Rumors can be fun, so let’s speculate along with the Observer:

It has already been announced that The Rock will team up with John Cena in a traditional tag team elimination match at this year’s Survivor Series PPV, and it’s being said that a scramble match featuring Sheamus, Christian, Kane, Randy Orton, Mark Henry and Big Show is expected to be added to the card.

Sure, makes sense. Chaotic multi-man matches are sorta a Survivor Series thing. Anything that keeps the belt on Henry is great news, too.

Creative has also been discussing a potential Tables, Ladders and Chairs match between Mark Henry and Big Show for WWE’s TLC PPV in December.

I think Big Show is up for getting fed to Henry a bunch of times, and it makes Mark look like that much more of a killer to take down people larger than himself.

As for the Royal Rumble, it’s being said that the winner has already been decided on, and it’s someone from the Smackdown brand. At one point Randy Orton’s name was being discussed, but that has not been confirmed.

The Royal Rumble victor hasn’t won his match at Wrestlemania four years in a row. I postulated that the rise of money in the bank was to blame for this. Considering they’re going so far as to have a mitb winner present at Wrestlemania, I’d hazard that the Rumble winner is going to mean even less this year. That is, unless…

The tentative plan right now is to have the winner of the Royal Rumble win the World Title prior to WrestleMania, and then go on to defend it against Daniel Bryan at the big PPV.

I actually sorta called this on The Wrestling Podcast with TH a few weeks ago. Choreographing the mitb challenge to Wrestlemania totally throws off the usual dynamic. Ever since 1993, the Royal Rumble winner has competed in a main event spot of the show. But Wrestlemania XXVIII already has a main event: John Cena vs The Rock. The winner of the Royal Rumble can’t main event the show. On top of that, WWE shot itself in the foot a little by making the 2011 Rumble 40 men. It made sense at the time, but by my count, there are only 41 guys on the roster right now, which means there aren’t enough to have any other matches. But simply scaling back to 30 would seem lame.

I don’t think it makes any sense to have the royal rumble winner beat Mark Henry prior to Wrestlemania, because it would seem really lame to have the Rumble be for a title shot at, say, Elimination Chamber. But it makes a ton of sense for the winner of the Rumble to be the World Champion. Rumble winner Mark Henry vs mitb winner Daniel Bryan sounds like a great marquee. And this is what I theorized on TH’s show: they should make the Rumble for the World Title.

It’s the 20th anniversary of the best Royal Rumble in history, which was the only time the Rumble has been used to crown a champion. Due to giant plot contrivances involving Hulk Hogan and the Undertaker, the 1992 Royal Rumble was used to determine an undisputed champion. It was the first Royal Rumble match to feel really important, after four retrospectively pointless ones. The 2012 Rumble is in a similar situation: retrospectively, every Rumble since 2008 has been for naught. The matches may have been entertaining, but the winners blew it. Make the match for the World Title, and it’ll seem fresh. The change in stipulation will also distract people from the scaled-back number. Most importantly, have it be a defense, with Henry leaving an even more confident monster. That’s a lot of firsts, which is actually great for everyone.