Who Will Eliminate Brock Lesnar From The Royal Rumble?

Whether you like Brock Lesnar & Paul Heyman or not, you have to admit they’re right about one thing: There isn’t a WWE Superstar worthy of getting a WWE Championship match at the 2020 Royal Rumble. During Brock’s absence, most of his would-be challengers have been trading wins amongst themselves. Guys like Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns that used to be champion have been busy with personal squabbles. No one has broken out of the pack and established themselves as Brock’s next top contender.

That will most likely change on Sunday. Brock has ensured this himself by volunteering to enter #1 in the Men’s Royal Rumble Match. While one can’t rule out the possibility of the Beast Incarnate running the table and winning the match, it seems more likely that a WWE Superstar will eliminate Brock and show they deserve a spot at the front of the line.

Who will it be? Today, we will go through the available options and try to figure it out before it happens.

Zero Chance

Elias: His name is Elias. He’s a heck of a musical performer. Hopefully he survives his attempt to have a concert while Brock is in the ring.

Erick Rowan: Rowan is a big boy that could stand up over Brock and look like a threat. Currently, he’s carrying a mysterious cage with a cloth over it. Something tells me that Lesnar & the WWE Championship will be nowhere near whatever this storyline ends up revealing. Hopefully.

R-Truth: As much as I enjoyed R-Truth’s interaction with Brock on Raw, and would be overjoyed if he ended up eliminating Brock from this match and ended up getting a WrestleMania WWE Championship match…it ain’t happening. Besides, R-Truth would just show up at the wrong football stadium in Florida anyway.

Tucker: The member of Heavy Machinery that doesn’t have something going with Mandy Rose doesn’t have a chance here. At 6’2 & 319 pounds he’s another guy that could stand across from Brock, but he hasn’t been built to do much else than stand across from Brock.

10% Chance

Buddy Murphy: Buddy’s finally getting a chance to do something, which is pretty great. However, it’s not a role that lends itself well to “#1 contender for Brock Lesnar’s WWE Championship”. I’ll rate him a little above the previously mentioned folks, but not too far above.

Dolph Ziggler: I’m sure Brock & Dolph have crossed paths at one point or another. Ziggler has no real chance of tossing Brock out here, but I’d like to see him bounce around like a pinball for the guy.

Otis: The member of Heavy Machinery that people care about. Otis has quite the amateur wrestling background, culminating in winning a bronze medal in greco-roman wrestling at the 2014 Pan-American games. He’s a bit too goofy to take seriously against Brock Lesnar right now, but somewhere down the road it could happen.

Shinsuke Nakamura: Nakamura has some history with Lesnar, having lost the IWGP Heavyweight Championship to him back in 2006. Unless Mauro Ranallo is on the Rumble show, I don’t see anybody mentioning this. I also don’t see Nak & Brock continuing their previous feud, but the man has won the Rumble before.

20% Chance

AJ Styles: Styles is being touted as a contender to win the Rumble by some, but I can’t see it happening based off his recent booking. He’s been putting Randy Orton & Drew McIntyre over in the mid-card, which are fine things to do, but not befitting the challenger for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania.

Bobby Lashley: Lesnar vs. Lashley has been something of a dream match for fans that are all about big heavyweight MMA guys for years now. They’ve never found the right time to run the match, and this doesn’t feel like the right time either. Had Lashley been doing anything else for the past few months, he would be more of a contender here.

Braun Strowman: Braun has met Brock on several occasions in the past. None of those went particularly well, and I would be surprised if they re-visited the idea.

Rey Mysterio: Since Brock took care of Rey at Survivor Series, the odds of their meeting again at WrestleMania aren’t great. But every time we count Rey Mysterio out he tends to make the classic comeback, so you can’t totally rule it out.

30% Chance

Aleister Black: Black had a pretty dominant performance against Buddy Murphy over the past several weeks. What’s next? Could it be a shot against the Beast? He’s supposedly in line for big things this year and has been laying waste to people, so it’d only be a slight surprise if it was Black that got the job done at the Rumble.

Randy Orton: He isn’t one of my favorite options, but Randy Orton is always an option for a title match at WrestleMania. Orton last met Lesnar at SummerSlam 2016 and got knocked the heck out. Is it time for revenge? Probably not.

