Rumble '17 Betting And Blogging Throughout 2016

The fireworks and singing of Auld Lang Syne will be in full flow as this - the first post of 2017 - is published. I've scheduled it to go live at the stroke of midnight because I thought it was an appropriate end to something that I had been working on for most of 2016.

In this post below, I've recorded a diary of sorts where I go through all of the 2017 Royal Rumble coverage I had published in 2016. I highlight all the names that I've recommended a bet on as well as other Rumble notes that I made throughout last year. This coverage began only a couple of days after the 2016 Royal Rumble and concluded with a post published on Friday evening.

Thanks for reading/visiting in 2016. I wish you all the best for 2017. Now, let's get to the erratic Rumble betting...

27th January 2016
The first sighting of 2017 Royal Rumble betting odds were published. They came from bwin.com. In the post where I announced the release, I mentioned Shinsuke Nakamura as a conspicuous absence and noted that I would have been interested in taking Randy Orton at 40/1 if he had undertaken surgery as it would have kept him out for a long while.

29th January 2016
Betfair's Rumble odds were released. The firm had Shinsuke Nakamura on the list at 33/1. I noted that I had placed a small wager on him at this price.

Pick 1: Shinsuke Nakamura 33/1

6th February 2016
The oddsmakers at Kambi were the next to put up a market for the battle royal. In the post, I once again mentioned Shinsuke Nakamura and Randy Orton. However, I also added the name 'Kevin Owens' when I wrote: 'I would also consider a punt on Kevin Owens, but I have a feeling he'll be this year's Money in the Bank winner, so a Rumble win might be out of the question if he's already walking around with a guaranteed WWE World Heavyweight Championship title shot by then.'

22nd March 2016
This post, and the idea in it, was prompted by something Vince McMahon said on Raw when hyping the WrestleMania match between Shane McMahon and The Undertaker. Vince vowed that, if Shane were to win inside the Hell in a Cell, it would be the last time Undertaker wrestles at a WrestleMania.
It led to me thinking a way around the stipulation in 2017 would be to have The Undertaker win the Royal Rumble. At that point, bwin had Undertaker at 80/1 while Betfair had him at a second-best 33/1. I placed bets on him with both firms that morning. As we now know, Undertaker won the match against Shane, so the stip isn't in play now.

Pick 2: The Undertaker 80/1 or 33/1

28th July 2016
Ladbrokes' odds were published. I wrote about the release in this post. I highlighted Finn Balor at 6/1, but noted you could find him at a better price elsewhere. He was 16/1 with bwin.com at the time the post was published.

Pick 3: Finn Balor 6/1 or 16/1

29th July 2016
In a Comment Bag, I answered a question about the Royal Rumble. I distanced myself from backing AJ Styles as 'he could very well be WWE Champion at the time of the Rumble'. That looks good so far, right? Well, wait for it..  I then predicted Seth Rollins winning the WWE Universal Championship at SummerSlam, Roman Reigns turning heel and feuding with Finn Balor to keep Balor busy until a Royal Rumble win.

1st August 2016
I followed up the July 29th crazy idea with yet another in this post. At this point of the summer, I was watching NJPW's G1 Climax live nearly every morning or catching it later that day and was probably reminiscing about the good old days for Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows. For some reason, I got the wild idea that Anderson and Gallows could end up being used as heavies for AJ Styles in the Rumble to either assist him as a fellow competitor or as gatekeepers to prevent one of Styles' rivals from winning. I recommend reading the post, but to cut a long story short, I went with Anderson to be in the final 4 and Gallows to be in the final four. They were 40/1 each, but after placing my bet, the firms cut them to 25/1 each.

Pick 4: Karl Anderson to be in the final four 40/1
Pick 5: Doc Gallows to be in the final four 40/1

23rd August 2016
This was published a day after Finn Balor was forced to relinquish the WWE Universal Championship after he sustained an injury in the match where he won the strap. I titled it 'Still Hoping Balor Wins The 2017 Royal Rumble'.

1st September 2016
I went over Ladbrokes' Rumble odds. I noted that CM Punk's odds had shortened from 200/1 to 100/1.

4th September 2016
After not being as high on Randy Orton winning the Rumble in the posts I published at the start of the year, the brand split forced me to consider Orton versus AJ Styles as a potential match-up for WrestleMania 33 in this post. I placed a bet on Orton when he was 20/1 on the Ladbrokes website.

