WWE reportedly had a variety of names backstage for the Royal Rumble PPV but didn’t really plan on using them. They wanted to swerve the Internet and have it leak the names that would appear. Randy Orton was backstage and was in his ring gear. Other names included Alex Riley, Sean Waltman, Chris Jericho and Nikolai Volkoff. WWE didn’t intend on using any of these people except for Riley. They were simply wanting to create buzz over the possible names.
The plan with Riley was to actually put him in the match at some point, but they ended up changing their minds. That’s why Riley was not a part of the Royal Rumble kickoff show.