Latest Rumors and Betting Odds for the Randy Orton vs. Drew McIntyre WWE Championship Match on WWE Raw Tonight

Randy Orton will defend his WWE Championship against Drew McIntyre in a rare televised title match on this week’s Monday Night Raw. The match has huge implications, as the winner will be holding the company’s top prize when they face Universal Champion Roman Reigns at Survivor Series this coming Sunday. Now that the match is a few hours away, it’s time to take a look at who might be the winner.

According to WrestleVotes, WWE’s plan for WrestleMania 37 remains Orton vs. Edge with the WWE Championship on the line. There is an added wrinkle of Edge possibly facing The Fiend instead, which might throw a wrench into the plan.

Meanwhile, WrestlingNews.co is reporting that Orton is expected to retain and that McIntyre’s appearance on last week’s SmackDown was merely a bait and switch in order to boost Raw’s ratings.

“WrestlingNews.co was told that as of last Friday, the plan was for Orton to retain his title tonight and the plan was still for Orton to face Reigns this Sunday night,” the report read. “WWE is hoping for a boost in the ratings now that the election news coverage has cooled off and we were told that the segment on Friday was just meant to generate some extra buzz for Raw.”

For whatever its worth, online sports betting site Kambi moved the betting line for the match over the weekend, giving both men an even 17/20 odds of walking away with the title.

Finally there’s the fan poll WWE posted on Twitter on Sunday afternoon. With more than 24,000 votes as of Monday, fans are expecting McIntyre to become a 2x world champion with 52 percent of the vote.

In short, the experts and insiders believe Orton will win, but the fans have a bit more confidence in McIntyre. Only time will tell who winds up being right.