The Royal Rumble is one of the biggest pay-per-views of the year and the perfect time for a WWE Superstar to make a name for themselves. Since this kicks off the Road to WrestleMania, it’s more important than ever to take charge and gain momentum to use for the next few months, as if the WWE doesn’t, they can easily be lost in the shuffle.
Some of these wrestlers are going to be obvious, as the poster above indicates just who WWE values already going into the event, but others might be a bit of a surprise.
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In particular, it’s good to remember that just because someone doesn’t win the title shot at WrestleMania, doesn’t mean they can’t still make a big impact on this card either by doing something else in that match or by wrestling in a completely unrelated fight.
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In no particular order, here are a handful of the WWE Superstars who are poised to steal the spotlight in some fashion at this year’s Royal Rumble event.
#1 Braun Strowman
Last year, Braun Strowman was one of the most influential men in the Royal Rumble match. This year, the only thing that changes is that his stock has risen dramatically, so he should perform even better.
Not only is he the frontrunner when it comes to who could take out the most of the competition, he’s also a potential candidate for the Iron Man of the night if he enters early enough, as he will undoubtedly last until the end, if not win the entire thing.
Strowman is not going to fall victim to the big man curse that plagued folks like Mabel in the past where they are booked to be shockingly eliminated much earlier than expected.
If he isn’t the winner of the Royal Rumble, he’ll be the runner-up or at the very least in the final four, which will cause his character to have another immense surge in credibility that will carry him well into WrestleMania, where he could challenge for the Universal Championship or be booked in any number of high-profile matches.
The only thing getting in his way is how much attention WWE wants for a handful of other names in the match.
#2 Brock Lesnar and Goldberg
I’ve grouped these two together as I feel WWE has them bound to one another in their creative ideas for the match.
You’d be foolish to assume Lesnar and Goldberg wouldn’t be booked as two of the biggest stars of this event as their history simply demands it. Plus, WWE quite literally started the promotion for this year’s event with the two of them being the only names announced for the match.
Lesnar is perhaps the most credible Superstar in WWE after spending the past few years wrecking everybody in his path. It’s almost boring at this point because as a fan, there’s no unpredictability to it unless WWE is secretly hiding some kind of off-the-wall crazy plan like Survivor Series.
When everybody assumed Goldberg was going to wrestle that one match and that match only, it was a surprise to see Lesnar not only lose but lose quickly. Since that happened, WWE will assuredly go out of its way to put Lesnar in a much more favourable light this time around.
That is where Goldberg comes into play, as these two will definitely clash.
My money is on both of them getting a few eliminations before Goldberg once again takes Lesnar out of the equation. Then, Lesnar either re-enters the ring and causes Goldberg to be eliminated or he bottles up his rage and applies it to an interference at Fastlane.
Both of them will be among the final candidates to win the match, but I don’t think they’ll come out on top. That won’t stop WWE from showing footage of what they do 20 times over the next few weeks of Raw, though.
Far too much is invested in another Goldberg vs. Lesnar match to see either of the two belittled or diminished in any sort of way, even if it means that some of the regular roster members have to suffer to compensate for it.
#3 Roman Reigns
Either Roman Reigns is winning the Universal Championship here or he’s being booked to look like he absolutely should have, if not for something that screwed him over.
Judging by how WWE has responded to the fans’ reaction of Reigns over the past three years, it’s obvious there’s no stopping this train because they aren’t listening. Call it persistence, call it stubbornness, or call it a brilliant long term plan that has yet to be executed and we are not privy to, whatever the reasoning, Reigns is always booked strong.
On a personal note, I don’t dislike Reigns as much as most people, but I can't support the notion of him going into WrestleMania either defending or challenging for the Universal Championship, particularly when a much more interesting feud between Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens is so easy to do instead.
However, I’m not the one in charge of the creative decisions, and it seems as though that’s what we’re getting, so it’s just a matter of when Reigns obtains that title.
Does he defeat Owens here at the Royal Rumble or is that too obvious, meaning that WWE will try to swerve us by having him lose and then capture it at Fastlane?
If it leads to the same end result, WWE might as well pull the band-aid off fast and just have him win it here so the foul mood that will come out of that decision will have an extra few weeks to dissipate. The closer to WrestleMania they pull the trigger, the more it will weigh on that card’s morale.
Reigns is going to win this match or be the spiritual winner in every sense of the word.
#4 The Undertaker
With the Elimination Chamber set to be a SmackDown-exclusive event where the WWE Championship is on the line, this implies that a SmackDown Superstar will win the Royal Rumble. If not, then why wouldn’t it be used to determine the No. 1 contender instead?
The money matches that could take place in that scenario all revolve around some kind of combination of AJ Styles, John Cena, Samoa Joe and The Undertaker, with my gut leaning towards The Phenomenal One defending against The Phenom.
