Fantasy Booking: Royal Rumble Prediction

This Sunday is WWE's Royal Rumble and it sees the Royal Rumble match itself, as well as the WWE Title match between Champion, CM Punk and challenger, The Rock.

The popular belief is that The Rock will walk out of the Rumble with the WWE Championship. Undoubtedly, this is a money making opportunity that probably won't be missed. But what if they were to do something different?

I've had a scenario in my head for a few days now and after The Shield attacked The Rock on Raw, I'm going to go with it. It's a little hopeful and probably won't happen as I'm giving the WWE (and their creative team) far too much credit but here goes:

Oh, I should point out that I feel dirty writing this as I hate, hate, HATE predictions but, as said before, I have had this festering in my head and I need to let it out!

A way of killing three birds with one stone is this;

Let's assume that the WWE Championship match goes on last at the pay-per-view. That way, anything/anyone can screw with this match. I'm thinking that towards the end, The Shield come down, again with the intention of screwing The Rock - and yes, I know that Vince has said that any Shield interference would result in Punk being stripped - on their way down, their three main foes - Ryback, Sheamus and Orton - intercept them and it appears that the score is even. Now this is the point where some have said that Brock Lesnar makes a shocking return. I'm going with something else here.

For starters, Brock isn't 'scheduled' to be back until February/March time. So... in the panic of The Shield being cut off, Orton returns to the ring and RKOs The Rock, leading to CM Punk doing the unthinkable and retaining.

I know this is probably crazy talk - I kind of think it myself - but it keeps the title on Punk; appeases Vince's wish that The Shield don't get involved; and thirdly, it turns Orton heel. I know there are rumours about this happening and I can't think of too many ways that this is going to happen. Screwing The Rock would achieve this. The alternative would be him turning on Sheamus at some point but I'm not sure this will do it - Orton's RKO'd faces before and it's been seen as typical Viper behaviour. Maybe his motivation is that he's not had any opportunities to get to a title match, whereas The Rock just got one out of thin air?

This won't ruin any plans leading up to Wrestlemania either as they have plenty of time to put the title on The Rock (maybe Elimination Chamber) and they can then go with the Orton heel turn with Sheamus/Alberto Del Rio.

Just a thought; I'm glad I got that off my chest!

@jimmosangle