{"id":152309,"date":"2026-01-31T17:25:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T22:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=152309"},"modified":"2026-01-31T18:03:41","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T23:03:41","slug":"powerhouse-hobbs-makes-debut-at-wwe-royal-rumble-2026-gets-new-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/01\/31\/powerhouse-hobbs-makes-debut-at-wwe-royal-rumble-2026-gets-new-name\/","title":{"rendered":"Powerhouse Hobbs Makes Debut at WWE Royal Rumble 2026, Gets New Name"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Men’s WWE Royal Rumble 2026 Match<\/a> had a ton of gunslingers, from Oba Femi to Cody Rhodes, and even Roman Reigns<\/a>. Though mid-way through the match, another heavy-hitter joined in the form of former AEW superstar Powerhouse Hobbs, now going by the name of Royce Keys.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, rumors circulated that Hobbs was on his way to WWE<\/a>, and just over a week ago, the deal was set according to multiple resources, which led to everyone speculating on when Powerhouse Hobbs, or Royce Keys in this case, will make their debut. The WWE Universe in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, had first dibs as Keys would enter the Royal Rumble<\/a> match at #14, showcasing his devastating power.<\/p>\n

\"A
Photo Credit: By West Smith<\/a> – https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/west_smith\/52542959315\/, CC BY 2.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=128834856<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The former TNT and AEW World Trios Champion got to work, quickly eliminating Damian Priest and even hitting his old foe Cody Rhodes with some bombs. Now that Powerhouse Hobbs\/Royce Keys is in the WWE, everyone should be on guard, because there’s no way he won’t leave destruction in his wake. Hobbs has always been a big deal; he’s an even bigger deal now that he’s part of the top promotion in North America.<\/p>\n

Ladies and gentlemen, this year’s 2026 edition of the Royal Rumble<\/a> may be\u00a0the best and most unpredictable<\/a> to date.<\/p>\n

Welcome to the WWE, Powerhouse Hobbs, or more appropriately, the rechristened Royce Keys.<\/p>\n

More From LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/b><\/strong><\/amp-ad><\/p>\n

Header photo \u2013 WWE \u2013 Stay tuned to the <\/span>Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/span><\/a><\/u> for more on Powerhouse Hobbs\/Royce Keys, WWE Royal Rumble 2026, 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 as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.<\/span><\/em><\/amp-ad><\/amp-fx-flying-carpet><\/p>\n

You can check out WWE programming on\u00a0<\/span>Netflix<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>(Raw, WWE archives, WWE Unreal, and other specials),\u00a0<\/span>USA Network<\/a>\u00a0(SmackDown),\u00a0The CW<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>(NXT),\u00a0<\/span>ESPN\u00a0<\/span><\/a>(WWE PLEs),\u00a0<\/span><\/em>Tubi<\/a>\u00a0(WWE Evolve),\u00a0A&E<\/a>\u00a0(WWE Superstar Sunday \u2013 Rivals, WWE LFG, and Greatest Moments) and\u00a0Peacock<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>(Saturday Night\u2019s Main Event). Follow WWE on social media to relive top moments and matches on\u00a0<\/span>YouTube.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Men’s WWE Royal Rumble 2026 Match had a ton of gunslingers, from Oba Femi to Cody Rhodes, and even Roman Reigns. Though mid-way through the match, another heavy-hitter joined in the form of former AEW superstar Powerhouse Hobbs, now going by the name of Royce Keys. Earlier this month, rumors circulated that Hobbs was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3735,"featured_media":151995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4677,2,12,6,2192,4,3],"tags":[9119,7238,9624],"class_list":["post-152309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aew","category-featured","category-news","category-north-america","category-wrestling","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-2026-royal-rumble","tag-powerhouse-hobbs","tag-royce-keys"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3735"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152309"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152353,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152309\/revisions\/152353"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}