5 men who could eliminate John Cena from the 2018 Royal Rumble

While the 2017 WWE Royal Rumble was built around The Undertaker, Brock Lesnar and Goldberg, the weeks leading up to the 2018 men’s match have surrounded the inclusion of ‘free agent’ John Cena.

Samoa Joe and Elias have both proclaimed in recent weeks that they will eliminate the 16-time World champion from the Rumble, though Joe is now almost certain to miss the match due to a foot injury.

So, will Elias really be the one to throw Cena over the top rope? Or will “The Face That Runs The Place” outlast everyone and go on to win his third Rumble?

In this article, assuming Cena doesn’t emerge victorious in Philadelphia, let’s take a look at five WWE Superstars who are most likely to eliminate him.

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#5 Roman Reigns

Roman Reigns defeated John Cena at No Mercy 2017

Roman Reigns vs. John Cena was a dream feud that many fans had expected to see one day in the main event of WrestleMania with the WWE Championship on the line.

Instead, however, the ‘torch-passing’ moment, where Reigns defeated Cena clean, happened at No Mercy 2017 in the sixth match on an eight-match show and with no title being defended.

Although that encounter brought an end to their short-lived on-screen rivalry, the two men fought at an MSG live event in December and they are scheduled to meet in a Triple Threat match with The Miz at another MSG show in March.

That opens up the small possibility of the feud being reignited between now and WrestleMania. Admittedly, it’s unlikely to cross over on-screen, which is why Reigns features fifth on this list, but you never know!

#4 Elias

Elias is determined to eliminate John Cena

Elias was the first person to announce his participation in the 2018 men’s Royal Rumble and he has since made it his mission to eliminate John Cena – the man he was defeated by on the Christmas Day episode of Raw – from the match.

The man formerly known as “The Drifter” had the last laugh ahead of the Rumble by reversing an Attitude Adjustment to strike Cena with a low-blow in the middle of the Barclays Centre ring on Raw 25.

In all likelihood, Cena will be the one to eliminate Elias from the match on Sunday. But, Rumble rules being Rumble rules, someone who has already been thrown over the top rope is allowed to eliminate active participants, so we can’t rule out Elias re-entering the ring to get a sneaky elimination on his rival.

#3 8+ people

Multi-people matches guarantee chaos

Every so often in a Royal Rumble match, multiple people gang up on a certain Superstar who is difficult to eliminate and they join forces to throw said Superstar over the top rope.

John Cena is still the most high-profile active performer involved in WWE and it’ll be a pretty big deal if he gets eliminated from the Rumble, so could it take more than one person to throw him out on Sunday?

The current record was set in 2007 when eight people (Chris Benoit, CM Punk, Edge, Hardcore Holly, Johnny Nitro, Kevin Thorn, Rob Van Dam and Shelton Benjamin) all worked together to eliminate Viscera.

#2 Shinsuke Nakamura

Shinsuke Nakamura defeated John Cena in August 2017

Shinsuke Nakamura has had an underwhelming first year on the main roster but he is still among the favourites to win the 2018 Royal Rumble, with a never-before-seen WWE match against AJ Styles potentially on the horizon.

“The King of Strong Style” has picked up a couple of statement victories on SmackDown Live since his call-up from NXT in April 2017, most notably against John Cena in August and Randy Orton in September, and it’d be another huge statement if he eliminated Cena from the Rumble.

If this happens, expect it to be the final elimination before Nakamura is crowned the winner. Cena is notoriously a late entrant and he has either won or finished runner-up in four of his last five Rumble matches.

#1 The Undertaker

The Undertaker still hasn't officially retired

After nine months of waiting, the WWE Universe finally saw and heard from The Undertaker for the first time since WrestleMania 33 when he appeared at Raw 25 on Monday.

He slowly made his way to the Manhattan Centre ring, mic in hand, and with the sold-out arena and millions of fans around the world waiting for his every word, “The Deadman” revealed… absolutely nothing about his future.

We all hoped for some kind of clarification on his ‘retirement’ at the end of last year’s “Show of Shows”, but all we got was a few cryptic words.

‘Taker is still expected to face John Cena at WrestleMania 34, perhaps in the final match of his career, and the most likely way to kick-start the feud would be by having him interfere in the Royal Rumble to eliminate the man who he has never faced on the grand ‘Mania stage.