We’re less than two weeks away from the 2026 Royal Rumble, and there’s a lot of uncertainty around who might win or even what story WWE is trying to tell. Fans are still reeling from Drew McIntyre’s shocking upset over WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, and there’s widespread disagreement on whether he’ll even go into WrestleMania holding the most important belt in wrestling. Likewise, there are a lot of questions around World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk, who seemed destined to drop the title to rising star Bron Breakker, only to unexpectedly hold onto the belt during the first Raw of the year.
I’m not here to guess how all of this should play out. Instead, I’m here to throw out one name that should be a central piece of whatever is going to happen. It’s time for WWE to make a new star. It’s time to aggressively push a new character and propel him into the main event scene immediately. It’s time for WWE to finally crown a men’s world champion born in the 1990s. It’s time for Oba Femi.
For those of you who don’t watch NXT or are casual WWE viewers, Oba Femi has dominated WWE’s developmental scene for the last few years. The 6 foot 6 inch 310 pound Nigerian won the NCAA shot put title twice at Alabama before he signed with WWE and started training at the Performance Center at the end of 2022. In the barely three years since, he’s rapidly emerged as the single most promising prospect in the entire system.
WWE legend turned NXT booker Shawn Michaels has booked him like an absolute monster down in developmental. He’s lost a grand total of one singles match since October of 2024 and rather than lose the NXT Championship, he straight up vacated it and stepped aside a few weeks ago, presumably because WWE didn’t want any fresh video of him losing.
He’s made a few appearances on the main roster over the last year, most notably in a promo battle and subsequent match with Cody Rhodes at the recent Saturday Night’s Main Event that served as John Cena’s last match. It says a lot about how Triple H views him that rather than having him lose to the then WWE Champion, the match ended in a no-contest draw. Now, he’s headed to the main roster, and rather than making him pay his dues, WWE should do the opposite.
There have been a few occasions in WWE’s history in which Vince McMahon pushed a newcomer to the main roster to the top almost immediately, not counting people like Ric Flair who were already megastars before they arrived. Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle are probably the most notable examples, and both are among the most famous and popular performers of all-time. It would be unfair to compare anyone to either of those two, especially Angle who might be the greatest technical wrestler the business has ever seen, but Oba Femi has that same swagger and aura.
There are plenty of other options to win the Rumble this year. Roman Reigns is probably the odds on favorite, and it would be very rewarding to see him finally win one the fans would be happy about. Sami Zayn is desperate to finally win a World Championship, and he is mega over with the crowd in Saudi Arabia. The aforementioned Bron Breakker offers a separate path to crown a young rising star.
Clearly, there are plenty of choices, but the one WWE needs right now is Oba Femi. If the fan euphoria around Drew McIntyre’s win showed us anything, it’s that WWE fans are craving something new and different and unexpected. Watching Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns and John Cena at the top of the card for years was a lot of fun, but now it’s time for fresh blood. No one is fresher and more ready than Oba Femi. Given how he’s been protected, WWE clearly knows what they have. I just don’t know if they have the guts to do something this bold.
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