However, in terms of sheer excitement and fun, nothing tops the company’s annual January free-for-all: Royal Rumble. It’s a simple concept that even the most casual of viewers can comprehend. 30 men (and now women), starting with two combatants with a new one joining every 90 seconds. If you go over the top rope with both feet hitting the floor, you lose and the last person standing goes to WrestleMania to face the champion of their choosing.
The match has always been used to develop up-and-comers, reintroduce returning stars and instill some nostalgia with a surprise entrant or two. Given the way it’s been booked, this year’s edition likely won’t be high on unpredictability but should be a blast just the same.
With the event hours away, I wrote this guide to help you get ready. As a classic gentleman, I’ll start with the ladies first.
Women’s Royal Rumble Preview
Who Should Win: Bayley. The company has spent months building up the Ronda Rousey-Becky Lynch-Charlotte Flair feud that is sure to culminate in a WrestleMania main event. However, if the reports of Rousey taking a hiatus after Mania are true, it would make more sense to have her drop the title to Sasha Banks tonight and build up a suitable contender for The Boss.
And who better than her best friend Bayley? For those who remember Banks and Bayley’s matches at NXT, a potential title bout between the two would be the female equivalent of Savage-Steamboat or Bret vs Shawn (minus the bad blood and infidelity rumors). The company can still have its Rousey-Charlotte-Becky triple threat (Rousey had the biggest match at last year’s Mania without being anywhere near the title) while fans wanting to see a true classic get to see arguably the two best go at it with something on the line again.
Worst-Case Scenario Winner: Nia Jax. There are obviously a lot of ways WWE could ruin this match but the best one among likely contenders would be to give the win to The Irresistible Force. Few stars have squandered their momentum from last year’s WrestleMania quite like Jax, who left New Orleans with her first women’s title after defeating Alexa Bliss. Since then, she’s been a source of derision for fans and fellow wrestlers alike due to her sloppy in-ring technique, her boring promos and the flip-flopping between face and heel. Her inadvertent punch that broke Becky Lynch’s face, ruining the Survivor Series main event between Lynch and Rousey, is a botch The Rock’s cousin will probably never live down.
In addition to all her heat, a win at the Rumble doesn’t make much sense. There just isn’t a clamoring for a third Jax-Rousey PPV match nor is Jax vs Banks Mania worthy. The likely scenario is they save Jax for other battle Royal in April.
Dark Horse: Becky Lynch. Nobody had a more impactful 2018 than The Man, and if Becky weren’t already contending for the Smackdown title against Asuka tonight, she’d likely be the favorite to win the Rumble. She’s a dark horse because it’s still unknown whether she’ll even be in the match if she loses to Asuka earlier in the night. From a storyline standpoint, Lynch competing and possibly winning the Rumble after having a classic title match would continue her bad ass run. The poster for the women’s Rumble has 23 ladies on it, which mean the other seven will be surprises (WWE announced they were going to tweet the entrants last week but I ignored it because that seemed like a stupid idea. If all 30 are announced already, bare with me). A good number of the mysterious seven will be from NXT with a couple legends sprinkled in. Maybe Lynch finds a way in. Maybe they use the months leading up to Mania to write her Rousey storyline, but she’s been too good to count her out.
Best Potential Show-stealer: Ember Moon. Naomi had one of the best moments of last year’s Rumble when she tight-roped the barricade and used a office chair to wheel herself back into the ring to avoid elimination. So, she’s a contender here, as well. Athletic competitors like Naomi or Kofi Kingston or Rey Mysterio always show out in this event and my money is on Moon, who had a pretty good showing last year with one arm.
While the Rumble always benefits the winner the most, there’s always a handful of people who build off their performance in January to carry into the rest of the year. If WWE is going to stick with its “New Faces, New Opportunities” mantra it sold the fans after Raw’s ratings went into the tank, then using the Rumble to showcase a former NXT champion and arguably the most athletic woman on Raw wouldn’t be the worst idea.
Best Possible Surprise Entrant: Shayna Bazeler. WWE justifiably brought out a lot of its legends last year for the inaugural ladies’ battle royal, so there aren’t many left to bring out this year. If Paige is somehow given the green light to wrestle again, she would probably get the biggest pop of the night. There was some AJ Lee talk that got extinguished pretty fast. With most of the entrants known, there’s not much room for surprises (which is why announcing the entrants was stupid). You can give this spot to any of the NXT ladies: Bazeler, Rhea Ripley, Bianca Bel Air, Toni Storm. I’ll go with Shayna simply because she’s the champ and the slim chance of a battle between her and Rousey would be intriguing.
Best Surprise Entrant That Won’t Happen: Sable. The wrestling world hasn’t seen Sable since 2004, which is surprising given she’s married to one of the biggest stars in the company and WWE loves using wrestling couples in storylines. However, it’s not that surprising when you consider Sable left the company on bad terms then sued them for sexual harassment shortly after. She’s basically CM Punk without the chants and wrestling acumen. She also probably hasn’t wrestled since leaving wrestling and it might be worth the ring rust to put a 51-year-old woman in there for a couple minutes.
Still, Brock has shown to have some sway and if he were to say “How about throwing my wife in the Rumble?”, Vince might at least consider it.
Predicted Final Four: Charlotte-Carmella-Bayley-Ruby Riot. Assuming Lynch isn’t included, Charlotte is the prohibitive favorite. Carmella won the No. 30 spot via the Mixed Match Challenge, so she should be there at the end by default. Bayley seems poised to fill the workhorse role with three of the division’s biggest names out and Riot is up there with Ember Moon on the list of 2019 breakout stars. I also wouldn’t rule out Zelina Vega making a spirited run here.
