While WWE’s WrestleMania is the prettiest person at the party, the Royal Rumble is the one you talk
about endlessly.
It starts right after the holidays and doesn’t stop until the last wrestler is hurled over the top rope.
Who has declared? Where is the booking going? Which feuds have the legs to last until Mania? What needs to be set up, and how are they going to blow this again?
In our house, Rumble talk infects every text chain, every breakfast, every late night on the couch.
“Do you think they strap a rocket to Oba Femi?”
“How can anybody still want Roman to win?”
“What would you do with Jericho?”
Endless questions, theories, debates and ideas. It’s the best time of the wrestling year, and while it’s not always pretty, it’s always memorable. So I think the best way to preview this event is to invite you into one of these discussions with my 16-year-old son, Cole.
Chris: So, Cole, where do we start with this event?
Cole: This year’s Rumble is a four-match card, consisting of AJ Styles vs Gunther in what may be Styles’ final match, Drew McIntyre vs Sami Zayn for the WWE Championship, and the two Royal Rumble matches.
Let’s begin with the women’s Rumble. There are many questions surrounding this year’s match, the most obvious being whether Bianca Belair is healthy enough to compete. I have also been wondering if a younger star, such as Roxanne Perez or Giulia, will win, or if that honour will go to a more established talent. People often wonder if there will be a breakout star in the Royal Rumble, but this year, I feel the veterans in the women’s Rumble are stronger than ever.
This being the case, I believe that either Liv Morgan or Bianca Belair will win the 2026 Women’s Royal Rumble. Morgan has been on a roll since her return at Survivor Series late last year, picking up a number of wins and challenging for the Women’s Tag Team Championships at the most recent Saturday Night’s Main Event. Though Liv is already a multiple-time World Champion, 2026 feels like it could be her breakout year. A returning Belair, on the other hand, is already one of WWE’s top stars and thus would be a heavy favourite to win the Rumble should she compete.
Chris: I guess one thing that needs to be considered is what comes next. The winners of the Rumbles are parachuted into the main event of WrestleMania and guaranteed a title shot. When looking at the field, I always try to think about who would comfortably fit on the poster next to the current champion. You propose Belair and Morgan — should either of them win, who do you see them dancing with at Mania?
Cole: Should Belair win the Rumble, she would most likely target the WWE Women’s Champion, Jade Cargill, due to their previous history as a tag team and subsequent split. These two have never faced each other in a one-on-one match before, and would likely have great chemistry. If Morgan were to win, she would likely challenge the Women’s World Champion Stephanie Vaquer, and try to regain the title she lost to Rhea Ripley on the RAW Netflix debut. As the Belair/Cargill story would be more intricate and interesting, Bianca Belair is my official pick to win the 2026 women’s Royal Rumble.
Chris: As boring as it is to agree, if Bianca Belair is healthy, it’s hard to argue with that booking. Just looking at her and Jade, picturing them on the poster facing off, you can see how this is the biggest women’s match that’s yet to happen in the WWE, but if her broken finger hasn’t healed, that opens the field. My long-shot pick would be the recently-promoted Jordynne Grace, whom I recently ran into at the Thornhill Community Centre, while she was still the TNA Women’s Champion. She looked like a star then, and she looks like a star now. Seeds have already been planted for a feud with Cargill, and this could be a way to catapult her into the main event picture.
Moving on, we have AJ Styles vs Gunther in a match that could cost Styles his career. It was only a few days ago that we watched Styles light it up with CM Punk at the ACC in Toronto. Do you believe that this might have been one of AJ’s final matches, or will he find a way to defeat the conquering Austrian giant?
Cole: Considering the fact that Gunther has recently ended the legendary careers of both
Goldberg and John Cena, it wouldn’t be unimaginable to see him add AJ Styles to that list.
Though it hasn’t been as formal as John Cena’s, we have been seeing something of an AJ Styles’ retirement tour has been over the past number of months. He has faced old rivals such as Shinsuke Nakamura and John Cena, squared off against dream opponents such as CM Punk and the Usos, and worked with younger talents such as Dominik Mysterio and Je’von Evans.
Since AJ Styles made his WWE debut in the Royal Rumble in 2016, it would be poetic to see him end his career at the same event 10 years later.
