Full 2026 Royal Rumble Predictions Including Some Harsh Truths About Roman Reigns

The Royal Rumble is obviously a fantastic gimmick match, but I think the reason why it’s so popular is because it feels like the start of something. Yes, factually it begins the Road To WrestleMania, but informally, it also serves as a new beginning for every single WWE superstar. It doesn’t matter if they were buried at the bottom of the card or competing for championships in 2025. It’s a new day, and for everyone on the entire roster, it’s our first clue as to what we, as fans, can expect.

Yes, the biggest story is always about who wins and gets to fight for a championship at WrestleMania, but deeper than that, there are dozens and dozens of takeaways. For someone lower on the card and fighting for airtime, merely getting a spot in the Rumble can be a sign of hope that WWE plans on using that character moving forward. For someone in the midcard, an unexpectedly deep run can be a sign that they’re about to get a push. For uppercard guys, a notable conflict or heated elimination can be a sign of who they’re going to work with over the next few months or even into WrestleMania.

This article isn’t about subplots inside the Rumble though. It’s about predicting who is actually going to win the thing. As a fan, I’m stoked because it’s as wide open as last year when Jey Uso shocked everyone. This isn’t 2023 where everyone knew Cody Rhodes was going to come back and win. This isn’t 2024 where the fans were overwhelmingly pushing for Bayley. The women’s Rumble is extremely wide open with a a half dozen or so credible winners, and while Roman Reigns is the betting favorite for a variety of reasons, I’m going to pour some cold water on that later in the article.

Before I talk out what I think is going to happen, however, let’s take a quick look back at how my predictions have been going. I’ve made my guesses for every single PLE since WrestleMania 38, and while I’ve had my share of misses, I’ve also proven I’m right a lot more often than I’m wrong. Here's a look at the biggest events last year, plus my overall record...

Drew McIntyre (Champion) Vs Sami Zayn For The WWE Championship

I didn’t want any part of this match. I wrote an entire article pleading with WWE not to go down this road, but unfortunately, here we are in a lose-lose situation. We’ve all watched the plucky underdog Sami Zayn vow over and over again that he’ll win a World Championship at some point, and we’ve all watched him lose repeatedly in heartbreaking fashion, despite having some all-time crowd support. Now, we get to watch the same thing again.

Zayn is arguably the most popular WWE superstar in all of Saudi Arabia, and he is going to be cheered like a conquering hero with the Middle Eastern fans firmly behind him. As always, he’ll put on a spectacular match, but I just don’t see how WWE can take the title off Drew McIntyre this quickly. He just won it from Cody Rhodes, and while the Fed isn’t opposed to using brief transitional champions to move the belt from one babyface to another, I think Drew McIntyre should be a lot more than a transitional champion. Fans have wanted to see the belt back on him for years.

Maybe we’ll see Zayn lose this match and come back for The Royal Rumble, making him an even more sympathetic babyface. Maybe yet another loss in a key spot will facilitate a heel turn. There are a lot of options here, but I think the worst one among them all is taking the belt off Drew.

Predicted Winner: Drew McIntyre

Gunther Vs AJ Styles (Styles Must Retire From WWE If He Loses)

Back when Gunther and Styles first started feuding, I assumed the former was going to retire the latter at WrestleMania. Gunther has already taken out Goldberg and John Cena in their retirement matches, and it would be a great next step for his bruising and vicious Ring General to add Styles’ name to his list of victims. This feels way sooner than expected though.

WWE has been saying for months that 2026 would be AJ Styles’ last year, but it’s not even February yet! He can’t possibly go out this quickly, right? He can’t possibly be out of WWE before Mania, right?

Well, the truth is we don’t know. Rumors are swirling that Styles’ contract might be up in February. It’s also a bit weird to think about Styles having multiple retirement matches in the same year. Maybe he could beat Gunther and go out on his own terms later, but it feels like a setback for Gunther’s character to brag about retiring legends and then lose to a legend in his retirement match, even if he gets the win back later.

If this is really it for AJ Styles, I hope he goes out with his head held high after another all-time legendary match. The Phenomenal One will be remembered as one of the all-time great in-ring technicians. Like Kurt Angle, Bret Hart and others, he was able to work across a variety of styles and at many different paces, always making his opponent look great and always getting over with the fans. He’ll be missed.

