No UFC? Let's Get Ready To Rumble!

Tonight is the Royal Rumble, arguably the WWE's greatest event of all time. It has been a yearly tradition since 1987. Hacksaw Jim Duggan won the first rumble and since that first Royal Rumble, there have been some amazing moments. Who can forget about when Rey Mysterio won from the number two entry in 2006, or when John Cena returned from injury and won in 2008? My personal favorite rumble moment is when Batista and Cena fell over the ropes and their feet hit the floor at the same time. This was unplanned and the referees had to improvise on the fly and did a great job. The Raw refs argued Batista won and the Smackdown refs argued Cena won. The crowd was baffled, Vince McMcMahon ran out of the back and into the ring (he tore both his calves trying to get in the ring and plopped to the floor) then they announced the match would be restarted between Cena and Batista and Batista won the 2005 Rumble. Now there are even two Royal Rumbles for twice the fun. one for the men, and one for the women. This year there has been a lot of speculation over who may win, or even be a part of each respective rumble.

Let's go over what we do know There are currently nineteen superstars in the men's division confirmed to be in the rumble and twelve for the women's. We are going to list everyone below, but we're going to go over who the real contenders are for each rumble. I'd argue Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan are the favorites to win the women's rumble. I don't really have much reasoning more than a gut feeling. As for the men's rumble, it feels pretty obvious that Cody Rhodes is going to join the long list of Rumble winners that return from a long injury at the Royal Rumble. John Cena has done it, Edge did it twice for both his, and Triple H did it in 2002. I would not be shocked to see Cody join this list. Cody is also WWE royalty and left AEW which he helped build to rejoin WWE. Most fans believe the absent World Titles from his WWE resume are inevitable and what better way to get him in the title picture than a Royal Rumble victory? However, there is so much speculation about the return of the Rock tonight. Even if he returns I think Cody will still win, but with the Rock in play, anything can happen. The Rock would be a surprise entry as there is no confirmation of his appearance. Yet, since the Rock teased a Wrestlemania match against Roman Reigns on his show Young Rock rumors have been flowing. Another possibility is Seth Rollins. Seth is more of a dark horse, but for storyline purposes it makes sense. Roman Reigns' title run has lasted for over eight-hundred eighty-one days. He has been a heel for the majority of his title run, if not the whole time. Seth is back and forth as a heel and a face, but typically no matter what he has the crowd behind him. I was actually in the building when Seth won in 2019, it was electrifying. Who would be better to end the reign of the Tribal Chief, than the man who ended the Shield?

There are a lot of ways WWE can go tonight, but Cody, The Rock, and Seth seem to have the most traction right now. Some other things to look out for tonight other than the winners are who's gonna have the most eliminations. With Bobby Lashley, Brock Lesnar, and Braun Strowman confirmed to be in the rumble it is hard to see anyone else getting more eliminations. I wouldn't be shocked if they all had a competition that leads to them eliminating each other sparking a Wrestlemania match.

Here are all the confirmed superstars. The order is irrelevant.

Women's Rumble:

1. Liv Morgan

2. Rhea Ripley

3. Candice LeRae

4. Raquel Rodriguez

5. Shayna Blaszer

6. Zelina Vega

7. Emma

8. Bailey

9. IYO Sky

10. Dakota Kai

11. Lacey Evans

12. Xia Li

Men's Rumble:

1. Cody Rhodes

2. Seth Rollins

3. Brock Lesnar

4. Braun Strowman

5. Kofi Kingston

6. Rey Mysterio

7. The Miz

8. Sheamus

9. Bobby Lashley

10. Drew McIntyre

11. Xavier Woods

12. Ricochet

13. Austin Theory

14. Baron Corbin

15. Dom Mysterio

16. Karrion Kross

17. Omos

18. Gunther

19. Santos Escobar