Triple H & Reigns At Mania?

Triple H's odds to win the 2016 WWE Royal Rumble have shortened further in the market that is available to customers of the 5Dimes Sportsbook.

He had been priced at a price of +150 when I checked in with the sportsbook yesterday evening. He's now being offered at -105.

The descent could to be attributed to the report in this week's issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter which came out late last night. In it, Dave Meltzer confirmed that - barring another change - Roman Reigns versus Triple H is one of the main bouts set for this year's WrestleMania.

Bettors have evidently drawn to the conclusion that one of the ways to get to this match is to have Triple H win the Royal Rumble in a little over a week leading to Roman Reigns chasing the title to the main event of April's show.

The clues to a HHH vs Reigns match have been there for quite some time. The most obvious one being that two of Triple H's original opponents - The Rock and Seth Rollins - were forced out of the picture through insurance issues and an injury respectively. Once these two wrestlers were out of the equation, the storyline shift to Hunter attempting to get Reigns to be the Authority's champion was the another tell.

In a post published yesterday, I speculated that HHH versus Roman Reigns was possibly the 'Big Match' that yesterday's F4WOnline.com update was referring to for the Fast Lane card in February. This news now leads me to surmise it'll be a Roman Reigns versus Brock Lesnar match to set up a challenger to Triple H at WrestleMania. Pure speculation on my part, though.

The aforementioned post also had me predicting that HHH and Stephanie McMahon would be involved in a match - or matches - with The Rock and Ronda Rousey. The article in this week's Observer once again highlighted the fact that, as of right now, Dwayne Johnson is still unable to wrestle due to the insurance issue with the Baywatch movie. On top of that, Rousey will be filming a movie with Mark Wahlberg in Indonesia around the time of WrestleMania - the news that Road House is being pushed back has nothing to do with Mania, so I was incorrect there.

Now that HHH is favourite to win at 5Dimes, I've gone through other WWE Royal Rumble markets to find the best price to back him.

The Bovada Sportsbook, which caters to the US, has temporarily locked its Royal Rumble market. It is still available to view by following this link. HHH had been showing at +105 before they were taken off the board.

Over in Europe, the best price is 2/1. This can be picked up at bwin.com.

Finally, here's something to consider before lumping on a HHH win at the Rumble.

Even though HHH .vs. Reigns appears to be a key match on the WrestleMania card  - this does not necessarily mean that it will be Triple H who wins the Championship a week from Sunday. He could wind up costing Reigns the title and they both reach the WrestleMania match without it being for the Championship.

I don't think this is how it will go, but it's something to consider.