Solving the Rumble Jumble
This Sunday, the WWE will be holding it’s annual Royal Rumble event, emanating from Chase Field in Phoenix, AZ. The Rumble has always been my favorite of their pay-per-view shows, as there are so many stories being told in one match, often featuring surprise entrants, either nostalgia acts or current superstars returning from injury.
The Royal Rumble is also known as the “first stop on the road to Wrestlemania”, as the winner of each Rumble match (a women’s Rumble was added last year) gets to face the champion of their choosing at WWE’s biggest show of the year. This always leads to a wrestling fan’s favorite pastime: rampant speculation and fantasy booking. Below is where you will find mine. I’ve listed the superstars that I think have the best shot at winning their Rumble match, along with a dark horse candidate, in case Vince McMahon is feeling saucy on Sunday.
Men’s Rumble Match
- Seth Rollins – Seth is the biggest babyface on Raw right now and WWE has always been a babyface territory. The pop for a Rollins victory would be tremendous and it would serve to help distance him from a match against Dean Ambrose at Wrestlemania, which would likely not be as big as it might have been two months ago.
- Drew McIntyre – The Scottish Psychopath is really heating up right now, especially after removing the albatross known as Dolph Ziggler from around his neck. Some great matches on Raw with Finn Balor and Seth Rollins have really cemented him as a main eventer and may finally give him a path to becoming a world champion, as Vince McMahon predicted nearly a decade ago.
- John Cena – Big Match John is always a threat to win anything, although WWE did mention on this past Monday’s Raw that Cena was “injured” and might miss the Rumble (reports are that he will be rehabbing his “injury” by filming a movie). Knowing that John may be riding off into the Hollywood sunset, WWE may pull the trigger on Cena vs. Brock Lesnar (or Daniel Bryan) and let him finally take down his 17th world championship at Wrestlemania, breaking the tie that he currently holds with Ric Flair.
Dark horse – Dean Ambrose – The Lunatic Fringe just dropped the Intercontinental championship to the All Mighty Bobby Lashley in a fun match that also included Seth Rollins. While Lashley probably needed the title more that Dean did, how many times have we seen a star like Ambrose drop a secondary title in anticipation of an even bigger push?
Women’s Rumble Match
- Becky Lynch – Even though Becky is already competing for the Smackdown Women’s Championship against Asuka at the Royal Rumble, we’ve seen superstars perform double duty before. This would be the easiest way to get The Man vs Ronda Rousey at Wrestlemania, without having one of them switch brands.
- Charlotte Flair – If the Wrestlemania match is going to be a 3-way for the championship (which one could argue is the plan, since Ronda cost both Becky and Charlotte at TLC), they could have Lynch regain the title from Asuka, then have Flair win the Rumble match and challenge both of them. Plus, WWE loves to book with the video packages in mind, so you can just imagine the one they would put together that features Charlotte’s win alongside her dad’s win in 1992.
- Nia Jax – Although the larger athletes have not always fared well when it comes to winning the Rumble (save for Big John Studd), I could see them using this as an opportunity to re-establish Nia’s dominance as a monster heel. However, she will more than likely get the Diesel spot (or I guess the Michelle McCool spot, based on last year’s event) where she comes in and eliminates a bunch of the lower card talent.
Dark horse – Ember Moon – The WWE has done a good job of pacing Moon’s usage, usually bringing her out for tag matches where she doesn’t have to carry the full match (even though she can), but she still gets to hit her fantastic finisher and get the pin. She gets a great reaction every time she appears, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she gets the Most Time in the Rumble spot. Finn Balor and Sasha Banks had that distinction last year in their respective Rumble matches and both are featured in championship matches this year.
Who do you think is going to win? Who would you like to see show up as a surprise entrant? Let me know in the comment box below.
