Opinions

Jay’s Ways – Shocking 2022 Royal Rumble Winner

Justin Watry

Ladies and gentlemen, I have some breaking news for all of you. This year’s Royal Rumble winner is going to be a SHOCKING entrant. Nobody has called it yet…until now…

Big E is not winning the 2022 Royal Rumble match. Sorry. I hate to break it to everybody reading this, but WWE already wasted a WrestleMania Moment on a member of The New Day. Remember that dud of a title run by Kofi Kingston? Good ol’ KofiMania? Yeah, the company isn’t doing that garbage again. Moving on…

AJ Styles isn’t winning the Rumble. It’d be cool, but I hope he has something brewing with Edge or a different legend. At least, that is my hope. No Styles-Rumble victory. Sorry.

Madcap Moss, Sheamus, The Street Profits, the Mysterios, Happy Corbin, Sami Zayn, Johnny Knoxville (ha!), Damian Priest, and all those other guys are just in there to fill space. I apologize if that is being too blunt, but none of those guys are taking it. Austin Theory sure would fit the bill of expect the unexpected…but maybe in a few years. Not 2022.

I know what all of you are thinking here. Brock Lesnar is going to win the Royal Rumble, right? he will get screwed out of his WWE Championship match versus Bobby Lashley earlier in the evening, enter the Rumble late and win the whole darn thing. Right? Paul Heyman and Roman Reigns screw him out of the title, and he comes back stronger than ever to seek revenge, right?

Right?

Wrong.

Sorry folks, I am not that predictable. Brock Lesnar isn’t winning the 2022 Rumble nor is Lashley. I think we have all had our own fill of the Kevin Owens – Seth Rollins – Bobby Lashley – Big E combination in the past few weeks. That is NOT a WrestleMania worthy WWE Title match. Seriously, no more of those four guys battling each other on RAW. We have seen it. Time to move on, so no…Lesnar isn’t getting screwed out of his title and then winning the Rumble.

Nope.

I know what you are all thinking now. Well, that it has to be a surprise. John Cena has a certain Peacemaker show to promote. You never know when he will pop in again. With that illustrious 17th World/WWE Championship win in his back pocket, that story always writes itself. Could be Cena? Maybe The Undertaker? Do not forget Texas is hosting WrestleMania in April. I assume he is getting the WWE Hall of Fame headline spot, but why not one last ride? This time, in front of fans.

No, no, no. It won’t be either of those two. Or Bill Goldberg. Or Seth FREAKIN’ Rollins. Or Randy Orton or Riddle or anybody else you can think of. You ready for the reveal?

Enough stalling.

Drumroll please.

The winner of the 2022 Royal Rumble match will be none other than…

…

Roman Reigns.

Yep, the Head of the Table. The Tribal Chief. The current defending and reigning Universal Champion. The man who has dominated the entire industry since August 2020. He just passed the record for longest reigning Universal Champion, and he is not quite done yet making history. A few things have jumped out at me in recent weeks, so let’s dive deeper.

First of all, he sure seems to be leaning towards the ‘face’ side of things as of late. The entire ACKNOWLEDGE ME thing has become his catchphrase. Something he can say to each and every city he appears in. They cheer and boom, big pop and new merchandise. People loved his heel act so much he is beginning to get cheered. Whether intentional or not, just the sound of his theme music gets fans buzzing.

Secondly, reports continue to sprinkle in that Seth Rollins was going to be WWE Champion coming out of Day One. Keep in mind that rumor came up BEFORE he was named Reigns’ Rumble opponent. Kinda weird for WWE to randomly toss Rollins from Raw over to Smackdown just for this showdown. Almost as if there is more than meets the eye? Like Rollins is not just some pointless ‘fill in’ opponent. Kinda like he’s going to win? All WWE would have to do is flip flop the WWE and Universal Title scenes. Not a huge deal considering Rollins has already made it known he’ll return to Raw with the belt, which would leave Lesnar to return back to Smackdown as planned.

Third, Roman Reigns just broke the record for being the longest reigning Universal Champion of all-time. That record is secured. As much as we would love for him to hold that bad boy until NEXT YEAR’S WRESTLEMANIA to take on The Rock, I don’t know if that is possible. If Rocky is available. If it will actually happen. If fans can put up with another full year without a title change. Even for a few months, it would shock the world and spice up the Roman Reigns act.

Last but not least is the entire Brock Lesnar situation. We saw WWE pivot a little bit at Day One. Now they will need to pivot back. Paul Heyman being with Brock Lesnar tells me they will be on the ‘heel’ side by default. You can already see Brock starting to get cocky again, with Heyman back by his side. If he is the heel in all of this, that makes Reigns the face. Perfect for a Rumble Universal Title screwjob and then a surprising Royal Rumble match win later.

Roman Reign is BY FAR the top star in the industry, so why not have the Road to WrestleMania be all about him? Why not? He is the one moving the needle, he is the champion, he is head and shoulders above everybody else on both rosters, and yes – he is your 2022 Royal Rumble winner.

Believe that.