Ricochet: Ricochet had some interaction with Brock on Raw. It didn’t go well.

Based off that, Ricochet doesn’t seem like a threat to Brock at all. However, we saw the reports that Paul Heyman was high on the guy, and like Black, he’s waiting for his chance to do something. So Ricochet just might end up surprising the big lug. I doubt this whole thing happened for no reason.

Rusev: Could the endgame of this whole business with Rusev, Lana & Bobby Lashley be a top face push for Rusev? Stranger things have happened. Really! It would certainly be a good payoff for those that have stuck with the Bulgarian Brute through the good times & bad. People tell me that YouTube loved this angle and Rusev should be a huge star now, so if that’s actually true they should run with it.

40% Chance

Big E: Much has been made of the fact that The New Day never had much to say about Brock whipping Kofi Kingston’s butt in eight seconds. Now would be an opportune time to do such things, especially with E, who people have been predicting massive singles success for since I can remember. He’s only 33 and still has some time to get it done in the singles ranks if he wants, but now would be a great time to do it.

Kevin Owens: KO has yet to add the WWE Championship to his extensive list of accomplishments. He’s gotten over pretty good on Raw as the everyman babyface, and he’s a big enough dude to pose a bit of a threat to Lesnar. He’s a bit busy teaming with Samoa Joe against Seth Rollins and his group at the moment, but he could probably find the time to go after the WWE Championship.

Samoa Joe: Speaking of Joe, he has to go into this tier simply because he’s Samoa Joe. Brock has had some pretty effective matches with Joe, and Joe’s still pretty effective as a babyface coming off of injury. Never a man to rule out.

Seth Rollins: I feel like they’ve gone to the Rollins/Lesnar well too many times at this point, but would we really be surprised if they went back to it now that Seth’s a bad guy again? Switching things up might freshen it up again. Honestly, I really don’t see this happening, but WWE loves having Seth Rollins do things.

50% Chance

Drew McIntyre: Drew’s turned face recently and is getting over pretty well with Raw crowds. He’s a big dude and people have seemingly been waiting for a big push for him from WWE for years now. Could now finally be the time? I can definitely see it happening. It’d be a fresh matchup for sure.

King Corbin: I will never be surprised by Corbin winning anything in WWE. Management loves the guy, and the fans hate him. It’s a good combination. The only problem is that he’s a SmackDown guy right now, and I can’t see him moving unless he just wants to get away from Roman Reigns.

Kofi Kingston: Houston is where people decided that Kofi needed to be WWE Champion. It was that Elimination Chamber match where the fans got super behind him that got WWE to pull the trigger & give Kofi his run on top. As we know, it ended in eight seconds. Kofi’s Rumble appearances over the years have been legendary, but none would be bigger than if he managed to eliminate Brock in Houston.

Roman Reigns: Reigns is the betting favorite to win the Rumble, so he could very well eliminate Brock in the process & move back to Raw to feud with him again. It seems far more likely that he’ll battle the Fiend at WrestleMania for the Universal Championship. Even though I have him high on the list because he’s THE BIG DOG, I don’t see it happening for him & Brock.

Other Options

NXT Superstar: This one seems less likely after watching this past week’s NXT show. The top two options that might take people by surprise (Keith Lee & Matt Riddle) are now occupied with other things. Either guy might end up getting a rocket push on the main roster at some point, but now doesn’t seem to be the time.

Boxing/MMA Star: WWE loves pushing these boxers & MMA fighters on top these days. I don’t really see it panning out for Mania though. Cain Velasquez needs more time to pass so people can forget that Brock squashed him in Saudi Arabia. Tyson Fury is busy with a fight in February and probably doesn’t have time for a Rumble appearance right now. The last thing he needs to do is accidentally injure himself while tossing Brock around.

Edge: He swears he’s not coming back. If he does, he’s not facing Brock. That neck won’t last too long in Suplex City.

So who’s it going to be?

Earlier this week I was on that NXT bandwagon. Now, I don’t see it happening. Given brand alignments and alleged plans, I think it’s going to be Drew McIntyre. The face turn is working for him, he’s big enough to be believable against Brock, and he’d look good doing all that WrestleMania publicity. I see no reason not to go with Drew right now.