2022 Royal Rumble Predictions

In this edition of The Wrestling Estate roundtable, we give our predictions for the 2022 Royal Rumble.

Will Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns both walk out of the 2022 Royal Rumble as world champions?

Chad Gelfand: Roman Reigns will, but he will also cost Brock Lesnar his championship, prompting Brock to enter the 2022 Royal Rumble later in the night.

Juan Bautista: This is the only way that the main event of WrestleMania should be booked. The two world champions come and fight to be the top guy. Unification will hopefully make the title mean something because right now titles aren’t what they used to be.

Neal Wagner: Reigns loses to Seth Rollins, but Lesnar retains. Therefore, Reigns can face Lesnar at WrestleMania and win the title before Brock goes away again and Rollins goes back to Raw to face Kevin Owens.

John Corrigan: Yes. You’d think “The Beast” and the “Tribal Chief” are on a collision course to WrestleMania. If that’s the case, and both men are still champion, what happens to the winner of the Royal Rumble? A triple threat, perhaps, but who would be over enough to be sandwiched between these warriors? I don’t know, but I’m eager to find out.

Jack Goodwillie: As I try to get inside the head of WWE creative to think what they might do, having champion vs. champion at WrestleMania could be a big draw! However, I don’t think the powers that be will want to put in the effort of thinking of what a good follow-up to the match would look like, as you would then have one roaming world champion bouncing between both brands, and remember, this is a creatively bankrupt company.

Instead, they like the idea of marketing two world championship matches and will keep to form this year. As far as who loses, Lashley going over Lesnar is actually the more likely scenario, as Reigns’… er… reign is the one with all the juice, and if anybody should get to defend the other world championship at Mania, it should be Lashley, someone who’s very reliable and always believable in that spot.

Name one surprise entrant in the men’s 2022 Royal Rumble.

Gelfand: Chris Masters. We’ve had John Morrison, Carlito and MVP in Rumbles in recent times, so it’s only natural that we get Chris Masters to get one step closer to completing the “2000’s midcarders who I thought would be main eventers” prophecy. Mr. Kennedy for Royal Rumble 2023.

Bautista: It probably doesn’t matter at this point, but it will probably be Gunther.

Wagner: If my prediction is true about the two title matches, then Roman will be a surprise entrant and win. That’s how we get to Brock at Mania.

Corrigan: I can’t even keep track of who’s still on the roster, who’s under a Legend’s deal, who’s on good terms with Vinnie Mac and who’s sucking up to Tony Khan. I’ll just say Brother Love makes his Royal Rumble debut.

Goodwillie: There can’t really be a hometown favorite this year, as the biggest name to come out of St. Louis is none other than Randy Orton. It’s also not like there’s supposed to be a part-timer like John Cena coming back to have a one-off at WrestleMania, so you could ostensibly name anyone and I wouldn’t find it overly farfetched. That said, I’ll go with Pat McAfee channeling Jerry Lawler.

Name one surprise entrant in the women’s 2022 Royal Rumble.

Gelfand: Jacqueline. She’s a pioneer for Black women’s wrestling and is referred to by many in wrestling as one of the toughest women to ever be in the wrestling business, so it would be nice to see her have a spot in the Rumble and get her flowers.

Bautista: It will probably be Lana.

Wagner: The return of Bayley has been rumored and she is likely the only one right now that can save SmackDown from Charlotte.

Corrigan: Stephanie McMahon. More to come…

Goodwillie: There are 19 announced names for the women’s match, so we may have already seen the three biggest surprises in Mickie James, Lita and Summer Rae. That said, we haven’t seen Bayley for a while, and while a March return is the more likely scenario, there are two schools of thought here. At this point in WWE’s schedule, when a wrestler is expected to return in March, they can either be held to the Raw after WrestleMania, or you can work them back into the mix and get them involved in a WrestleMania program where they’ll make their former in-ring return.

With a match like the Rumble, you can work around Bayley’s injury depending on precisely where she’s at with her recovery, not to mention, athletes are recovering faster and coming back stronger from ACL injuries these days. There’s a 50-50 chance we see her in the match, so that definitely meets the standards of a surprise.

Who will win the men’s 2022 Royal Rumble?

Gelfand: Brock Lesnar. Lesnar enters the Rumble after being screwed by Reigns earlier in the night and goes onto win it, and that’s how we get to the heavily rumored Reigns/Lesnar match at WrestleMania.

Bautista: Either Reigns or Lesnar. This is going to be the one year that it doesn’t matter who wins the Royal Rumble because that’s not the story.

Wagner: If my title predictions are true, then Reigns wins. If I’m wrong, Kevin Owens.

Corrigan: Big E. I’ll keep my prediction that we get a triple threat at Mania, and since Big E had a brief run on top, he’ll get the lucky, but ultimately meaningless spot between Reigns and Lesnar.

Goodwillie: Brock Lesnar will force his way into the match at some point and lock in the Reigns match at WrestleMania by winning the Rumble after losing his belt earlier in the evening.

Who will win the women’s 2022 Royal Rumble?

Gelfand: My first choice was Sasha Banks, but after she went down with a knee injury and is going to miss the Rumble, I’m going with Naomi to win. The storyline with Sonya Deville has to be leading somewhere after going on this long, so maybe Sonya makes Naomi the number one entrant, and she goes wire to wire win the whole thing.

Bautista: I hope Lita will, so if anything else, we get Charlotte vs Lita.

Wagner: Bayley returns and wins.

Corrigan: Stephanie McMahon. With Triple H unlikely to compete at WrestleMania this year, his better half will take up his mantle. The best part is she could challenge either Charlotte or Becky Lynch and there’s already some meat on the bone.

Goodwillie: While I could see WWE using the Royal Rumble to restart Bianca Belair, who arguably should have a belt of some sort in her possession at this point after winning the match last year, Lita would be a cool choice to give Becky Lynch a different kind of opponent at Mania. She’d maybe be able to generate some lapsed fan interest in the event, and her standing tall at the end would be just the thing to get people talking about a product that literally nobody is talking about right now.