WWE’s annual Royal Rumble event is just around the corner, which means it’s time to make some predictions for who will be winning the two 30-man matches and main event WrestleMania 38 in April. This year’s Men’s Rumble is a big tricky as, according to reports that have been floating around for months, WWE already has Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar locked in as the headlining match for WrestleMania. But now that Lesnar is the current WWE Champion, the road to that match isn’t exactly clear-cut. A report dropped this week that WWE isn’t planning on a Champion vs. Champion match, meaning that either Reigns or Lesnar is dropping their title at either the Rumble next week or the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view in Saudi Arabia next month.
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With all of that in mind, here are seven wrestlers who could possibly win this year’s Royal Rumble. Who is your pick? Let us know down in the comments and stay tuned for full coverage of the Royal Rumble on Jan. 29.
Roman Reigns
Why It Will Happen: It sounds crazy right? But WWE already seems to be laying out the groundwork for this one. Seth Rollins confirmed on this week’s Raw that he’ll bring the Universal Championship back to Raw if he beats Roman, meaning the two world championships would switch brands when Reigns turns his attention back to “The Beast.” It’s not hard to imagine him responding to a loss by turning around and winning the Rumble as a surprise late entrant.
Why It Won’t Happen: Even if Reigns does lose the championship (which let’s not rule out — he’s already broken Lesnar’s record for longest single reign), WWE could simply book Reigns vs. Lesnar without either man needing to “earn” the match.
Brock Lesnar
Why It Will Happen: Just like with Roman, Lesnar could respond to dropping his WWE Championship to Bobby Lashley by turning around and winning the Rumble. It would also be easy to explain why Brock got added the match by saying Paul Heyman “negotiated it.”
Why it Won’t Happen: Reigns vs. Lesnar for the Universal Championship has already happened fairly recently, so between the two it Reigns is more likely to lose his title and enter the Rumble than Brock.
Big E
Why It Will Happen: Of all the people who are officially booked for the Rumble right now, E is the odds-on favorite. He could be the perfect foil for either Rollins or Lashley in the WrestleMania Night One main event, and a win would give him the chance to have a lengthy world championship reign (as opposed to his first, which never seemed to get out of the gate).
Why It Won’t Happen: Given how casually WWE made him drop the title and have him lose on back-to-back episodes of Raw (and now even appear this week), it’s possible that WWE’s creative team has lost faith E.
Drew McIntyre
Why It Will Happen: McIntyre was, by all accounts, supposed to be the next man up to take on Reigns at the Rumble before suffering his neck injury and getting written off TV. New reports indicate he’ll be back in action before WrestleMania and there’s a chance, albeit slim, that WWE adds him into the Reigns/Lesnar equation to make it a triple threat. At the very least, we can’t say that’s a WrestleMania main event we haven’t already seen.
Why It Won’t Happen: There’s no guarantee that he’ll be back in time for the Rumble, and based on how he’s been used over the past six months it seems like another main event run just isn’t in the cards right now for the “Scottish Warrior.”
Kevin Owens
Why It Will Happen: Let’s say Rollins beats Reigns for the Universal title and WWE books Reigns vs. Lesnar for WrestleMania without either man winning the Rumble. What does that leave for Rollins? Big E, more than likely. But Kevin Owens has managed to stay connected to Rollins for the past couple of months and keeps teasing that the pair will have a match.
Why It Won’t Happen: For as much as fans love Owens, WWE hasn’t felt the need to give him any championships or accolades since 2017.
AJ Styles
Why It Will Happen: Rollins needs a WrestleMania opponent and if, somehow, Big E or Kevin Owens don’t get picked, Styles would be a great opponent now that he’s a babyface again.
(Also, “The Demon” Finn Balor could fit this role, but that feels like an even longer shot after he just lost to Austin Theory on Raw)
Why It Won’t Happen: Styles feels a bit too far down the pecking order right now for this to happen.
The Rock
Why It Will Happen: It’s the slimmest of slim chances right now, but the fact that there’s even a 1% chance means he makes the list.
Why It Won’t Happen: So many reasons, but we’ll start with his busy schedule.
