We’re in the very early stages of building to the 2016 Royal Rumble match, but over the next few weeks, things will go from virtually endless possibilities to an obvious direction. While there will undoubtedly still be a level of unpredictability heading into the match on January 24th, the picture will have become much clearer, which will take away much of the speculation.
That being said, since we’re still far enough away from the event to not know exactly how things will pan out, we should take the time to let our imaginations run wild. Only two people have been confirmed as participants in the Royal Rumble (Big Show and Curtis Axel), but who do we think will actually end up winning the entire thing?
For the first 3-Count of 2016, I figured it would be a fitting subject to tackle the top three wrestlers who I feel are early favorites to earn that coveted title match at WrestleMania 32.
3) Kevin Owens
The beginning of 2015 was just the start of an incredible year for Kevin Owens as he had recently made his debut on NXT and was already at the top of the card. His meteoric rise is astounding and while I think 2016 won’t see as drastic of a surge for him (mostly because there’s little room for him to grow), I do think that this is going to be a fantastic year for him.
Going into the Royal Rumble, he’s easily one of the top heels who is also credible enough to justify beating 29 other stars. Multiple times in 2015, he and Roman Reigns clashed and the fans were super into it, so why not trust that they can pull off a great match for WrestleMania? Keep in mind that while he just dropped the Intercontinental Championship to Dean Ambrose, that’s not necessarily a bad thing if it was WWE’s means to separate him from the midcard in preparation for this main event push.
2) Brock Lesnar
I’ll flat out state that I don’t want this to happen, even though I think it’s one of the most likely options. We’ve already seen Lesnar and Reigns fight at last year’s WrestleMania and I have no interest in seeing a repeat. Even worse, I think this would undo a lot of the momentum that Reigns has been building up over the past few months. The fans are finally starting to get behind him, so why would you want to put him up against someone who is clearly going to be cheered over him?
Still, Lesnar is one of the top draws and will obviously have a prominent role at WrestleMania in some fashion, so with the amount of people out with injuries, the chances of him winning are even higher than before. I’ll be disappointed if he wins, as I think a better option for him would be a match against Kevin Owens, but I also wouldn’t be surprised at all if he stands tall at the end of the night.
1) Triple H
Right now, my odds on favorite to win is the COO himself, and it’s pretty self-explanatory why. His feud with Roman Reigns is something that is being set up in a way that there needs to be a proper payoff for and I cannot imagine WWE will be throwing away a match between the two at Fastlane.
Keep in mind that they could have Reigns vs. Triple H at WrestleMania without having the title on the line. It’s possible that Reigns drops the belt at some point before WrestleMania and we have those two face off in a match unrelated to the championship and Royal Rumble situation, which could feature two entirely different people. I wouldn’t hold my breath for that, though, as it would mean that Reigns would have had two quick title runs, we’d need to set up a new champion, a new challenger, and both of those guys would have to be just as big if not bigger names to justify putting them in the main event. That sure as hell is not happening with Sheamus going into WrestleMania as the champion to face someone like Neville, so it’s just a simpler option to have Triple H abuse his power and want to personally dethrone Reigns at the biggest show of the year.
Those are just my thoughts at the moment, but since there’s still so much left to be built, we all probably have a lot of different ideas of what could happen. Tell us who you think are the top 3 most likely winners at the moment and which people you’d prefer to see win the Royal Rumble in the comments below!
UPDATE: With the big change from Monday Night Raw where Roman Reigns will be defending the championship in the Royal Rumble match itself, I’d have to imagine this solidifies Triple H winning here if Roman doesn’t retain the title.
