ASK TITO: WWE Royal Rumble 2026 Thoughts and Predictions, JCW Review, CM Punk in T-Shirts, Tommaso Ciampa, and Much More
The Excellence in Column Writing is BACK to answer your questions with my snappy answers, and the questions are a result of discussions with long-time fans via email or social media, along with the Comments section below (though readers beware, attention seeking trolls exist there with bad and cynical attitudes). With this weekend being Royal Rumble weekend, I figured that I’d clear out the inbox and other sources of discussions on current events for a column.
Now, this week, it’s the WWE Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia. Thanks to that “kingdom” being built mostly on price gouging other countries with their oil, this event needs to be called the OIL Rumble instead. It’s factual that most of their countries centralized money comes from oil… In addition to overpaying the WWE, they are also paying hefty pricetags to the UFC, soccer, golf, and other sports in attempts to market themselves away from their prior years’ activities.
You want to impress me with your sudden “reforms”? Let the WWE women wrestle in their regular wrestling attire. Let that cleavage flow and let the wedgies happen! Let’s see those navels and those thighs, baby!
Until that country stops completely repressing female freedoms, then I’ll be impressed with their country. But until then, they are just a country with a big checkbook thanks decades of price gouging countries with their oil and belonging to a cartel.
This year’s Royal Rumble hype has been a BORE… No, it’s not because of Triple H or the WWE Creative Team.
Simply put, WWE has ZERO incentive to even try to hype this event. Why? Because the Saudi check already cleared and the WWE made money on this show. Why even bother to try?
Compare that to last year where WWE had to actually work it and hustle their way to drawing 70,000 actual paying fans in Indianapolis, IN. They tried then because they always have to EARN North American dollars to pack arenas. In Saudi, they aren’t even in charge of ticket sales for WWE events held there. WWE just cashes the check to be there, and thus has ZERO incentive to even try or care to hype this event.
To me, this year’s Wrestlemania really doesn’t matter and thus the hype towards it doesn’t matter. I think for next year when the Saudis cut an even bigger check, I think THAT is where we’re going to finally see Rock vs. Roman Reigns. To probably land an extra $25 million, the guarantee of the Rock appearing was baked into the cake. Thus, I believe the “Road to Wrestlemania 43” is what truly matters, not the Road to Wrestlemania 42. I predict that we’ll see Roman vs. Seth vs. CM Punk on Night #2, and possibly Cody vs. Drew McIntyre for Night #1 (maybe Sami Zayn thrown in there). Roman wins back a World Title and that’s when the hype begins for Rock vs. Roman at Wrestlemania 43.
Many are somehow predicting that Sami Zayn has no chance against Drew McIntyre at the Rumble only to be set-up to win a World Title at Wrestlemania 43. Sorry, but I’m just NOT feeling the Sami Zayn = Wrestlemania main event material vibe. Great wrestler and great entertainer, but for Wrestlemania, NO participation trophies should be delivered. We found that out last year with Jey Uso winning and drawing poorly as champion afterward.
To me, give that participation trophy to Sami at Rumble 2026 and let that big win in front of a large Islamic population happen then, and then move on. He’s a great upper midcarder, but many miles have been placed on that body and he just doesn’t have that magnetism that should be there for an extensive main eventer. Let him win and then for the next Pay Per View, Drew wins the title back. Heck, I’d be OK if he’s in a triple threat with Cody and Drew.
But we know that Wrestlemania 42 is a “phoned in” Pay Per View because the Saudis have severely overpaid for Wrestlemania 43 to potentially be the biggest of all time with the Rock main eventing that show against Roman Reigns, finally. It’s going to happen there and Royal Rumble 2026 begins that build by having Roman Reigns win the Royal Rumble.
Tito’s OIL Rumble 2026 Picks:
– Men’s Rumble: Roman Reigns, with a slight chance of returning Seth Rollins winning it
– Women’s Rumble: Liv Morgan and I’m 100% behind pushing her hard, as the women’s division needs a fun character like her
– Either Sami Zayn wins or Drew does by controversial fashion to prompt a rematch soon
– Gunther wins, but I see a unique chance of Brock Lesnar interfering and costing Gunther the match to (a) openly challenge Gunther for Wrestlemania 42 and (b) letting AJ Styles continue his “retirement tour” for 2026. Leaning towards Gunther winning, though.
