5 men who will definitely not win the Royal Rumble match but should

#1 Rusev

Do I even have to write anything more than just his name? Since his arrival 4 years ago in the Royal Rumble match, Rusev has been nothing but stellar. He has knocked it out of the park each and every time WWE has given him a shot, yet they seem unwilling to pull the trigger. I don’t know if it’s a situation like Cesaro -- he’s foreign, so they don’t want him getting over as a good guy, plus his accent is strong, so they don’t think he can talk well enough?

I don’t know what the reasoning could possibly be because Rusev has everything you want in a top superstar. He’s big, he’s charismatic, he can wrestle, and the crowd pays attention when he is on the screen or in the ring.

Look who just shut down all of Tony Khan's critics! More HERE.

His recent “Rusev Day” gimmick has become a huge hit with the fans. It was probably just going to be a throwaway segment and WWE didn’t likely think much of it, but suddenly it blew up. Now he’s got a shirt that’s selling out in arenas and online and a fanbase inside every arena that goes absolutely nuts for him and are just begging for him to win every time he has a match.

WWE still seems intent on keeping him as a bad guy and are relegating him to a tag team. It’s a good team -- he and Aiden English are a great pair -- but it’s beneath the place Rusev should be. It would be a crime for Rusev to never break out as a top star in WWE. The iron is extremely hot right now. Strike, WWE! Strike!

About the author

I got my first big break writing for 411Mania back in 2004. I did a small spot in a big weekly piece that was written by one of the site's top writers. I quickly added the duty of being the live recapper for episodes of SmackDown, and in 2005 was given my own weekly column, which I did for a few years. I gave up writing (mostly) to start a family but got back into it, still at 411, a little over 3 years later. For another couple of years, I wrote 2-3 columns per week for the website before finding paid work elsewhere, and eventually wound up at SportsKeeda.

I am also the co-founder of the RBR: Weekly Wrestling Talk podcast, which started in the summer of 2005 and is still going strong today, almost 15 years later. Due to school, work, and family commitments, I left the team in 2011 but still remain a part of the family.

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Edited by Akhilesh Tirumala