Why on earth would they wait till next Mania? Do you honestly think that they would put the thing off for a whole year? Are you mad?
For starters, the Royal Rumble would then just be Smackdown wrestlers and thus a complete fucking joke, there'd be no one for said winner to feud with because no one has a clue who the Champ will be next Mania, and a year from now no one will really care about it anymore, a years a long time and a lot of things will change between now and then.
And if you think you'd enjoy to watch it drawn out over a whole year, despite all the flaws it already has, then maybe you should take a time warp back to 1980s.
I love Christian as much as everyone, but as unfortunate as it is, I don't think he has a chance. Jericho and Benoit can both be great heels, but if they do the proper thing with Batista he won't necessarily need a heel to fight. Benjamin needs to break Orton's IC record and gain some credit, despite his athleticism. To me it seems like a lot of time has been devoted to Edge on air, as much as crazy Edge is completely lacking in Awsomeness he's getting a lot of screen time, but hopefully his back stage actions slow his push.
Oh yeah, fuck Kane, slap a mask on em and ship him to Smackdown to go fight big show or some crap like that
And logically speaking, wouldnt the smart thing for the winner to do be to attack and pin who ever wins the main event the second they win? I think this is something that lawler (god forbid he say anything useful) mentioned, that it's in effect the second they get it, so they could use it that night. So wouldn't that or the next day when the champ is hurtin be the best idea? I know it's bad buisness and story wise, but logic wise it makes sense, and would be unexpected. Just picture it, Christian wins, sits at ringside to watch the championship match, which will go crazy long, people will get busted open, and then right after Batista wins he runs in, lays him out with a chair or even the breifcase the contract is in, call out a ref and boom, Christian is champ the next day, Batista is still strong, and then we can have a nice period of Christian avoiding Batista, eventually Batista will win and people will be crazy ready for it (even more so) and then we have also had a HHH break so when he comes for his inevitable rematch it will be slightly interesting.
Yes I know it won't happen, yes I know it's kind of stupid, but it's about friggen time something unpredictable and crazy happens with the world title.
You are joking right? Have Batista have the belt for one whole hot and take it off him after such a huge build up and storyline all for one lousy night? Wow..
i have a bad feeling edge will win this match... or maybe chris jericho or chris benoit would win and edge would go about complaining that he was screwed once more and thus feud with the winner... while the much more deserving guys like christian and shelton benjamin go back to headlining heat