Chris: Yes, while John Cena had himself announced as the greatest wrestler of all time for almost a year, and had the longest and most formal farewell in WWE history, Styles has quietly been checking off all the last dances we’d want to see. Ending it all here, while he is still at the top of his game, with a full head of hair, and without pompous fanfare, would be a very Styles thing to do. And the opponent is perfect. On your way out, you want to give the next right guy the rub, and for Styles to be the next notch on Gunther’s legend-killin’ belt would help the villain reach the next level of fan abhorrence. As he’s always done, Styles would be leaving the territory in better shape than he found it.
Next up, we have the only championship match on the card, as Sami Zayn will be challenging Drew McIntyre for the WWE Championship. Zayn won a fatal four-way match in his hometown of Montreal to earn the opportunity and has considerable fan support going into this match, especially as it is in Saudi Arabia (Zayn is the son of Syrian migrants). Despite Zayn’s home court advantage, I believe Drew McIntyre will retain the championship in this match. Drew has worked extremely hard to win another world championship in front of fans, and it would be a significant letdown to see him lose the title after only a month.
Cole: Zayn seems to have a home court advantage wherever he wrestles! He is perhaps the most
beloved superstar on the roster, and one that fans can’t wait to see hoist the WWE title. Their feud has been building over the past few weeks, but the question is, will they be able to heat it up enough to make it WrestleMania main event worthy? Can they shift focus from the Drew/Jacob Fatu/Cody Rhodes blood feud to make space for Zayn at the top of the card? Sadly, I don’t see it happening in this match. They seem to have caught lightning in a bottle with the Cody/Drew/Fatu story, and it seems more likely that this has the legs to make it to Mania with Drew as champ. They could, of course, take the title out of the equation with this feud and still have it white hot, or they could pay it off at the Elimination Chamber at the end of February, but my bet is that Drew McIntyre retains in a schmozz, with Jacob and Cody crashing the party.
Chris: This leaves us with the Men’s Rumble match, which should sit in the main event slot of the evening. In past years, it was often easy to predict where they were going with this match, but this event feels different. There have been a good half-dozen superstars elevated to the highest level, where it would be both believable and desirable for them to land in the main event. From established main eventers like Rhodes, Brock Lesnar, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns to blisteringly hot up-and-comers like Oba Femi, Bron Breakker, and Jacob Fatu, the field is wide open. When looking at this match, what factors do you take into account when picking your winner?
Cole: First of all, I would like the Royal Rumble winner to be someone I would actually like to see win. This immediately rules out names like Reigns, Rollins, and Lesnar, who wouldn’t benefit from the Rumble victory in the same way as a younger star, and are already past their prime. I would also like to see a fresh new storyline coming out of the Rumble, elevating names like Breakker, Femi, and Fatu to the top of my list. In my opinion, Jacob Fatu should win this year’s men’s Royal Rumble match. I feel it would be a massive achievement for Jacob so early in his career and a way to continue his feud with Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes.
Chris: Oh, I like that. Fatu has looked like a top star from the moment he joined the company, and dominating the Rumble, unleashing his rage on all of the top guys on the roster, would light a fire. Traditionally, the wrestler who dominates the Rumble doesn’t win — year after year, we had to suffer through Kane taking out all of our favourite young stars just to be dumped unceremoniously by the eventual winner — so having Fatu dominate and win would feel significant. I think doing this with Femi could also be territory-shaking. To take a former NXT champion who has yet to win a match on the main roster, and throw him right back into the Cody/Drew triangle that formed during his appearance at John Cena’s Final Match Spectacular, would be unprecedented, unexpected, and unbelievable. WWE rarely straps this kind of rocket on a young star, and when they do, they traditionally go all in. Is this the right time? Is Femi that kind of generational talent? Yes. But I still say it won’t happen. They’ll get cold feet and go with an easier answer. Will it be Roman, Seth, Cody, Lesnar? Will they pull the brakes on the new generation to lean again on an aging superstar who has already reached the mountaintop? I don’t think so, either. I think the recent spate of retirements has made clear that the future is now. So what does that leave? I see a final foursome of Bron Breakker, Sami Zayn, Oba Femi and
Jacob Fatu. And in a shocker, the best wrestler on the roster to never win a world title comes out on top. Sami Zayn, your 2026 Royal Rumble winner. And who does he choose the face at WrestleMania? That will have to wait until we work up the nerve to approach the prettiest person at the party…
The WWE Royal Rumble airs live on Netflix internationally and on ESPN+ starting at 2 pm ET this Saturday.
