With Royal Rumble 2020 coming up this Sunday night, the go-home show of Monday Night Raw and our best guess of what will happen on Friday Night SmackDown have given us an indication of what talent is booked for the pay-per-view and who is not currently scheduled. Of course, the card is always subject to change and WWE may end up making alterations to this lineup, but at the moment, the men and women in this breakdown are not currently advertised as being part of this event.
In some cases, this may be justified, or even a purposeful plan to set up a surprise. In other cases, it may be ridiculous. That is up to you to decide as we take a look at which superstars aren’t being promoted for this show.
From the Raw Men’s Division
— Akira Tozawa: Tozawa, like many people on this list, is just on too low of a spot on the totem pole for WWE to block off a spot for him on this card ahead of time. As with everyone here, any of them could fill in the remaining Royal Rumble spots, though.
— Andrade / Humberto Carrillo: After his grueling ladder match on Monday night, Andrade should be too banged up to compete. However, Humberto Carrillo returned and challenged him to a mach. As of posting this, that hasn’t been made official, as Andrade hasn’t accepted the challenge, but we can assume that will probably go down.
— The Authors of Pain (Akam & Rezar): AOP doesn’t strike me as Royal Rumble competitors. They wouldn’t win the match, so why put them in just to get taken out and kill some of their credibility? They may show up to cost Owens/Joe, though.
— Big Show: The World’s Largest Athlete did make his return and helped out Kevin Owens and Samoa Joe for two weeks, but wasn’t on Raw this week. I don’t expect him to be in the Royal Rumble match, as there are only 8 spots currently left and plenty of others who can fit in there instead without him taking a bump like that.
— Cedric Alexander: Low priority, but I do expect him in the Royal Rumble.
— Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder: Low priority, but I do think they have a chance to appear.
— EC3: EC3 has been out of action for a few months due to a concussion. It’s highly unlikely he’ll make his return at this show.
— Eric Young: Low priority.
— Mojo Rawley / R-Truth: I fully expect these two to be involved in a 24/7 Championship situation mid Royal Rumble, even if they aren’t officially booked on the card.
— No Way Jose: Low priority.
— The O.C. (Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows): Low priority, but they may find their way into the Royal Rumble if WWE wants to do something with The O.C. all ganging up on anyone. They may do that without actually being entered in the match.
— Shelton Benjamin: Low priority, which is a shame, as Benjamin deserves to be booked better, in my opinion.
— The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford): Frankly, I’m not expecting these two to be in the Royal Rumble. I think they’ll have a backstage segment where they talk and that’s it.
— Titus O’Neil: These days, O’Neil pops up once in a while, but isn’t quite active in any in-ring capacity.
— The Viking Raiders (Erik & Ivar): I say hold off on these guys. If you need them to do a run-in, that’s one thing, but there won’t be much to accomplish by putting them in the Royal Rumble match.
From the Raw Women’s Division
To fill up the 30 Royal Rumble spots, most of the women on the Raw and SmackDown roster should be in that match. With NXT and outsider options available, it doesn’t necessarily have to be everybody, but it should be the vast majority, minus the ones who are injured and unable to come back in time.
For the sake of calling attention to the people who are still not confirmed, though, here are the women from Raw still left waiting for an official spot:
— Raw Female Superstars: Billie Kay, Kairi Sane (should be ringside for Asuka’s match, atleast), Lana, Liv Morgan, Naomi, Natalya, Nia Jax (injured), Peyton Royce, Ruby Riott (injured), Zelina Vega
From the SmackDown Men’s Division
— Apollo Crews: Low priority, sadly.
— The B-Team (Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel): Low priority.
— Cesaro and Sami Zayn: At the moment, Nakamura is in the Royal Rumble, but not Cesaro or Sami Zayn. Frankly, I expect that to stay the case for Zayn, but Cesaro to be in the match. We’ll see.
— The Colons (Epico Colon & Primo Colon): These two haven’t done anything in WWE in a year.
— Drew Gulak: Low priority…and it kills me to say that. They might put him in a comedy spot, though.
— The Hardy Boyz (Jeff Hardy & Matt Hardy): Matt Hardy showed up on Raw recently, but Jeff Hardy is still dealing with his injury and legal problems.
— Heath Slater: Low priority, but if they want a comedy spot, like someone to get eliminated in just a moment by Brock Lesnar, he could be your guy.
— Jinder Mahal: Mahal suffered a ruptured patellar tendon injury in a match against Ali on June 15th and will be out several months.
— John Morrison / The Miz / The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods): We’re running out of spots in the Royal Rumble and these two teams (minus Xavier Woods for his injury) seem better suited for a tag title match right now than to take up 4 of the 8 remaining spots.
— Lars Sullivan: The Freak will be out of action until 2020 due to a knee injury and many other issues behind the scenes.
— The Lucha House Party (Gran Metalik, Kalisto, & Lince Dorado): Low priority, but we may see them job out super fast.
— Mustafa Ali: I fully expect him to be in the Royal Rumble.
— The Revival (Dash Wilder & Scott Dawson): If they’re leaving the company and they’re a tag team act with not much space left to work with, it makes perfect sense to keep Dash and Dawson out of this.
— Robert Roode / The Usos (Jey Uso & Jimmy Uso): With his allegiance to Corbin, I’d be surprised if Roode didn’t pop up in the Falls Count Anywhere match. Equally, The Usos should pop up in support of Reigns.
From the SmackDown Women’s Division
As with the Raw side of the women’s division, I fully expect every single woman below who isn’t injured to be in this match.
— SmackDown Female Superstars: Carmella, Dana Brooke, Ember Moon (injured), Mandy Rose, Mickie James (injured), Sasha Banks (she should at least be ringside for Bayley’s title match), Sonya Deville, and Tamina Snuka.
From NXT
Technically speaking, not a single person has been confirmed or even advertised from NXT to be part of this show. We shouldn’t expect any of the men and women from the black and gold brand, nor 205 Live or NXT UK, to necessarily be at this show.
However, the past bunch of years have shown that at least a handful of talent from those brands tend to pop up—particularly in the women’s Royal Rumble match. Therefore, I do expect a handful of people to have appearances on this card, but it’s a complete crap shoot to guess who with any consistency.
For argument’s sake, I’d toss out a few names I expect to be, in no particular order: Tony Nese, Io Shirai, Kacy Catanzaro, Keith Lee, Dominik Dijakovic, Pete Dunne, maybe Matt Riddle (stare down with Lesnar would pop the crowd), Candice LeRae, Toni Storm, Piper Niven, Mia Yim, Dakota Kai, maybe Lio Rush…who knows?
Everybody, though, should be considered a no-go for this event. If anyone does appear, it’s a surprise.
Do you think these men and women or any others not on this list should have been booked on the card in some fashion? How would you have utilized them if given the opportunity? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!
