I honestly think the safest (and possibly best, storyline-wise) booking scenario is to have HHH not appear on Raw or Smackdown but return in the Rumble at 30 and win the thing. It gives you a face chasing the title out of the Rumble and it gives Hunter his second Rumble win, tying him with Hogan, HBK, Cena, and Batista for second (for those not in the know, Austin won it 3 times). Here's where I throw the curve ball. Reigns cashes in his rematch clause at Fastlane and gets screwed out of the win by the Authority and the League of Nations and, after Hunter retains, the League can beat on Roman. Out comes Ambrose and the League beats on Roman and Dean. Out come Jimmy and Jey and the League's still kicking verybody's asses. Then...out comes the Rock. Rocky clears the ring and we see "The Family" united. The next night on Raw, Rock challenges HHH for the title at Mania. That's your main event and it's been teased and talked about for a year: Rock vs. HHH at Mania for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Meanwhile, you also get an eight-man tag between the League and the rest of the Wild Samoans II and the Lunatic Fringe (the Samoan Fringe, the Lunatic Samoans, the Loony Samoans, Three Darker Dudes and a Pale Guy....whatever). I'd book it to have Team Roman go over the League, but have HHH keep the title at Mania (probably through nefarious means).
There are a couple of other scenarios I'd like to throw at you:
1) the idea of Kevin Owens winning the Rumble and the title is intriguing. I don't know that they'd pull the trigger on it, but it would definitely be a powerful statement if they feel as strongly about Kevin Owens as a main event guy in the company. Also, Owens has held the US and IC (not to mention NXT) Titles since coming in and he's acquitted himself very well with every title he's held in WWE. Even if he were to just be a transitional champion and turn around and lose it back to Roman at Fastlane (maybe because he was distracted by Sami Zayn?...setting up Owens vs. Zayn at Mania?), so Roman could defend it against HHH at Mania....still would be a great statement.
2) I've opined elsewhere about AJ making his debut at the Rumble, but I don't think they'd have him win it his first night in the company. Stranger things have happened, though (although, at the moment, I'm not recalling any off of the top of my head). Also, this year's Rumble could be a great shot for a Samoa Joe to make his main roster debut. Although, again, I don't see them putting the belt on him on his first appearance on a WWE PPV.
3) All the press has been about Daniel Bryan possibly never competing for WWE again, that WWE's doctors won't clear him to compete, Bryan's said he will wrestle again no matter what WWE's doctors say....and a lot of people are suggesting that WWE will relent and Bryan will make his return at the Rumble. What if all of the press has been a smokescreen to set up that Bryan won't wrestle again only to have him return at the Rumble and win the whole thing, reclaim the WWE World Heavyweight Championship (I don't recall him losing it...or the IC Title for that matter).
4) Six words coming out of the Rumble in 2016 (well, five words and an acronym): Bray Wyatt, WWE World Heavyweight Champion. It could happen. I've been thinking for a few weeks that Mania will have a rematch between Bray and the Undertaker with Bray going over and retiring Undertaker (which, for selfish reasons, I think should happen in Texas and, having it happen in the Dallas area would make it even more of a "full circle" deal, since Taker made his wrestling debut in Dallas). Adding the title to that match would be a tremendous selling point.
Just spitballin' on some ideas.
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