Nearly every single member of the Raw and Smackdown roster participated in the 50-man Royal Rumble match during the Greatest Royal Rumble pay-per-view yesterday. Despite the fact that his tag team partner Dolph Ziggler was in the match, it seemed odd that Drew McIntyre was excluded from the match. According to PWInsider, McIntyre was set to participate in Saudi Arabia at one point, but WWE decided not to include him on the tour because they were not able to negotiate the Scottish wrestler’s work visa in time for the event. McIntyre was just recently called up from NXT, and he will continue to compete on Monday Night Raw with Dolph Ziggler for the time being.
The Greatest Royal Rumble featured 50 participants in the Royal Rumble match just as WWE had promised in the weeks leading up to the event, however, there were indeed quite a number of changes made to the match before it finally aired. The latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio revealed that WWE changed their plans to have the number one standout from the tryouts in Saudi Arabia participate in the match. The company instead chose to have all four tryout winners take part in an in-ring segment with Shawn and Ariya Daivari during the show. The reason for the sudden change is reportedly because WWE does not feel as though any of the tryout members are ready to compete in the ring just yet.
Daniel Bryan has made the most of his in-ring return thus far, especially given the fact that he lasted over seventy minutes during the 50-man Royal Rumble match at the Greatest Royal Rumble event yesterday. Bryan has wrestled in quite a few matches over the past few weeks, but WWE officials are still keeping a close eye on him due to his long history with concussions. The company does appear to be getting a bit more lenient on having Bryan compete because the Wrestling Observer Radio show now reports that Bryan is expected to be back competing on a full time WWE schedule once again very soon, which includes on TV shows and live events.