Who Will Win: Charlotte. There’s only two ways I can envision this not ending with Charlotte’s hand raised:
- Lynch and Rousey both lose their title matches, and one or both screws Charlotte, which will set them up for the next three months.
- Lynch is one of the 30 women and she wins the Rumble.
Men’s Royal Rumble
Who Should Win: Drew McIntyre. McIntyre and Seth Rollins are the favorites, and while I have no issue with Rollins winning, a match between him and Lesnar just seems too similar to the one Brock is about to have with Finn Balor. The whole underdog/It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog/David vs Goliath angle is cool until you realize Lesnar already did it with Daniel Bryan at Survivor Series and Balor at the Rumble. McIntyre, while also a heel, at least offers up a different kind of foil for The Beast Incarnate.
Worst-Case Scenario Winner: Braun Strowman. It’s possible that the hype surrounding McIntyre and Rollins is a smokescreen for the inevitable Strowman-Lesnar rematch of their stinker at Crown Jewel. Strowman is going to get his chance to be champion and history suggests he’ll be a dominant one, but I just don’t think Lesnar-Strowman 2 is WrestleMania main event worthy. Of course, the same could be said about Lesnar’s battles with Roman Reigns, and that didn’t stop creative from making it happen over and over again.
Dark Horse: Rey Mysterio. The odds favor the winner of the Rumble being a superstar from Raw (McIntyre, Rollins, Braun, maybe even Lashley), but what if WWE threw us a curveball and went with a Smackdown winner for the third year in a row?
The problem with that scenario is that, while Daniel Bryan’s heel turn has been amazing, it left the show without a viable face to root for that wasn’t named AJ Styles.
- Shinsuke Nakamura: heel
- Miz: heel
- Randy Orton: heel
- Andrade: heel
- Samoa Joe: heel
- Big Show: heel...or face...depends what week it is.
Mysterio’s return has gone better than expected considering he’s 44, has a long injury history and relies on his athleticism to be competitive. If Bryan’s feud with Styles ends before Mania, he’s going to need a new opponent and Mysterio has won this thing before. Would it make sense? No. Has that stopped WWE before? Also no. But what better way to put a bow on a future Hall of Fame career than to give him one more WrestleMania moment before riding off in the sunset?
Best Potential Show-Stealer: Mustafa Ali. Kofi Kingston steals the show every January so it would be unfair to put him here. In fact, this should be the Kofi Kingston Award. With Raw’s top contenders pretty much settled, the focus turns to Smackdown to match their rival brand. Andrade is going to have a big night. Mysterio should, too. Another option is Mustafa Ali, who earned his blue stripes with a excellent match against Bryan on Smackdown and is now embroiled in a feud with Samoa Joe, who will definitely be present at the Rumble. This event is always good for continuing storylines and I expect Joe and Mustafa to play a classic cat-and-mouse game while Ali takes some pages out of Kofi’s playbook with some high-flying theatrics.
Best Possible Surprise Return: Bray Wyatt. I don’t know if this would be much of a surprise. Reports surfaced that Wyatt is ready to come off injured reserve, and with reports also surfacing that Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn are being held out til after Mania, The Eater of Worlds becomes the most interesting potential surprise. Doubling-down on that, a Wyatt Family reunion culminating in a Bray win wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world (albeit highly unlikely). The other possible candidate would be Roman Reigns, who has been battling leukemia since last fall. As much as well root for The Big Dog’s speedy recovery, this might be a little too soon.
Also, while it won’t happen, I’d absolutely welcome any of the New Day guys taking this one, particularly Xavier Woods.
Meanwhile, how odd is a Rumble that will be potentially without Reigns, John Cena, Daniel Bryan, AJ Styles, Undertaker and Lesnar?
Best Surprise Entrant That Won’t Happen: CM Punk. It seems like a waste to even write this since a Punk return will likely never happen. There was some buzz about a Punk sighting in Phoenix this weekend but that was apparently a troll job using an old airport photo of him and his wife, AJ Lee. Punk has pretty much told anyone bold enough to ask if he’ll be at the Rumble to stick it and that matches with his stance on returning to wrestling since his 2014 departure.
However, today is five years to the day of Punk’s last match in a WWE ring and what better way to return than to the event that was his final straw?
While it’s unlikely to happen, it doesn’t hurt to dream and Punk will be there in spirit as chants of his name will likely echo through Chase Field.
Projected Final Four: Rollins-McIntyre-Andrade-Mysterio. Like Becky Lynch, Braun’s uncertain status for the Rumble (he’s not on any of the promo posters and the storyline doesn’t have him in the match as of the go-home show) makes it hard to project where he’ll finish. Ultimately, this is going to come down to Rollins and McIntrye with the scant hope of a Smackdown win looming. R-Truth is set to be the last man in, but I can see a scenario where he’s gone before the final four. The finish to this match has some run-in potential, with Braun and Dean Ambrose both engaged in rivalries with the two favorites.
Who Will Win: Seth Rollins. Rollins is the company’s best all-around performer and keeping him out of the main event after he killed it all last year just seems dumb. As tired as the Big Man vs Little Man backdrop has become, a Rollins-Lesnar match is the best possible outcome and would be infinitely more entertaining than Strowman or even McIntyre challenging.
