Normally, with every pay-per-view event, I like to do a breakdown of the noteworthy superstars who haven’t been booked for the card, but with the Royal Rumble, you can never be sure just who is going to appear. With that in mind, the only people that we know for sure are being kept out of the mix are the wrestlers who are unfortunately injured and will likely be out of capacity for many months, making their timetable for returning unlikely for the Royal Rumble.
Crazier things have happened, but generally speaking, we can place our bets that the following people won’t be on the card, and their absence will definitely be felt. Let’s take a look at the stars who will be sitting at home come Royal Rumble time.
Daniel Bryan
Daniel Bryan was kept out of the 2014 Royal Rumble for some reason, as WWE wanted to go with Batista for their winner and the opponent for Randy Orton. As history now shows, they would be forced to acknowledge their mistake and would change their minds, eventually undermining Batista’s victory and finding a backwards loophole-type way into effectively giving Bryan the win he deserved from the beginning. Funny enough, in 2015, WWE would yet again go into the Royal Rumble with someone else in mind, much to the ire of the fans. For that event, it could be justified more, but WWE would still do a poor job of booking Bryan in the match, to disastrous results.
This time around in 2016, Bryan is yet again injured, but signs don’t seem to be pointing towards his return like last year. It’s up in the air as to whether or not he’ll ever wrestle again period, let alone participate in the Royal Rumble match. This is a shame, as Bryan could have been a big star to help bulk out the 30-man match with notable names. If the story was different and he was back in action several months ago, fans would no doubt be expecting him to be one of the top potential choices to win and go on to defend the title at WrestleMania, but that doesn’t appear to be the case, nor should it be, considering his history of being injured. Even if he wouldn’t win the belt, he still would have provided a good example of a fan favorite that could be rooted for, and his absence leaves a gaping hole.
Cesaro
Speaking of fan favorites, Cesaro was just starting to finally get some traction for a solid push before he went down with an injury. This happened at the worst possible time, as he could have spent the late fall having a solid upper midcarder run and building him up to be a potential dark horse to win the Royal Rumble (at least before the title was put on the line). At the very least, Cesaro would have been able to provide quality entertainment as someone who could come into the match early and last quite a while, since he’s proven to have uncanny stamina in the past—just look at his series of uppercuts.
Cesaro may not have been anywhere near in the running to win the match as far as WWE’s creative team would be concerned, but you would have to imagine his stock would rise somewhat with an impressive elimination or something that would then help lead to a decent match at WrestleMania, as opposed to him probably missing the biggest show of the year.
Tyson Kidd
Although Tyson Kidd wasn’t in as good of a position as Cesaro when his injury happened, he is still someone who would have been a valuable asset to the Royal Rumble match. People often only give credit to the winners, and it’s easy to forget the 29 other people involved, but that shouldn’t be the case. Without people like Tyson Kidd to fill out the ranks, the match itself would be boring and we’d just be counting down the seconds until someone big enough to clean house would come in.
Kidd is one of those quintessential guys who can come in at an early number and help liven things up when the match starts to get a little tiresome around entrant #11. By then, the novelty of new entrants has worn off a bit and there usually aren’t a ton of important people in the match, so the attention of the crowd is spread out evenly among various midcarders. There’s only 90 seconds to make an impact and wow the audience or bore them, and someone like Kidd has shown in the past that he can jump into this type of match with a lot of energy, have some fun, and then be a worthwhile guy to be tossed out by someone more important.
Sin Cara
Here is another case of someone who definitely wouldn’t have been eliminating people left and right, but that doesn’t mean he is better off in his current position. The odd situation with Sin Cara is that his injury could end up actually benefiting Kalisto in the long run, separating the two of them and allowing for WWE to be more serious with a push for the still-active half of The Lucha Dragons. However, on the flip side of things, WWE could look at this the wrong way and end up tossing Kalisto to the wolves.
With the WWE World Heavyweight Championship on the line, Kalisto stands no chance, but he had a slight edge over someone like Sin Cara. If both of them were in the match and one of them looked stronger than the other, it would be Kalisto getting the featured “OMG he looked like he was about to be eliminated but he hung in there” moment while Sin Cara would be fodder for a bigger guy like Rusev or Sheamus to just toss out with ease. With Sin Cara not competing in the match, WWE might put that responsibility on Kalisto to fill the void. After all, the primary focal point story of this match is going to be about Roman Reigns and the title, not the typical Royal Rumble fun. They will need to set up a couple heels to look strong so they appear to be big challenges for Reigns to overcome (or just fall short of overcoming) at the end. To do that, they have to eliminate people—many people—and a guy like Kalisto only could have avoided that if Sin Cara had also been in the mix. That way, it would have been a philosophy of not needing to outrun the bear, but being faster than the person you’re with so the bear eats them. Sin Cara would have taken the hit, and now that responsibility could fall on Kalisto.
Randy Orton
The Viper has had good luck in the past with the Royal Rumble, winning it in 2009 and frequently being a major player in the final four or better over the course of his run in WWE. This year, it would be a stretch to think he’d end up winning the match to face Roman Reigns (likely) at WrestleMania, but that doesn’t mean the lack of Randy Orton is as easy to look past as someone like Bo Dallas.
Orton would have been able to serve a great function in this Royal Rumble as a veteran and bona fide main eventer who could be eliminated by someone like Kevin Owens or Braun Strowman—both of whom I think could end up having great nights. The more impressive the superstar, the more impressive it is to toss him out, and Orton could have been a great sacrificial lamb for that scenario. He probably would have entered somewhere around the end of the match and taken a few people out in his own right before succumbing to a heel who needed to look strong heading into the finale.
John Cena
Boy is this a big blow to WWE. Even though he might not have been one of the favorites to win, John Cena definitely would have been counted on to be one of the favorites in a kayfabe sense. Any time he’s in a big match like this—particularly with the WWE World Heavyweight Championship on the line—he’s in the top contention to win the belt. At any time, Cena could win the title and nobody would bat an eye, but in this case, that’s definitely not going to happen.
Cena’s absence is a bigger factor into WrestleMania plans than it is the Royal Rumble itself, I’m sure, but just the idea of having him miss out on this opportunity means yet another major player as far as star power goes is out the window. This does nothing but drastically hurt the Royal Rumble and lower the quality of the build to WrestleMania afterward.
Seth Rollins
Without a doubt, one of the biggest disappointments is that we won’t be seeing Seth Rollins somewhere in the Royal Rumble. If the supposed plan would have gone down as suggested with Roman Reigns defeating him at Survivor Series to win the title, it’s interesting to think of the different ways Rollins could have been booked here. Obviously, the Sheamus title victory might not have happened the same, or at all, which means there’s a chance Rollins and Reigns could have either had their rematch at TLC or at the Royal Rumble. He still might not have been in the match if that were the case.
Alternatively, Rollins could have had his rematch and by January, would be fuming to get another chance to regain his title. This could have turned into a storyline of him making it a point that no matter what, he would win the Royal Rumble. Obviously, with that in mind, Rollins would have been one of the favorites to come out on top, and even without that kind of a storyline, he still is someone I can imagine would be the runner-up or in the final four.
With more and more people getting injured left and right (Konnor and Sasha Banks being two more that aren’t on this list, for instance), who knows if any others will need to be retroactively added, but we can only hope that this is the final tally. Out of the people listed above, who are you most disappointed about? Do you think there’s a chance any of them will be able to return in time?
Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!
