I broke down a few possible scenarios for the Women’s Royal Rumble a couple days ago, now is time for the Men’s match. The Women’s match has a lot of potential winners, but I think the Men’s match has even more. In all honesty, there are about 12-15 performers that I could see winning the match and that isn’t usually the case. I won’t break down 12-15 performers, but what I will do is give a handful of possibilities.

Will The Beast Return?

Brock Lesnar has been fresh on a lot of fans minds mainly because he hasn’t been on TV since April and it is about time for him to tear up the competition once again. The rumor was that he was waiting to have a crowd back to make his return and since there will be fans at WrestleMania 37, this could be a sign of his reemergence. He has had WrestleMania matches with both of the current champions, so if he enters, I don’t know if he’ll win, but don’t rule it out by any means. Lesnar currently has the 3rd highest odds to win the match at +600. He unceremoniously entered the match last year even though he was already the WWE Champion and absolutely dominated the match, until he was eventually eliminated by the winner, Drew McIntyre. Could it be another similar showing this year? Quite possibly.

The Odds-On Favorite

Surprisingly enough, or maybe not, Daniel Bryan is the odds-on favorite for the match. Bryan hasn’t had a lot of momentum here lately, but he’s one of those performers that doesn’t need to have a lot of momentum to win a big match at this point in his career. A Royal Rumble victory is seemingly the only thing missing from his career accomplishment resume and in a year like this one, a Daniel Bryan victory could make perfect sense. Especially with him stating that this is likely his last full-time run as a performer.

The Year of the Cyborg?

The Swiss Cyborg that is. Cesaro has been on a roll lately and his momentum could be a sign of a big match win in the near future. Maybe Sunday? Cesaro has yet to get one solid run as a singles performer and a lot of fans would love to see him get a shot at a main event level feud. A Rumble victory would definitely solidify that, but I’m not expecting it. I think he will have a good run in the match and may even be the performer with the longest time in the match, but at +2000 odds, he definitely isn’t the safest option, but then again, anything can happen in this match.

Will This Year’s Winner Be a Former Winner?

At the moment, there are 4 former Royal Rumble winners of the 17 confirmed entries. Those superstars are Randy Orton, Shinsuke Nakamura, Sheamus, and Edge. To be honest, these guys have decent momentum at this particular time. Who has the best shot of the bunch though? I would say Edge and oddsmakers agree with me as well. Edge currently has the 2nd highest odds to win. Two-time winner, Randy Orton surprisingly is sitting at +4000, which are the lowest of the four. Aleister Black, King Corbin, Lars Sullivan, and Murphy currently have equal or better odds to win. Nakamura’s odds are at +1000, which are tied for the 6th highest odds. Sheamus isn’t far behind at +2000. Seth Rollins, Rey Mysterio, and Brock Lesnar are some other former winners that haven’t been announced but are likely to show up Sunday night. Also, it goes without saying, but John Cena is always a possibility to show up unannounced.

Is a Rumble Win “Next” for Goldberg?

Goldberg is in a match already at Royal Rumble, but it hasn’t been a foreign concept for the loser of a big title match to go on to win the Rumble. It doesn’t happen often, but most recently, Becky Lynch did this exact thing in 2019. This would not be a popular win for the fans and I don’t think it is the way they should go for the Rumble, but would it shock me to see him win? Not really. If he does win, he will set his sights on Roman Reigns. Goldberg and Roman were supposed to have a match at WrestleMania 36 and they have taken jabs at each other over the last year. I don’t think this is something the fans want to see, and a lot of people will be pissed, so hopefully this doesn’t happen.

Will the Winner Be a Big Man?

Despite what seems like should be a normal occurrence, big men don’t win the Royal Rumble that often. By big men, I’m talking about guys that are listed above 270 lbs. Of the 36 official Royal Rumble matches, only 7 winners were listed above 270 lbs. and 2 of those have won 2 Rumbles. There are some big men in the match this year that have a decent shot to win. The performer with the highest odds is Keith Lee at +700. Big E is following closely behind at +900. Lee isn’t confirmed but is likely to enter the match. Bray Wyatt is expected to make his return after being set on fire by Randy Orton at TLC and has +1400 odds to win. Braun Strowman is another possibility. He sits at +2000. There aren’t really any other big men that have a real shot at winning the big match, but anything can happen.

Dark Horse Pick

It was tough to find a dark horse pick for the Rumble this year, but I’ll piggyback off of my 2021 WWE Predictions article. In this article, one of my bold predictions was that Roman Reigns would face Samoa Joe at WrestleMania 37. Now I called it bold for a reason, but it is definitely possible. Joe hasn’t had a match since last February and he has expressed interest in returning to the ring when the time is right. He has been on the RAW commentary team for the majority of 2020 and has done a great job, but I think it is time for him to get back in the ring. When he was active, he was one of the most underappreciated performers on the roster and a Rumble win and subsequent match at WrestleMania could be a reward for a job well done. Also, Roman Reigns is pushing the fact that he is the “Tribal Chief” of the WWE. Samoa Joe may have something to say about that. These two have matched up in the past, but there could be some big-time heat to come out of this is Joe wins on Sunday. His odds are at +4000.

NXT Winner?

Last year, I expected more involvement from NXT in the Men’s match, but that wasn’t the case. There were only 2 NXT performers in last year’s Men’s Rumble vs. 12 superstars in the Women’s match. I think it is going to be similar this year. I could see a couple superstars from NXT making an appearance, but I don’t see any of them winning. Adam Cole currently has the best odds to win from NXT at +2500, but I think Karrion Kross has the best shot to win from the yellow and black brand. Kross seems like a good fit for the “main roster”, but I don’t really see him winning, yet anyway. Tommaso Ciampa lost in his fight pit match a couple weeks ago on NXT, so this could be a sign he is moving to RAW or SmackDown, but I guess we’ll see. He has +5000 odds to win. Other than that, I don’t see any competitor from NXT having a real shot to win this match.

Yacs

Possible Scenarios for the 2021 Men's Royal Rumble