The WWE Royal Rumble Kickoff pre-show panel will be made up of Josh Mathews, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels.
* Kickoff pre-show
WWE Tag Team Championship
The New Age Outlaws vs. Cody Rhodes and Goldust (c)
* Daniel Bryan vs. Bray Wyatt
* Big Show vs. Brock Lesnar
* Singles match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship
Randy Orton (c) vs. John Cena
* 2014 Royal Rumble Match
30-Superstar Royal Rumble match for a WWE World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania XXX
**Royal Rumble Competitors**
_Michael Cole and John "Bradshaw" Layfield announced first 2 participation on Raw Old School January 6th
- Batista
- Alberto Del Rio
_10 participation Announced on Raw January 13th
- Big E Langston
- The Miz
- R-Truth
- Xavier Woods
- Kofi Kingston
- Cody Rhodes
- Goldust
- Rey Mysterio
- CM Punk (entrant no. 1)
- Fandango
_3 participation Announced on SmackDown January 17th
- Dean Ambrose
- Seth Rollins
- Roman Reigns
_5 participation announced on Raw January 20th
- Luke Harper
- Erick Rowan
- Damien Sandow
- Billy Gunn
- Road Dogg
Below are the events that returning WWE Superstar Batista is scheduled for, up through the RAW on the night after WrestleMania:
January 20: WWE RAW at Nutter Center in Dayton, Ohio
January 26: Royal Rumble at CONSOL Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
January 27: WWE RAW at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio
February 3: WWE RAW at Century Link Center in Omaha, Nebraska
February 10: WWE RAW at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California
February 15: WWE LIVE Event at US Airways Center in Phoenix, Arizona
February 16: WWE LIVE Event at Thomas Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada
February 17: WWE RAW at Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado
February 24: WWE RAW at Resch Center in Green Bay, Wisconsin
March 3: WWE RAW at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois
March 8: WWE LIVE Event at Madison Square Garden in New York, NY
March 10: WWE RAW at FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tennessee
March 17: WWE RAW at AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas
March 31: WWE RAW at Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.
April 6: WrestleMania XXX at Mercedes Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana
April 7: WWE RAW at New Orleans Arena in New Orleans, Louisiana
We noted before that WWE had been planning to do Brock Lesnar vs. Big Show at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view. That was discussed back when Show was feuding with The Authority. The plan was for Show to be on top and go through Randy Orton and Triple H, but not win the title, but come out of the program as a strong main eventer. The idea was to make Show strong for Lesnar at the Rumble so Lesnar would look stronger for The Undertaker at WrestleMania XXX.
Regarding Lesnar vs. Undertaker, there had been some concern because Lesnar works such a physical style and Taker is in really rough shape physically. This is why there was some talk of Sheamus facing Taker.
Another issue with Lesnar facing Taker is that a lot of Taker's opponents, if not all, over the past several years have secretly worked out their match with him and practiced it. There was some concern over whether or not Lesnar would be willing to put in that much time preparing.
