5 Possible Winners of the Royal Rumble match

Royal Rumble is one of the most important PPVs of the year. The road to WrestleMania in tangible terms really starts from here and the Royal Rumble match is probably the most exciting and intriguing match because of the possibilities that are attached to it.

What makes the match all the more exciting is the stakes that are attached to it. The Royal Rumble match winner ends up headlining The Grandest Stage of Them All, Wrestlemania and more often than not becomes the WWE Champion.

Another interesting aspect is the return of many old timers and debut of some great ones (most recently the Phenomenal One, AJ Styles) in this match which adds both to the nostalgia and the excitement around this match.

Last year, we had Shinsuke Nakamura win his first ever Royal Rumble and go on to challenge AJ Styles at Wrestlemania and this year as well, there is a plethora of candidate who can go on to win and bring in completely new storylines with them.

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#1 Seth Rollins

Seth Rollins is

rumored

to be Brock Lesnar's next opponent for the WWE Universal title at Wrestlemania 35

Seeds are already sown for something like this to happen in the most recent edition of Raw where Triple H confronted Seth Rollins. There have been very strong rumors of Seth Rollins going up against Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania for the Universal Title.

It is highly likely that to reach that the most obvious route is by winning the Royal Rumble and then challenging the beast Incarnate at WrestleMania. This makes Seth pretty much the out and our favourite to win the Royal Rumble this time around. But how many times have we seen the out and out favourite actually not win the Rumble?

#2 Drew Mcintyre

Drew McIntyre looks all ready for the main event push

WWE always keeps a contingency plan ready and it became a bit obvious when Drew McIntyre pretty much dominated Dolph Ziggler in their steel cage match and ended his feud with him.

WWE is keeping Drew McIntyre Ready for that main event push if the push with Seth Rollins doesn't get as much traction as it is supposed to (the lingering Roman Reigns factor could play a role in that).

Even at the last minute, WWE can decide against going with Rollins and instead pick Drew who himself would be a pretty good choice and has proven himself to be more than capable in handling the main event.

Even Drew on his part, when you look at him, looks like a complete package in every which way. He's damn good in the ring and he has a charisma which is just hard to teach to anybody.

#3 Finn Balor

Finn Balor is expected to get the main event push and a win at Royal Rumble would serve him good

Finn Balor has been able to put together a string of wins in the last one month and that too against an unstoppable Force like Drew McIntyre. If we talk about the WWE championship picture then at SmackDown we don't see that many Babyfaces, so much so that WWE has called up Mustafa Ali to be (potentially) the next person Daniel Bryan will feud against.

Finn on his part does fit SmackDown a tad more than Raw(Raw is pretty much dominated by big heavy guys) and there have been news of Finn getting a push (finally). If Finn wins the Royal Rumble it could ultimately give him the chance to move to SmackDown (which he definitely should) and have a WrestleMania championship Match with Daniel Bryan which actually has the potential of being a classic in every respect.

#4 Kevin Owens

Kevin Owens is slated to make a return to wrestling soon

Kevin Owens has always played the role of the joker admirably throughout his career. He could play that role yet again in the Royal Rumble. R-Truth is expected to be the 30th entry in the Royal Rumble. Kevin Owens could just beat up R-Truth when he's marching in the ring and enter the Royal Rumble as his replacement and win.

WWE has teased Kevin Owens' return on numerous occasions and him making an entry at No. 30 and winning the Royal Rumble could be the biggest POP in the PPV where Braun Strowman is scheduled to lose yet again at the hand of Brock Lesnar.

It would also be a good storyline to return to for Kevin Owens who has proven himself again and again and should be considered among the top performers in WWE. Plus it will also be something fresh for the fans after an occasionally stale product dished out by the WWE.

#5 Lars Sullivan

Lars Sullivan's debut on the main roster has been teased for more than a month now

It's been more than a month since WWE started teasing Lars Sullivan's introduction to the main roster and ever since the McMahon shakedown things have died down a bit in terms of the hype around Sullivan but it is well documented that Sullivan is going to be booked for a major push whenever he steps on to the roster.

Could it be Lars Sullivan who steps into his very first Royal Rumble and wins it? It would be a huge statement that WWE will make if they go ahead with something like this and it would be a big shock if that happens. Debuts don't get much bigger than this if it happens but will WWE do something like this and put him straight into the main event picture leapfrogging the likes of Drew McIntyre? It's a tough question to answer.