Kinda love that it’s at 1pm in the afternoon so that it won’t run late into the evening…
Onto your questions.
———————–
ASK TITO: Your Questions, My Answers
Joe Cirillo from Comments Section asks: How can you praise 2025 being better than 2024, when it appears that you disliked 2025?
Hi Joe. Great question, but you have to read ALL of my columns and not just nitpick something here or there. For one, I’d encourage you to read my 2024 columns where I was quite critical of the WWE letting Roman Reigns and the Rock take so much time off and leaving Bloodline storylines unfinished. The “new” Bloodline sucked and was inferior with Solo as a leader, while Cody wrestling Logan Paul and then AJ Styles repeatedly after his big WM 40 win was a joke. I’d say for 2024, I really liked Rumble to Wrestlemania season, but disliked the rest of the year because of the LACK of top stars available.
For 2025, I looked through my columns are most of my criticisms were about the BUSINESS of the WWE, such as placing sponsors everywhere, price gouging at live events, expensive streaming deals that is harmful financially to fans, how RAW and Smackdown continue to be infomercials for PLEs, and the continued LACK of Roman and Rock’s presence. That said, I really liked most of WWE’s PLEs during 2025 and argued that post-Wrestlemania for 2025 was much better than post-Wrestlemania for 2024. Plus, I enjoyed the John Cena heel turn, the heel run, and then his retirement finale (though I’m not that crazy on Gunther as most others). Overall, I enjoyed Wrestlemania 41, too, though I like Wrestlemania 40 better.
Read through all of my columns, side by side. I know that you’ve slandered me in the past (suggesting my mom took Tylenol when pregnant with me, for example) and have a distinct jealousy that my words are read by thousands of people for each post, but factually, your criticisms of my column are way off. All of my columns are posted and are un-edited for you to review and observe how wrong you are in your feedback.
Wish you the best, either way… Usually when I dislike something, I consume LESS of it… But you consume more of it?
*****
Thoughts on Juggalo Championship Wrestling (JCW) with Vince Russo as a writer?
Being totally honest, I haven’t watched a JCW event in YEARS… So thus, if JCW did something right, hiring Vince Russo has caused me to watch the last 2 episodes. While I’d like to have a larger sample size, I think that observing the last 2 episodes gives me decent footing for comments.
– LOVE the atmosphere of the arenas, as they have crazy decorations in and outside of the ring. The fans are really into it and it has a cool vibe. Reminds me somewhat of ECW, though more modernized.
– I wish the runtime of the event was cut to a tight hour. Seems like the show just has longer talking segments to fill time, and the same with some of the matches. Keep it tighter to 1 hour shows and then have your special events as longer.
– Happy to see veterans such as Big Vito, Dolph Ziggler, Kennedy or Mr. Anderson, and others getting second chances to shine while being surrounded by newer and younger faces. That’s a sign of a good, healthy environment. A strength of Russo’s is that he does pay attention and tries to get camera time of younger wrestlers while being good at repackaging older ones.
– I dislike Vince Russo as an authority figure and wish he’d stay behind the camera. In WWE, you barely saw him and thus 100% of his energy was there to make other wrestlers look great. In WCW and later during TNA (though less as in TNA), some of his energy was spent towards his on-air character. As history shows with Vince McMahon, Eric Bischoff, Dixie Carter, Stephanie McMahon, and even Triple H, when the Creative Lead is on-screen, they spend extra time making themselves look good versus making fellow wrestlers look great. THAT SAID, from the 2 shows that I’ve seen, he hasn’t been that overbearing as an authority figure yet but I worry, given past history, that it could happen. Russo’s talents are best off-camera than on, in my opinion.
– However, I want to STRONGLY emphasize this… I’m happy that Vince Russo is back and with a promotion that appreciates him. He seems hungry again about wrestling and that’s also a better version of Russo.
Overall, I like what I’ve seen with JCW and shall casually follow it. Good job, guys, and I like the convenience of being on YouTube, too, rather than having to spend more money on streaming services just to see wrestling.
*****
Do you think CM Punk should wrestle in a t-shirt or not?
Speaking of Vince Russo, he said that he’d “make a way better champion than CM Punk” as he “wouldn’t have to wrestle in a t-shirt”. This echoes Kevin Nash criticizing CM Punk for wrestling in a t-shirt too.
