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The men's Royal Rumble match is the most exciting and entertaining match in WWE's entire calendar year. Well, it used to be. Since 2013, The Royal Rumble match has been underwhelming at best. John Cena won the 2013 version in the most predictable way and the Rumble match even took a backseat to CM Punk and The Rock's WWE Title match. The 2014 and 2015 editions were two of the worsts in history as the crowds in both cases booed the winners Batista and Roman Reigns, respectively.
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The 2016 and 2017 edition somewhat revived the match as Triple H and Randy Orton won their 2nd Rumble matches. But fans celebrated Roman Reigns not winning the match more than Triple H and Orton actually winning. The 2018 version actually exceeded expectations as fan favourite Shinsuke Nakamura shocked the world by winning the match.
Now with Roman Reigns sadly out of the picture, the 2019 Rumble match can have a completely different selling point as most Rumble matches revolved around Reigns' involvement. So as another unpredictable Rumble match lingers on the horizon, let's try and predict all 30 entrants from both Raw and SmackDown as well as surprises.
#30. John Cena
Let's get Cena out of the way first as he is the only 'free agent' who is certain to participate in the Rumble match. Cena announced his participation on the January 7th Episode of Monday Night Raw.
As far as I am concerned, Cena will not only be a big player in the match but a favourite to actually win the entire thing if Seth Rollins doesn't win it. A family feud against Daniel Bryan with both Bellas involved sounds like Sports-Entertainment Gold.
From the Raw roster:
#29. Drew McIntyre - Drew McIntyre was the first person to announce his participation in the Rumble match. He announced it on the December 24th episode of Raw and is currently the second favorite to win the Rumble match after Seth Rollins according to internet odds.
#28. Finn Balor - Balor announced his participation on WWE's twitter page on 4th January. Balor is also one of the more favored participants in the match. Fans would love to see him win the Rumble match after he has had a rough couple of years.
#27. Seth Rollins - Rollins announced his participation in the match at a live event on 4th January. He is currently the favorite to win the Royal Rumble match according to Betting Odds. He is also favored both in the eyes of fans and WWE management as WWE will look to push him as the face of the company in Roman Reigns' absence.
#26. Dean Ambrose - Intercontinental Champion Dean Ambrose announced his participation on WWE's twitter page on 6th January.
#25. Bobby Lashley - Lashley announced his participation in the Rumble Match at a Live Event on 6th January.
#24. Elias - Elias announced his participation in the Rumble Match on the January 7th Episode of Raw.
#23. Jinder Mahal - Mahal announced his participation in the Rumble Match on the January 7th Episode of Raw.
#22. Baron Corbin - Corbin announced his participation in the Rumble Match on the January 7th Episode of Raw.
#21. Apollo Crews - Crews announced his participation in the Rumble Match on the January 7th Episode of Raw in a WWE.com exclusive backstage interview.
#20. Dolph Ziggler - Ziggler has not announced himself for the match but come on. He will be in the match. He will spend quite a few minutes before being thrown out by one of the big names.
From the SmackDown Roster:
#19. R-Truth - R-Truth won the right to participate in the Rumble and enter at the #30 position by winning the Mixed Match Challenge.
#18, #17 and #16. The New Day - The New Day announced their participation in the Rumble match on the January 1st episode of SmackDown.
#15. Jeff Hardy - Hardy announced his participation in the Rumble match on WWE's official Twitter page.
#14. Samoa Joe - Joe announced his participation in the Rumble match on WWE's official Twitter page.
#13. Andrade Cien Almas - Almas announced his participation in the Rumble match on Zelina Vega's official Twitter page.
#12. Mustafa Ali - Ali announced his participation in the Rumble match on his official Twitter page.
#11. Rey Mysterio - Mysterio announced his participation in the Rumble match on the January 8th episode of SmackDown.
#10. Randy Orton - Orton is someone WWE will most certainly want in the Rumble match. He hasn't made it official yet but we can expect it in the coming days.
#9. AJ Styles - AJ Styles will face Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble. I don't believe WWE will be taking the title off of Bryan any time soon so that would free up AJ to participate in the Rumble later in the night, which I believe he will.
Surprise Returns and Debuts:
#8. Bray Wyatt - This spot was either between Bray or Matt Hardy. But as we saw Bray wrestle at Starrcade back in November, I chose to go with him. Also since predicting completely out-of-the-blue surprises like The Hurricane last year is near impossible.
#7. Kevin Owens - If you visit Kevin Owens' twitter page you will find a completely black profile picture and his name set as "Soon?" Initially, his injury was supposed to keep him out for 8 months. Thus his return should have been sometime in February. But WWE started promoting his return from December. Moreover, he was recently photographed and looked to have lost a lot of weight over his hiatus. Thus it is a good possibility that KO makes it in time for the Rumble and sets himself on the road to Wrestlemania.
#6. Sami Zayn - We just talked about Kevin Owens, so it's only fitting we talk about Sami Zayn now. Zayn has been out since June. He successfully underwent double rotator cuff repair surgery and is currently in rehab. A quick google search will tell you that the healing period from such a surgery is 4-6 weeks. It's been 7 months since we last saw Zayn. He should be in more than good enough shape by now. If you ask me, his return is more probable than KO's at the Rumble.
#5. Velveteen Dream - NXT has some amazing characters. Some incredible performers play truly captivating gimmicks for our entertainment. But none of those characters are quite like Velveteen Dream. Now Velveteen is the least likely to actually appear on the show among all 30 people I have here. I will even say that he will most likely NOT appear. Dream will also be participating in the When Worlds Collide tournament that will be held on the day of the Rumble. But still, if WWE needed someone from NXT to make an impression on the Rumble, Dream is the guy. I really don't want Ciampa or Gargano to be exposed to the main roster in this underwhelming fashion so, despite my best judgment, I will go with Dream
#4. Aleister Black - Black is an amazing wrestler. He is an amazing character and even an amazing promo. He has every tool necessary to succeed on the main roster and this, I believe, will be his official introduction to the WWE Universe. As one of NXT's top stars who has done basically everything he can on NXT, he will likely get called up after Wrestlemania. So just a little tease before a full-time shift cannot hurt.
#3. EC3 - EC3 and Lars Sullivan were announced as Main Roster call-ups late last year. But unlike Sullivan, who is rumored to be dealing with anxiety issues, EC3 actually made his debut at the taping of Main Event earlier this month. Also given his natural charisma and his looks, he is an obvious choice to debut at the Rumble. Someone like him can really benefit from making his debut to a huge pop and let his charisma take him from there.
#2. Kurt Angle - We haven't seen Angle since December when he defeated Corbin on Raw. WWE can get a gigantic pop from the crowd if they allow Angle in the Rumble match. He will definitely have a program heading into Wrestlemania and his return at the Rumble can just set seeds for it. A match against Drew McIntyre seems likely and returning to stop a rampaging McIntyre and eliminating him seems perfect for the story.
#1. Braun Strowman - Technically, Braun should have been on the Raw page. But I kept him for last because that is exactly where I expect him to appear at the Rumble. Brock Lesnar won't be losing his title so close to Wrestlemania, there is no way he will. So a furious Braun Strowman somehow replacing R-Truth at #30 and entering the Rumble fresh while everyone is tired is wrestling done right. Suppose the following scenario, R-Truth mistakenly enters the Women's Royal Rumble at #30. He is kicked out by the referees and Carmella isn't allowed in since Truth already took the spot. The officials give Carmella the Men's #30 spot jokingly and a furious Carmella rejects it. The #30 is kept ambiguous and we find out it's Braun at the very end.
