WWE is a strange animal in 2022. Somehow with five hours of weekly content across two national TV channels, WWE has managed to not really make any stars in the last year. WWE has a massive deficit of any kind of star power, and with the 2022 Royal Rumble almost here it shows. There are usually a few good ideas for Rumble winners, but this year it’s anyone’s guess really. While the card for the show doesn’t look bad, it’s hard to feel excited for the Rumble when the Royal Rumble match itself has no worthy victor. Part of the fun of the Rumble is playing the guessing game as to who might win, but that’s only fun when there are fun options for a winner.
Still, WWE isn’t completely without hope. They still boast a few gems who could prove good options and some that would even make sense narratively. Here are WWE’s best choices for 2022 Royal Rumble winners.
Who Should Win the 2022 Royal Rumble Matches?
Women’s: Bianca Belair
WWE’s handling of Bianca Belair this last year has certainly been… interesting. Things were going well with a Rumble win last year, rounded off with a Wrestlemania win over Sasha Banks for the SmackDown Women’s Championship. What followed was a fairly decent first title run which saw Belair square off with and defeat several SmackDown names including former Women’s Champion Bayley. Unfortunately, Bianca lost the title in an unceremonious fashion when she lost to Becky Lynch in just 26 seconds at SummerSlam. Bianca has a perfect opportunity to redeem her loss against Lynch. If Belair were to win the Royal Rumble for the second year in a row, and then go on to dethrone Becky Lynch at WrestleMania, she could finally slay the demon that has been haunting her since August.
We already know she can handle the pressure, as she did so just last year. However, this time it’d be against an entirely different opponent. One who thus far has had her number every time they’ve faced each other. It’s a story that practically tells itself.
Men’s: Big E
Our next choice is another person who finds themselves in an odd booking dilemma. In 2021, Big E had seemingly finally risen to the potential everyone had seen in him. After winning Money in the Bank and cashing in on Bobby Lashley, he had finally achieved the pinnacle of his career so far when he won the WWE Championship for the first time in his career. Unlike Bianca Belair though, Big E was not booked very strongly during his reign. Even the way he won the championship was questionable at best, with him cashing in on an injured Lashley after he had already wrestled a match. It never really seemed like the company had faith in him, which is unfortunate considering his talent.
With that said. Big E did a marvelous job of carrying the company name in public appearances. He was everything one could possibly want in a champion, carrying himself with the utmost class and confidence. If WWE has their mind about it, now could be a great time to pull the trigger they missed months ago. Give Big E the Royal Rumble win and let him finally challenge Lashley for the title in a real one on one match at WrestleMania. He can finally prove his critics wrong and avenge the New Day’s losses by defeating Lashley clean in the main event of the show and taking the title back before having a real title run.
Women’s: Bayley
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Bayley is someone who really got a raw deal coming out of the empty arena era of wrestling. During the pandemic, she was easily one of the most reliable performers in the company, or just wrestling in general. Despite the lack of any live crowd, Bayley found a way to connect to audiences. She somehow managed to maintain a high level of authenticity despite performing in front of a building full of TV monitors. Soon after WWE announced they were leaving the Thunderdome, she sustained an injury.
Given her contributions to the companies TV product, Bayley deserves a whole hell of a lot upon her return, and a Rumble win followed by a title match at Mania wouldn’t be a terrible start. The live audience would surely lose their minds over it, and it would be a wonderful way to welcome a high-caliber athlete back into the fold.
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Men’s: Bobby Lashley
While maybe the most obvious, Bobby Lashley would be the prime choice for men’s Royal Rumble winner. One of the few wrestlers to come out of the last year still feeling like a big deal, Bobby Lashley is far and away the biggest and strongest name they have that isn’t Brock Lesnar or Roman Reigns. It also creates for what could be an interesting, if remote possibility. Imagine this if you will;
The Rumble match is underway. Lashley vs Lesnar already happened earlier and Lesnar managed to retain after a hard match. It’s at the last four or five entrants and the clock is counting down to zero. It hits zero and the timer goes off, but no one comes out. The camera cuts backstage where we see Bobby Lashley destroying whoever was supposed to come out before entering himself. It comes down to him and Big E, who puts up a good fight against Lashley but in the end gets eliminated, possibly with some help from MVP. Lashley is now going to the main event of WrestleMania.
At the same time, however, Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns have unfinished business that needs settling. Both hold World Championships and decided to put them both on the line in a winner-takes-all match at WrestleMania. Lashley, being the Rumble winner, enters the match as well, and now it is a triple threat match. A three-way fight to unify the two most important championships in the company, between the three biggest, badest stars in the company at the biggest show of the year. It might be reaching, but that might just have something to it.
Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can check out an almost unlimited array of WWE content including the 2022 Royal Rumble on the WWE Network and Peacock.
