BY WADE KELLER, PWTORCH EDITOR

On Monday’s Raw, WWE announced that for the first time ever all Raw wrestlers would be eligible for the Royal Rumble. No further explanation was offered, though. It was symbolic of the lackluster hype for one of the marquee annual nights for WWE the last 25 years.

WWE aired a video touting the history of the Rumble, and R-Truth beat The Miz so Miz must enter the Rumble first, but otherwise the focus of the final Raw before the PPV was on supporting matches.

With the Rumble taking place in St. Louis, Mo., Randy Orton’s hometown, and with rumors of Orton wanting to face a heel Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania, perhaps WWE felt it’d be a give-away if they advertised who is actually in the Rumble match. So instead they simply, vaguely said “everyone is eligible” and left it at that.

After all, with John Cena matched up with The Rock at WrestleMania, no one expects Cena to win the Rumble to “earn a title shot” at WrestleMania; plus, Cena is facing Kane on the Rumble undercard. C.M. Punk is already the WWE Champion, and he’s wrestling Dolph Ziggler on the undercard at the Rumble, so he’s not a likely candidate to win. Undertaker, if he were going to be in the Rumble, would surely be advertised ahead of time since his first match back since last year’s WrestleMania would help sell the PPV.

Other than Orton, who seems like even a possible candidate to co-headline WrestleMania against whomever is the WWE Champ or World Champ come April? If you eliminate Cena and Rock and Undertaker, then it’s Big Show, Mark Henry, and Kane. WWE could have, but didn’t, build up Henry, Show, and Kane as possible winners. Instead, they’ve all been involved in major storylines having nothing to do with winning the Rumble. Show and Henry are battling Bryan for the World Title on the undercard and haven’t said a word about the Rumble match itself. Kane is preoccupied with trying to get Cena to embrace the hate and hasn’t thrown his hat in as a Rumble participant.

Chris Jericho said “the world will come to an end as you know it” at the Rumble, so he’s the next best bet to win the Rumble instead of Orton. Storyline-wise, it would make sense for him to face Punk for the WWE Title at WrestleMania. Punk would have to retain the title through the Elimination Chamber, which seems likely in the plans.

Past that, Miz could survive the entire match and get a resurgent push and face Punk, getting his second WrestleMania WWE Title match in a row. Given Miz’s diminished push lately, though, that would be a geniune surprise. So while he’s probably the third most likely winner, it’s a big dropoff from Orton and Jericho.

Triple H could be thrown in and he’d add a credible member of a “final three,” perhaps, but winning seems...... [This concludes the FREE PREVIEW of this VIP-exclusive article. Go VIP to read the rest of this feature article from PWTorch Newsletter #1238 published this week!]

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