8 Possible Surprise Entrants for Royal Rumble 2019
The road to WrestleMania always begins with the Royal Rumble, with the winner of the Royal Rumble traditionally challenging for the title of their choosing at the Grandest Stage of them all. One of the most exciting things about the Royal Rumble match is the countdown as no-one knows who is coming out or in what order. With the exception of R-Truth and Carmella coming out as the #30 entrant of their respective Royal Rumble matches, this year is no different.
Another exciting element to the Royal Rumble match in recent years is that there are usually a number of entrants entering a Royal Rumble that shocks the universe. Back in 2008, Jimmy Snuka and Roddy Piper, two Hall of Famers, entered the match. In 2010, Beth Phoenix became only the second woman entering in a Men’s Royal Rumble match, whilst in 2012, professional commentator Michael Cole tried his chances too.
With less than a week to go until the 32nd annual Royal Rumble, and with only 19 confirmed male entrants and 23 confirmed female entrants, there are still plenty of potential surprise entrants that could shock, confuse or just generate one of the biggest reactions of the night.
#8 Batista
Batista is certainly no stranger to entering or even winning the Royal Rumble match as he did back in 2005. He also won the event again 9 years later, in 2014, although his second victory was far less memorable than his first, as he left the WWE within six months.
Since then, like The Rock and John Cena, Batista has had a successful career in Hollywood, working on juggernaut film franchises including James Bond and Guardians of The Galaxy. With an ever-growing film reel including an Avengers film due to be released this April, it seems like Batista entering this years’ Royal Rumble is impossible, right?
On the SmackDown 1000 episode in October last year, Batista made a return for one night only as part of Evolution, reminiscing their dominance as a stable which appeared to be a happy reunion until Batista highlighted to Triple H that he has never beat him. Even though the briefly heated moment was laughed off by the two wrestlers, this was a possible tease that they may finally face each other again in the near future. If you also take into account that Triple H will almost certainly feature in a match of some capacity at this years’ WrestleMania (considering he has wrestled in 21 out of the last 22 WrestleMania events), there aren’t too many opponents he could face that wouldn’t feature better elsewhere - but a rematch between the former Evolution members would be a WrestleMania moment to savour.