As Triple H was recently reminding us, surprise is a key element of WWE’s Royal Rumble formula… but the company seems to be having a hard time keeping secrets his week.
During Netflix’s stream of the new SmackDown — which has already gone out to the majority of the world that gets the blue show via the streaming giant, while the United States has to wait until it airs on USA Network tonight (Jan. 30 — full spoilers are here) — a graphic flashed on-screen while Axiom and Nathan Frazer were entering for the mask-wearing Spaniard’s match.
It appears to be the chryon for the first entrant in tomorrow’s Men’s Royal Rumble match in the same hastily-constructed Riyadh stadium where today’s SmackDown took place. It’s a name we knew was in the match, so nothing else was spoiled. But a popular pick will have to go the distance if he wants to main event Wrestlemania 42 in a few months…
Now, it could just be that the WWE production team accidentally* loaded a placeholder or test graphic. But if those are the real ones, that’s a big detail to let out before you wanted to. But unless CCO Truple H and his team decide to change plans because of it, mistake or not, Paul Heyman will find a way to spin it that works.
That’s not a prediction. That’s a spoiler.
In the comments below, let us know what you make of this possible production botch, and your thoughts on what we’ll see next regarding The Vision’s Rumble plans and the #1 spot now that it’s happened.
*Or as a future Unreal plotline, likely blaming either Road Dogg or Abyss (whose job through two seasons of Netflix’s docuseries seems to be to grovel on camera) for the mistake…
