces together for the sake of making a team, but then again that was my original thoughts when Bourne & Kingston got together and it worked well to begin with.
The only other possible rivalries I could see for Swagger are either Alex Riley or Mason Ryan, and I know that I wouldn't like to see either of those, so we could be in for a potentially long Swagger title run, which doesn't bother me at all.
I don't know about Yoshi, it's hard to tell what direction they're taking with him, I'd much rather see him heel. He just seems like a Funaki wannabe currently.
|