Pick 6: Randy Orton 20/1

15th September 2016
This is the post where I started to lean on John Cena winning the 2017 Royal Rumble. The company started introducing the story of Cena chasing his sixteenth world title win, so I figured that this could be what John Cena's WrestleMania storyline could end up being. I also noted that Cena would be taking time off to film his TV show, American Grit. This would have meant he was off our screens until Royal Rumble season.

Just like with Orton over a week earlier, the best price for John Cena was 20/1 at Ladbrokes.

Pick 7: John Cena 20/1

18th September 2016
Ladbrokes halved John Cena's odds. Despite this, the 10/1 was still the best price around. I also mentioned that Kambi's oddsmakers had moved Cena's final four odds out from 5/4 to 6/4 and thought this was a good price in case the Rumble is won by someone on the Raw roster.

20th September 2016
Paddy Power was the next sports betting firm to release odds for the Royal Rumble. John Cena was 6/1.

5th October 2016
In this edition of Comment Bag, I was asked about Bill Goldberg and whether I thought there was any value betting on him to be in the final four of the Royal Rumble. I replied to the negative as I had a feeling Goldberg's return would be a one-off.

7th October 2016
Bill Goldberg's odds to win the Royal Rumble had started to shorten by this date. I noted that the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas had been announced as the venue for the match and was somewhat surprised that people hadn't bet on Shawn Michaels winning considering San Antonio is his hometown. This was not a suggestion to bet on HBK, Just a thought.

12th October 2016
Finn Balor became a favourite to win the 2017 Royal Rumble at Paddy Power. His price was cut from 6/1 into 10/3.

15th October 2016
In the October 15 2016 Comment Bag, I was asked about The Undertaker and the Rumble. Despite having already bet on him on March 22nd, I wasn't confident that he'd be a participant in the match. I did, however, suggest that there was a strong chance he would be at the event considering it's a huge venue and it would be a case of 'all hands on deck'. I did mention, for those interested in having a bet, that the best price could be found from Paddy Power. He was 20/1.

18th October 2016
I noticed that Chris Jericho's odds had started to shorten. They had dropped from 50/1 into 33/1 with Kambi. I reasoned that the fans had been placing speculative punts on Jericho winning the Rumble to set up a match against his best friend, Kevin Owens, at WrestleMania. I wasn't sold on this as a possibility because I was anticipating the two squaring off sooner than that. I envisioned Survivor Series at the earliest.

19th October 2016
In an update to the previous day's post, I pointed out that Jericho's odds to be in the final four of the Rumble had been trimmed from 14/1 to 10/1.

26th October 2016
I went through Betfair's Royal Rumble odds and noted that Shawn Michaels' price had descended from 250/1 to 33/1. As stated above, I was anticipating some sort of action on HBK because of the Rumble's venue.

29th October 2016
The Kambi oddsmakers published a market where customers could wager on people being participants in the Rumble. I shared some thoughts.

4th November 2016
In this post, I finally jumped on the Chris Jericho to win the 2017 Royal Rumble bandwagon. I arrived at this conclusion following the news that the Roadblock 2016 main event was announced as Kevin Owens versus Roman Reigns for the WWE Universal Championship. I had been anticipating an Owens/Jericho feud from Survivor Series onwards, but the Reigns news came out of left field. It forced me to predict that the Jericho/Owens friendship would continue longer than I had predicted. This obviously forced me to look into the best odds for a Jericho Rumble win. It was 33/1 across a number of websites.

Pick 8: Chris Jericho 33/1

11th November 2016
Finn Balor became a favourite to win the Rumble in the markets that are available from the Kambi oddsmakers. This move could be attributed to the news that Balor was listed as appearing at Roadblock on the website of the arena that was hosting the event in late December.
On top of this, I noted that Jericho's odds had dropped from 33/1 into 17/1 and stated that the selection is 'one to watch' based on where the storyline between he and Kevin Owens was going.

17th November 2016
Jericho's odds continued to fall. I wrote about them in this post.

21st November 2016
It was the day after Bill Goldberg's victory over Brock Lesnar in the Survivor Series main event and I noted that Goldberg's price to win the 2017 Royal Rumble had dropped from 33/1 to 9/2 with Paddy Power.

22nd November 2016
Bill Goldberg announced on the previous night's episode of WWE Raw that he would be an entrant in the 2017 WWE Royal Rumble. This caused his price to shorten even more. He became a 6/4 favourite to win the battle royal with Betfair and Paddy Power.