Predicted Winner: Gunther

Women’s Royal Rumble

There’s no clear favorite in the women’s Royal Rumble, though I’d say the most chatter has been around Liv Morgan. The fan favorite leader of Judgment Day recently returned from injury and putting her in a huge WrestleMania program feels like the next step in her career. She absolutely has the mic skills to handle being in the spotlight, and it would create a lot of fun drama within Judgment Day since her longtime friend and stablemate Raquel has been feuding for the world title and could conceivably win it.

There’s also a lot of noise around Rhea Ripley and Iyo Sky. The Tag Team Champions are main event levels of over, and given how incredible their prior matches have been, many fans would like to see them work together in a program at WrestleMania. It wouldn’t need one of the big belts to draw interest, but putting the belt on one of them would turn it into a contender to main event one of the nights. The best way to do that would be to have one of them win the Rumble and have the other win the title at Elimination Chamber of an upcoming event.

There are also plenty of people who you could put into the outside chance category. Becky Lynch is doing the best work of her entire career, and despite being Intercontinental Champion, we could all buy her character entering and winning the Rumble and then vowing to become double champion at Mania. Tiffany Stratton was also world champion prior to her injury and is all kinds of over with the crowd. She could return and challenge current champ Jade Cargill who took her out, and it would all make sense as part of a long-term story. I’ll also throw out Asuka, Nia Jax, AJ Lee and even Chelsea Green, who is always a threat to move up the card given her popularity.

I’m going to go with Bianca Belair though. She’s been out with an injury for nine months, and WWE desperately needs her back. The program with Jade Cargill that’s been built and teased for years needs to be paid off and is the highest upside non-Rhea and Iyo program WWE has available in its women’s division. Yes, she’s won a Rumble before, but that was at a very different spot in her career. We don’t know for sure if she’ll be cleared to come back, but if she does, this is who I’m putting my money on.

Predicted Winner: Bianca Belair

Men’s Royal Rumble

Roman Reigns is the odds on favorite to win the Royal Rumble, and it’s easy to see why. With John Cena officially retired, he’s the biggest star with the biggest fanbase and the most aura on WWE’s entire roster. If The Rock isn’t going to be around, Roman being the face of WrestleMania 42 is the best way to attract casual fans and bring lapsed ones back into the fold, which is always a goal at The Showcase Of The Immortals. He’s also super over in Saudi Arabia, and it would feel redeeming to give him another Rumble win, given his 2015 victory was booed and is widely considered one of the biggest creative missteps in company history.

But until Roman proves he’s actually going to be around week in and week out, he should not be winning the Royal Rumble. Period. I love Roman, but what’s always going to matter more to WWE’s bottom line is creating good storylines and television that people are invested in. That requires characters who are going to be on the show every week to help build a real story, which can’t be done if he’s on six scattered episodes of television between now and Mania.

Roman is the biggest star of his generation. There is always going to be a spot at WrestleMania if he wants to work it, but if he wants to go back to being the guy, he needs to work a full schedule. Being the main character comes with responsibilities. If he wants to work a Brock Lesnar schedule to protect his body and/ or to try to give Hollywood a go, that's a perfectly reasonable choice. He just shouldn't be doing that and winning the Rumble.

To me, the highest upside proposition for WWE is to create a new star, and the best way to create a new star is to have Oba Femi walk into WWE and win the Royal Rumble in his first year. Triple H, Bruce Prichard and company clearly know what they have. He vacated the NXT Championship instead of losing it before coming to the main roster. They’ve been running regular vignettes to get the fans prepared for him, and his showcase match with Cody Rhodes at Saturday Night’s Main Event ended without a clear finish. Everyone is expecting him to get a big spotlight at the Rumble, but I’d like to see WWE do something truly daring and have him win.

I think Reigns and Femi are the two most likely contenders, but there are some other choices to consider too. Bron Breakker should be considered a real contender, as he seems on a collision course with CM Punk for The World Heavyweight Championship. Sami Zayn could easily lose his match to Drew McIntyre and then enter the Rumble for another chance, which the crowd would get very behind. Finn Bálor is about to turn babyface and the fans seem really eager to push him. LA Knight is still waiting for his big moment and was featured prominently in a recent Unreal episode. Cody Rhodes is Cody Rhodes and is always a threat to win any Rumble he’s in.

I'm going to go with my heart instead of my head here though. I'm going to take the outcome I think is best for WWE.

Predicted Winner: Oba Femi