Often, veteran independent wrestlers perform with t-shirts on because as you get older, it’s harder to maintain a physique like you used to. Hence what Nash called the “indy shirt look”.
CM Punk has been criticized for the past 20 years because he’s straight-edge and REFUSES to take performance enhancing drugs such as steroids, HGH, or other synthetic drugs that achieve the same thing as those former two. Triple H, according to Jim Ross, used to call Punk “skinny fat” to ridicule the non-jacked up physique that wasn’t chemically enhanced as possibly HHH’s was alleged to be (see Scott Steiner’s story about taking a drug test with HHH).
To me, CM Punk pretty much looks the same as he used to, but I’d worry less about the t-shirts worn versus the grayer hairs in the beard, the injury history, or just moving slowly in the ring. Furthermore, I’d worry more about CM Punk being too friendly in the new TKO corporate environment. He’s kid of missing that edge that used to make Punk great… HOWEVER, we also wanted CM Punk to behave after a tough outing in AEW and he’s certainly done that since Survivor Series 2023. Thus, I have to be happy that CM Punk is working out and rebuilding his WWE career. Punk is the kind of guy that WWE needs on its Creative Team for the future and thus, I’m cheering for him to do well.
I think CM Punk is in dire need of a character overhaul. This babyface character has run its course and a heel turn is badly needed or maybe that title needs to be dropped to Roman Reigns at Wrestlemania 42.
*****
Do you think that Ava leaving NXT/WWE means anything?
*Checks TKO Board of Directors and sees that the Rock is still there*
Nope.
She’s probably moving on to something new, such as possibly joining her Mom to help work for her Dad’s production company. Rock is getting back into making movies again and his business empire needs all hands on deck.
*****
How will Tommaso Ciampa do in AEW?
He’s 40 years old with 20 years of experience. Good in-ring worker, but lacks intangibles to get over in the WWE such as personality, charisma, or mic skills.
BUT, AEW loves having longer and more matches on their cards… And they overpush WWE free agents.
He’ll do well for a few years there, and possibly gives them a trainer for future wrestlers which they need badly.
I just don’t think he’s going to be a big splash free agent. Again, he lacks those additional intangibles to take him further and unfortunately, he has a lot to overcome by being stuck in a tag team instead of being a singles wrestler in the WWE.
*****
Do you think Powerhouse Hobbs will do well in the WWE?
He’s on his way to the WWE, reportedly, and may debut at the Rumble along with Chris Jericho.
Hobbs is a 6’1” jacked up guy but actually has 16 years experience in the business. Personally, I’d send him to NXT and let him retool his skills there before moving on to the WWE main roster. AEW did him not favors, as they best they could do for him was the TNT Title and the Trios Title. Other than that, he was just another brick in the wall.
However, AEW doesn’t like larger wrestlers and prefers the smaller ones who can do high spots or 10 moves per minute for their 30 minute matches. The WWE style might be more conducive for Hobbs.
I fully expect a name change, though Powerhouse Hobbs is a GREAT wrestling name. I hope that he owns it…
*****
Do you think that Chris Jericho returns at Rumble 2026 and what will he do in WWE?
I have a slight inkling that he might return to AEW, as they’ve enjoyed paying him a boatload of money, but I could also see Jericho wanting to get back into the good graces of WWE to get into their Hall of Fame and make boatloads of money on the appearance tour.
I think that he does indeed return and I think that he and Kevin Owens will do something again together. Their magic was too good and I fully expect the “List” style character will return or something equivalent.
Jericho does deserve his flowers with a WWE return. He doesn’t get the credit of making AEW legitimate during 2019 with him joining the promotion and then carrying himself well as their first champion. If Jericho looked like a reduced version himself in AEW, let me ask this question: has anybody looked good at Tony Khan’s playground? Moxley looked great at first, but was reduced to blading every week. Cody went downhill in AEW, Kenny hasn’t looked great in AEW compared to his past, Young Bucks are the Young Bucks, and Edge just looks old out there compared to being energetic during his last few years with WWE.
While Jericho was great inside the ring, Jericho is actually better at purely entertaining as a character and on the mic. WWE needs that badly in their environment, as Prince Albert doesn’t have those skills to teach anyone at NXT. Hopefully, Jericho has a great last WWE run and then joins CM Punk backstage to help mold future wrestlers on how to work but also be great characters.
Enjoy the Oil Rumble, everyone!
Mr. Tito Column Archive @ NoDQ