25th November 2016
I published a post looking, once again, at Chris Jericho's Royal Rumble odds as they had been cut over at Betfair and Paddy Power.
I yet again gave out Jericho and Cena as potential winners (in that order). I also mentioned The Undertaker, but felt that his chance of winning was becoming unlikely due to the reports of him possibly facing AJ Styles for the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble.

29th November 2016
I was asked about Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens having a row on the previous night's edition of Raw in the Comment Bag. I revealed that I was slightly concerned about things developing rapidly, but stated that I needed to see more.

30th November 2016
The TSR Arena in Phoenix, Arizona announced that the Elimination Chamber would be returning in 2017. No specific date was mentioned, but I ran with the idea that it could be sandwiched in between the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania. I speculated that this could mean John Cena wins his title shot via the Elimination Chamber rather than at the Royal Rumble. So, in less than a day, my Kevin Owens or John Cena theories started to look flimsy!

1st December 2016
After reading the December 5th edition of the Wrestlng Observer Newsletter, I published a post noting the reports that the Elimination Chamber would be a Raw-branded show. This put paid to my theory from the day previous where I thought John Cena would claim his title shot via an Elimination Chamber win.

4th December 2016
I published a post mentioning that Ladbrokes' Rumble odds had been republished. As it was the night of WWE TLC 2016, I had to wait until I had free time to have a proper look through the odds. So...

6th December 2016
I had a proper look through Ladbrokes' Rumble odds.

8th December 2016
I returned to the Ladbrokes Rumble odds because a number of selections' prices had changed. Goldberg drifted out while selections like Finn Balor, Cena and Undertaker came in.

12th December 2016
I put up a post noting that Hulk Hogan had dropped from 1,000/1 and Chris Jericho from 8/1 to 5/1.

14th December 2016
I added another name to win the Royal Rumble - Braun Strowman. I bet on him at 33/1 and wrote about why in this post.

Pick 9: Braun Strowman 33/1

15th December 2016
I published another short update. I mentioned that Sami Zayn and Sheamus had price cuts at Betfair and Paddy Power respectively.

16th December 2016
This post looked at the Royal Rumble specials that were published by Kambi.

17th December 2016
Another post. This time I covered a new special that had been published by Kambi.

19th December 2016
I put out two posts on this day.

I wrote about Chris Jericho being back on the top of my potential Rumble winner list. This was due to him assisting Kevin Owens in the main event of the previous night's Roadblock PPV.

Later in the day, Paddy Power published a prop where customers can bet on the wrestler who gets the most eliminations.

20th December 2016
I noted that Ladbrokes had cut Braun Strowman's odds following the previous night's episode of WWE Raw.

They continued to fall later on that day.

23rd December 2016
In the Comment Bag for December 23rd, I answered a question about whether I thought the upcoming edition of WWE Smackdown would set up an AJ Styles versus Undertaker match. At this point, I was starting to see the likely route as AJ versus Cena in a singles match at the Rumble.

24th December 2016
I published a post titled Rumble Odds Notes For Christmas Eve where I covered a few selections' prices. The key one being Undertaker's 20/1 over at Ladbrokes.

27th December 2016
The first post of the day mentioned that William Hill's Rumble Odds had been published.

I then published a post ahead of Smackdown where I continued to point out that I expected Undertaker's Rumble odds to fall if John Cena were to challenge the WWE Champion at the Royal Rumble.

28th December 2016
First, I announced that SportingBet had published its Rumble odds.

I then created a post shortly after John Cena challenged whoever won the Smackdown main event (it turned out to be AJ Styles). This moved Cena off my list and moved The Undertaker up into third.

By lunchtime, as I had guessed, The Undertaker had become a favourite to win the Rumble match.

30th December 2016
I published this post after Finn Balor tweeted out the number '30'. It was thirty days until the Rumble on this day.

And there you have it.

I ran with a now unlikely winner in Shinsuke Nakamura to start off with. Then made what could end up being a spectacularly flukey pick with The Undertaker in March. I followed that up with Finn Balor (another possible fluke considering I bet on him before he was injured). From there I chose Randy Orton, John Cena, Chris Jericho and Braun Strowman (in that order) when their odds were in double digits.

If things go my - or our - way, one of the names listed above will end up winning the battle royal on January 29th. The rest of the bets will end up losing along with the Karl Anderson or Doc Gallows to be in the final four wagers I placed on August 1st. I'll stay positive, though. Both bets are still in with a chance..

Until January 29th!

Enjoy 2017.