2022 Royal Rumble rumors

One of WWE’s biggest annual pay-per-view’s is on the horizon with the 2022 Royal Rumble set to take place on Saturday, January 29 at the Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis.

A huge element that makes the Royal Rumble special is the element of surprise. With the way the two 30-person battle royale’s are set up with their staggered entrances, you don’t know who will be walking up the entrance ramp next. Over the years, the WWE has leveraged this by delivering shocking surprise entrants that fans weren’t expecting. Along with the Rumble matches themselves, the company also sprinkles in some marquee matches throughout the card that will have major implications for Wrestlemania.

There’s always speculation and rumors heading into a show of this magnitude, so we’ll go over some of them as the show draws near:

• Rousey’s return at the Royal rumble seems to be so much of a foregone conclusion that there’s already speculation about what to do with her. After reporting that a Wrestlemania match with Becky Lynch was on the table, Dave Meltzer is now reporting that the plan is to do Rousey vs. Charlotte Flair at ‘Mania. Smackdown is in desperate need of starpower and sending the former UFC star over there would make sense.
• One of the things to look forward to in the men’s Royal Rumble match is Jackass star Johnny Knoxville making an appearance in the match. In an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch this week, he hinted at some of his co-stars helping him during the match.
• Cody Rhodes dropped the TNT Championship to Sammy Guevara in a ladder match on AEW Dynamite on Wednesday and that has increased speculation that he’ll stepped through the forbidden door and appear in the men’s Royal Rumble match. Rhodes is technically a free agent and is currently working in AEW without a contract.
• Multiple reports have circulated that Ronda Rousey could be making her return to the company as a surprise entrant in the women’s Royal Rumble. The former UFC star/Raw Women’s Champion last appeared in the company at Wrestlemania 34 in April of 2019.
• Seth Rollins named dropped Jon Moxley on Smackdown this past Friday and some began too speculate whether the former S.H.I.E.L.D member would step through the Forbidden Door on a night where his former stablemates will fight for the Universal Championship. Dave Meltzer shot down those rumors and any AEW involvement at the Royal Rumble.
• PW Insider is reporting that both NXT Champion Bron Breakker and Gunther (formerly WALTER) will be in St. Louis for the event. It hasn’t been confirmed if they’ll be in the men’s Rumble match but they’ll be on hand. In recent years, the company has left spots open for NXT superstars to make surprise appearances and this wouldn’t be a shock. Former NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa has also teased an appearance in the match.
• PW Insider reported that the Undertaker will be in St. Louis at the Royal Rumble on Saturday. It’s not anticipated that he’ll perform or make an on-screen appearance and may just be there to support his wife Michelle McCool, who is in the women’s Rumble match.
• WrestleVotes reported on Twitter that the WWE is looking into a surprise “forbidden door” entrant into the men’s Rumble match. The “forbidden door” is a phrase for bringing someone in who works for another company and this comes on the heels of Impact Knockouts Champion/former WWE superstar Mickie James being announced for the women’s Rumble match. This has led to the speculation that the superstar will be a former WWE superstar currently in AEW, like a Bryan Danielson or a Chris Jericho.
• Earlier in the month, former WWE superstar Nia Jax did a Q&A with fans on her Instagram page and shot down rumors that she would be a surprise entrant in the women’s Rumble match. This comes just over two months after her release from the company and she indicated that she’s done with wrestling for the time being.
• Former Divas Champion Paige acknowledged rumors of her return in the Royal Rumble via Twitter. Paige has not wrestled since December of 2017 after suffering a neck injury and was forced to medically retire soon afterwards. She is still signed with the company as an ambassador.
• As everyone knows, plans at the Day 1 pay-per-view were drastically altered because of Roman Reigns testing positive for COVID-19 and that possibly impacted the WWE’s plans at Wrestlemania. Sportskeeda shared reporting from the Wrestling Observer where Dave Meltzer noted that Seth Rollins was originally supposed to win the WWE Championship, leading to Big E winning the men’s Royal Rumble match and setting up a title showdown between the two at Wrestlemania. Rollins is now slated to face Universal Champion Roman Reigns for his title at the ppv. Should he topple Reigns and Big E win the Rumble, they could still go on with the original program, albeit with it being a Smackdown program instead of Raw.