Every year, while we’re all speculating on who will win the Royal Rumble matches, I always like to take some time to focus on some of the other “wins” people can get without being the ultimate victor and earning the title shot at WrestleMania.
Those two are the records for who scores the most eliminations and who lasts the longest.
In part 1 of this two-part series of predictions, we’ll be taking a look at who I think could dominate and toss out the most opponents, whether or not they leave with the actual victory.
While we don’t know the full field of competitors for either the men or women’s matches, I’ve narrowed down my picks to the top three superstars I think have the best chance of standing out as the most dominant wrestlers in the crowd.
In no particular order, let’s start digging…
WOMEN’S ROYAL RUMBLE MATCH
Charlotte Flair
I’m expecting Charlotte Flair to start at the very beginning (#3) and to last until the very end and co-win it with Becky Lynch. Therefore, along the way, she’ll be the foremost person to score eliminations left and right to assert her dominance.
I’m so confident about this that I almost didn’t pick two other names, but I figure that defeats the purpose of a 3-Count, so even though I think nobody else will stand a chance to match or top Flair’s eliminations, for the sake of completion…
Nia Jax
She’s the biggest person in the match, and that normally translates to at least a couple of eliminations.
Now that she has Tamina by her side, I’m expecting at least one or two for Jax solo and one for the Jax and Tamina team-up. Oddly enough, that might be enough to put her in the range, as the average most eliminations is 6, and I think Flair will blow everyone else out of the water with something like 9, so if Jax got 3, that’s already almost half the field. The rest can be dispersed with 1 or 2 eliminations to a handful of names.
Or, hell, maybe they want to humiliate Jax and she gets in there and gets tossed out without doing a damn thing. That certainly can happen. It’s happened before with the bigger people.
Bayley
On an outside chance Flair doesn’t rack up the points enough to take the cake, the other person I’m anticipating will have a long stretch of time in the match is Bayley.
If she shows up at the beginning and lasts until close to the end, she’ll be in a prime position to get at least 5 eliminations, with or without the help of Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair or whoever may team up with her at any point.
Bayley didn’t get much to do last year and I think they’ll correct that this year and depend on her to be an anchor holding this thing together that they can book around, not just with time, but as a go-to person for eliminations.
Also, watch out Trish and Lita. Bayley might get both of you.
MEN’S ROYAL RUMBLE MATCH
Lars Sullivan
If The Freak is in this match, he’s going to be highlighted as a dominant monster, for sure, and while I don’t think he’ll win it (unless Braun Strowman wins the Universal Championship), I think we’ll see Sullivan show his strength by eliminations.
I’m not anticipating a record being broken, but I can very, very easily see him crack the 7 mark past the average number of “most eliminations” in Royal Rumbles. This is especially true if they feed him a bunch of jobbers like Heath Slater and The B-Team just to illustrate the point that he’s someone to look out for.
Drew McIntyre
Someone else I think will have a strong showing in this is Drew McIntyre, who I view as one of the anchors they’ll put much of the spotlight on.
More so than Sullivan, I can see McIntyre entering early enough to get an elimination every 3 or so guys.
He might not be given a specific point in the match to toss people out left and right, but he’d slowly but surely score elimination after elimination and end up with the record at the end of the match.
Seth Rollins
As you’ll see in my Iron Man post, I think Rollins is going to potentially win the whole thing and start somewhere toward the beginning of the match.
If that happens, he’ll have a long time to have to outlast the competition, so he’ll have to dwindle down the opponents in the ring from time to time so he isn’t overwhelmed.
Essentially, this is the Bayley situation, but with a win at the end, rather than failing in favor of someone else. However, there’s a chance Rollins doesn’t win, either, or that he comes in around the #18 spot or so and doesn’t have as much time to get more than 3 or 4 big eliminations, rather than something like 7 or 8 in total.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
To be honest, while I think those three are the best predictions, I can see some other people being in the hunt, too, and I don’t want to leave them out.
The first is Bobby Lashley. I don’t think this will happen, but if Sullivan is not in the match, they might want to give Lashley a handful of eliminations so he accomplishes something.
Another is either John Cena or Randy Orton, who could get the “legacy” spot of an older, more established veteran who can come in, empty the ring, and within about 30 seconds end up with 4 or more eliminations.
There’s also the team of Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens. If they pop up together, they can team up on multiple people and throw them out as a unit to end up with a handful of eliminations.
Who do you think will end up eliminating the most wrestlers? What number do you think they’ll reach? Tell us your predictions in the comments below!
For more information on Royal Rumble statistics, check out my running page of records on Smark Out Moment here: http://www.smarkoutmoment.com/p/wwe-royal-rumble-statistics-records.html
