Next Sunday is the thirty-first annual Royal Rumble. The event is the second most important pay-per-view of the year for World Wrestling Entertainment.
The winner of the thirty man, over the top rope Battle Royal is guaranteed a world championship main event match at WrestleMania. The show will also feature the first ever Women’s Royal Rumble match. We here at The Scrum Sports decided to list our picks for who’s going to win both Rumble matches.
David-
The Historic Women’s Royal Rumble: Bayley will be the “Iron Woman”, lasting almost the entire match. Ronda Rousey *insert boos* will win it all, setting up her up with a WrestleMania WWE Woman’s Championship match with Asuka.
Men’s: EC3 makes his debut, as well as Dave Bautista. But the long shot (I love rumors) & my favorite pick is…. Daniel Bryan, who returns & wins it all! If not, Shinsuke Nakamura should & needs to win it all.
Gene-
Women’s: My mind wants to say Asuka and my heart says Becky Lynch, I know WWE won’t be able to help themselves. The winner will likely be Nia Jax.
Men’s: I can see Finn Balor winning. But instead of challenging the beast, he shows up on SmackDown Live two nights later, along with Gallows and Anderson. He decides to make a friendly challenge to AJ Styles for his WWE Championship. The friendly rivalry becomes unfriendly very fast. The Club turns on AJ and Balor makes a much needed heel turn. Balor vs. Styles at Mania would be a classic.
Joel-
Women’s: Asuka. The Empress is Crowned…Unless…
Surprise Entry: Ronda Rousey
If this happens, I don’t see how she doesn’t win and give us a ‘Mania program with Charlotte for the title.
Men’s Winner: Shinsuke Nakamura. It’s time. Enough of this dancing around what the fans want, it’s AJ and Nakamura for the strap at ‘Mania, Naka wins.
Surprise Entries: EC3, Batista. These seem like locks from what I’m hearing and reading.
Marcus-
Women’s: Asuka* *Assuming Ronda Rousey doesn’t debut Asuka winning the Rumble would continue Asuka’s dominance angle. We’ll see drama with Nia Jax, Charlotte, Molly Holly, and whomever else is yet to be announced. This could be wrecked if Ronda Rousey does indeed debut at the Rumble.
Men’s: Roman Reigns. The reason is it’s been long rumored that Roman has been long looked at to become the new face of the WWE. John Cena is transitioning into Hollywood ala The Rock and someone has to fill the void. While the fan base hasn’t embraced Roman fully, the brass has. Brock Lesnar is apparently returning to UFC and is likely done with the WWE. Roman winning the Rumble and winning the title at WrestleMania is the ideal game plan for Roman to become the face. It’s unclear whether Roman being named as a steroid user will wreck this plan but as of yet, WWE has been mum on the topic. I don’t see why things won’t proceed.
Nathan-
Women’s: My hands down pick for the first ever Women’s Royal Rumble is Asuka. It has to be her. For a woman who beat Goldberg’s undefeated streak, of course her first main roster championship crowning should be at WrestleMania.
Men’s: The men’s Royal Rumble match is a lot harder to guess, so I’ll go with a personal wish, Finn Balor. This would be perfect for him at this point. His injury screwed the first ever Universal Champion, plus this would give the WWE writers (who obviously don’t have any idea what to do with him right now) an easy story to write for the road to WrestleMania.
Ryan-
MEN’S: THE MIZ loses to Reigns earlier in the night, enters at 30, and wins his first Rumble in controversial fashion.
WOMEN’S: BECKY LYNCH eliminates NIA JAX to win the first ever Women’s Royal Rumble.
Trevor-
Women’s: Asuka or a surprise entrant…cough cough… Rhonda Rousey cough cough.
Men’s: I feel like you really have two choices, Finn Balor or Shinsuke Nakamura. Both are rising stars and Finn seems to be getting put back into the scene since he got paired up with Anderson and Gallows to fully form the Balor Club. Nakamura is a interesting person, he was pushed hard in NXT. When he was brought up he got fed to Jinder Mahal. Lately it seems he is being pushed a little bit more. Either guy could win this.
Who are your picks to win the Royal Rumble matches this year? Submit your picks in the comments. Let us know your thoughts.
