In a somewhat expected move, Bobby Lashley will defend the ECW Title at the Royal Rumble vs Test. These two have been working together at house shows over the past two months or so, and based on the match they had here in Cleveland in late December, I would not get my hopes too high for this one. Lashley's offense is still nothing more than punches, kicks, and a few power moves, and Test's offense is not all that much better. Expect a stall-punch-kick fest between these two that will go about 7-8 minutes and end with a Lashley win.

To date, 27 wrestlers have been slated for the Rumble match, and upon looking at the field, there are not many wrestlers that I would consider first-tier that would even have a shot to make it in the top five. Your A-list wrestlers that even have a remote shot would be as follows: Undertaker, Randy Orton, Shawn Michaels, Edge, Chris Benoit, and King Booker. After that you have mostly filler guys, with wrestlers like Finlay, Hardcore Holly, Kevin Thorn, Viscera, Tommy Dreamer, Carlito and others. I think that based on the program they want for WrestleMania with Batista and Undertaker, the clear choice this year is Taker. It's the easy way to get him a title match at Mania, and after the screwjob on last weeks SmackDown and the weak field for the Rumble, this result seems somewhat easy to predict.

With WrestleMania now being pushed on TV weekly, you can expect there to start being more things announced for the event. As we get closer, the next thing that will come about is the start of wrestlers that will go into the WWE Hall of Fame. As stated here last week, I still think two wrestlers that should get serious consideration this year is Ricky Steamboat and Randy Savage. What a perfect spot for them based on their historic match 20 years ago at WrestleMania III at the Silverdome. Tickets and venue info for the HOF should also be close to coming out as well.

Also with Mania upcoming, there is always talk about wrestlers that have not been around for awhile coming back to either actually wrestle, or make an appearance on the show. One name that is sure to be on the show in a wrestling capacity is Hulk Hogan. I don't think with the nostalgia around the event that they are going to not be able to get the Hulkster in the fold. Another recent rumor has the WWE trying to talk to Chirs Jerhico about coming in for an appearance. Y2J has been out of the fold for about a year and a half. Steve Austin, with a WWE produced movie coming out shortly after Mania, should have his face on the show somewhere. Mick Foley usually gets some consideration for either an actual wrestling spot or at least a chance to have his face on the show. One guy that I would love to see and would add instant star power to the show is The Rock. The Great One has not been in a WWE ring for quite sometime, and just a 4-5 minute promo for the now movie star would be a great addition to the show.

RAW got a 4.1 rating on Monday night, which is solid. That number should pick up some now that the NFL Monday Night season is officially over, and there is really no strong competition from sports other than the occasional NBA or NHL game, which is nowhere near as big ratings wise as the NFL. It was good to see the company get totally away from the crap of last week with the garbage skit and get back to wrestling as well as setting up some storylines with the Rumble upcoming and WM just a few months away.