Only a little over two weeks to go until the road to WrestleMania officially kicks off with the Royal Rumble, one of the most exciting parts about the match are the surprise entrants. Not only can they serve to set up something down the line for WrestleMania, but can serve as a bit of nostalgia for the fans. Here are three people that you should be on the lookout for in this year’s Royal Rumble match.
William Regal
I know that he hasn’t wrestled in since 2013 but I think that Regal could probably still go. The great thing about the Royal Rumble is that you really only need to know and be able to do a few things.
Know how to get into the ring, throw some punches and kicks, play to the crowd, get thrown over the top rope, and land safely on the floor.
When you have people like Ric Flair and Sting wrestling at 63 and 73 years old, 54 makes you seem like you might still be young.
Regal had his last match in the infant days of NXT losing to an upcoming Cesaro. For someone of William Regal’s stature, I think that he should have a better final match where he could get more of a response and thank you from a live crowd.
There would be no storyline reason unless they wanted to also put Adam Pearce into the match and have them interact leading to William Regal becoming some sort of on-air authority personality on either Raw or Smackdown but it isn’t needed.
Chavo Guerrero Jr.
This is where the fun starts. Chavo is someone who is still partly active and can still go in the ring. He is a few years younger than Regal but he has been active in recent memory.
Chavo being a surprise entrant into the Royal Rumble could be great. I have no doubt that not only will Rey Mysterio enter the match but his son, Dominik will also enter.
This will be the start of what will eventually lead to a father versus son match at WrestleMania. Chavo would be someone that in the Rumble match, could try to smooth things over between the two and when this doesn’t work out, eventually be named the special guest referee of their match at WrestleMania.
Chavo is someone who has history with the WWE fans and although he is best known from his lying, cheating, and stealing days with his uncle, Eddie Guerrero, he was known to hold his own by himself as one of the Smackdown six.
Chavo could add an extra dynamic into this feud and allow it to go a little longer than it probably should. Chavo could play it clean, which could lead to a six man tag at SummerSlam between the Judgement Day and the team of Rey Mysterio, Edge, and Chavo.
Stone Cold Steve Austin
Wait, did someone say Royal Rumble in the great state of Texas where the Texas rattlesnake lives? Someone, hold his beer….
I think that there is a 100% chance that Stone Cold enters this year’s Royal Rumble match. After last year’s overbooked match against Kevin Owens at WrestleMania, Steve Austin said that he wouldn’t mind getting into the ring again at some point in the future.
While I don’t think that he would be able to wrestle consistently for the company again, he can make appearances in larger cities and start to set up another match at WrestleMania and this match would be the starting point of that storyline.
Don’t expect Austin to win the match though. I think that the live Texas crowd would be all for it, but there is nothing gained from Steve Austin winning a match like this at 58 years old. I don’t see why he couldn’t hand out ten stunners and toss one or two guys out though.
