For months, those who hope for a not-so-obvious Royal Rumble winner were pretty worried. The latter part of 2015 made it obvious that Roman Reigns would continue his run and win the Royal Rumble to chase the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
Then, late in the year, Reigns defeated Sheamus to become the champion. The Royal Rumble door flew wide open! Even with Reigns added back to the Rumble, there does not seem to be a clear cut potential winner with the championship on the line.
Let’s take a quick look at the top five likeliest outcomes for the start of the Road to WrestleMania …
5 – Roman Reigns
This is an obvious possibility. WWE has made it clear that they want Reigns to be the top guy. They did a great job of building Reigns in 2015 to get the majority of the fans that would boo him out of the building to realize that he has talent and potential. Going through 29 other competitors to retain his title would be a great way to solidify Reigns in that top spot.
4 – Daniel Bryan
The latest word is that Bryan will be headed to Pennsylvania this week to get evaluated and, hopefully, cleared by WWE doctors. That has been the last hurdle to get Bryan back in the ring. Imagine the pop in Orlando if Bryan’s music hit! Not only that, but if he goes on to win the title? That would make for a great Road to WrestleMania.
3 – Brock Lesnar
Lesnar has easily been the biggest box-office draw in the last few years. The WWE World Heavyweight Championship seemed to gain a lot more meaning when it was around his waist. WWE is hoping to get over 100,000 people inside JerryWorld for WrestleMania this year, having Lesnar as a part of the title match would be a great way to sell a few more tickets.
2 – Bray Wyatt
A week or two ago this would seem like a bit of a stretch, but the way that Raw went down last night solidifies that this is a legit possibility. In Brock Lesnar’s first Raw back, Paul Heyman told the McMahon’s that his client should just be able to go straight to the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania and not have to worry about the Royal Rumble match. Didn’t work. I can see Wyatt being the dark horse winner this year which would set up two months of The Waytts vs Brock and Heyman leading to a championship match at WrestleMania. THAT would be best for business!
1 – Triple H
At the end of the last pay per view in 2015 we saw Roman Reigns just annihilate the COO of the company after another failed attempt at winning the title. Since then we have not seen The Game on WWE TV (with the exception of the opening of the last NXT Takeover show). Every week that Triple H was not on Raw was another reason to believe that he would come back to challenge Reigns.
And it looks like he’ll do that through the Rumble. We know that Reigns is entrant #1 this Sunday. I can see Reigns lasting through numbers 2-29. Then, when the countdown hits 0 for #30, Motorhead will hit the arena and the Cerebral Assassin will come down to take the title away from Reigns himself. This will obviously set up this year’s main event of Triple H vs Roman Reigns for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
SO WHAT DO YOU THINK? WHO WILL WIN THE ROYAL RUMBLE THIS SUNDAY? ARE WE FORGETTING SOMEONE IN THE TOP 5? DOES SOMEONE IN OUR TOP 5 NOT BELONG IN THE TOP 5? FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @FROM_THETOPROPE AND LET US KNOW!