That is a match that has never happened before and considering how little time The Undertaker probably has left for his in-ring career, this might be the only opportunity WWE ever gets to put that match on. The creative team needs to have learned its lesson from the Sting debacle where it’s not a good idea to wait and be optimistically hopeful that things will work out.
Sometimes, it doesn’t, and you miss your shot.
The Undertaker winning the Royal Rumble makes a lot of sense as he can enter somewhat late into the match, not take any big bumps, eliminate a few big stars and then celebrate to end the night. Following that, he has a reason not to wrestle for February and March as he’s gearing up for his world title match and wouldn’t be in the Elimination Chamber.
The Deadman absolutely will not job out in any fashion and has always been someone who is given a featured role in the Royal Rumble matches he participates in—even if it’s a fun beatdown segment after he’s eliminated by Maven.
This year, he could be the one who overcomes the odds and takes Braun Strowman, Brock Lesnar, Goldberg or any number of huge threats out of the equation to be victorious.
#5 Seth Rollins
To an extent, you can group Triple H in with Seth Rollins here, as the two are dependent upon each other for this spot. At the moment, Rollins isn’t even officially on the card as he lost his Royal Rumble opportunity to Sami Zayn. Clearly, though, he’ll find a way to get back into it, as WWE isn’t going to let him sit out this event.
My guess is he’ll have some kind of discussion with Stephanie McMahon, who will grant him the first entry spot in the Royal Rumble—logistically the worst possible number to draw—and he’ll have to either take it or leave it.
After that, Rollins will fight his way through many opponents before Triple H will come into the mix to screw him over, costing him his chance to main event WrestleMania and rekindling their feud.
This will be one of the biggest stories of the evening, as their match at WrestleMania will be one of the biggest bouts of the night.
#6 Samoa Joe
I am completely convinced Samoa Joe will be interfering in the WWE Championship match to cost John Cena his 16th world title, so much so that all of my predictions for this event, Elimination Chamber, Fastlane and WrestleMania hinge upon that happening.
With him not scheduled to make an appearance at NXT TakeOver: San Antonio and Cena’s tendency to only lose matches due to some kind of shenanigans, it seems as though this is being served up on a platter.
The two of them have exchanged pleasantries over the years about wanting to feud with each other and Joe has nothing left to do in NXT, so when he comes up to the main roster, why wouldn’t WWE want to pair these two up?
Plus, there’s the possibility that Joe competes in the Royal Rumble match itself, too. If by some reason he doesn’t cost Cena the title, Joe then shoots up to my top pick to win the Royal Rumble match, as that would ensure the match between AJ Styles and The Undertaker still goes on.
In some way, Joe is going to make a huge impact on the main event of SmackDown and the WWE Championship, whether he’s helping Styles out or he’s earning an opportunity to challenge Cena.
#7 Neville
With all of this talk about the Royal Rumble match, it’s easy to lose sight of the other matches on the card. While Bayley could potentially upset Charlotte to end her pay-per-view streak and the Raw Tag Team Championship may change hands, I think it’s much more likely to see a change in the Cruiserweight division.
Neville is far superior to Rich Swann in many ways, most notably being popularity. As a babyface, Swann may get a pop, but Neville is the more established star by far.
Putting the Cruiserweight Championship on him is an inevitability and it might as well happen sooner than later, as there’s nothing preventing Swann from losing the title here. Giving the belt to Neville goes with how he’s been booked since his return, and it doesn’t make Swann look like a transitional champion as his reign has been long enough.
Any time somebody wins a Championship, it’s hard to argue against them being one of the biggest stars of the evening, even if there’s a possibility WWE may neglect to talk much about it, while it’s focused on telling the stories of some of the other things that happened at the event.
Neville isn’t going to be the first man out on Monday Night Raw to talk about what happened at the pay-per-view, but this should be the start of his domination on 205 Live and the Cruiserweight division as a whole.
#8 James Ellsworth
Currently, James Ellsworth is in the void of Superstars who aren’t confirmed for the show, but with several spots in the Royal Rumble match still available, I can’t imagine one of them not going to him.
He’s the comedic jobber character that WWE loves to utilise during this match every single year. Just look back at the history of the match and you’ll see Santino Marella, Ricardo Rodriguez, and others put in the position of “total loser” which is where Ellsworth will shine.
It’s hard to tell whether WWE will book him as a super fast elimination or if it won’t be able to resist the urge of having him take somebody big out of the equation due to the sheer shock value behind it, but one of those things is going to happen.
Look out for Ellsworth to either be the next entrant to join the match after a powerhouse like Braun Strowman or Brock Lesnar cleans house, or, alternatively, Ellsworth could be the sole man in the ring celebrating and then a look of horror washes over his face as he sees who is coming out next.
There’s absolutely no way Ellsworth sits this show out and given his character traits and the amount of attention he garners on SmackDown, he’ll be a featured jobber in the match for sure.
Who do you think will stand out as the top stars of the 2017 Royal Rumble event? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!
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