Is there anything more exciting than the lead-up to the Royal Rumble? It’s like the start of the holiday season and is filled with so much hope, anticipation, and excitement as it kicks off the “Road to WrestleMania.” Watching the annual 30-man (and now 30-woman) over-the-top battle royal, one of the “Big Four” of WWE premium live events, is a great way to enjoy professional wresting, even if your viewing party is more interested in watching stars from the Attitude Era and other generations get a nostalgia boost.
Another fun thing to do each year as we work our way to the big event is speculate on who will be making their big return as a surprise entrant. That being said, we have put together a list of 10 WWE superstars who stand a good chance at walking through the curtain at the 2023 Royal Rumble.
The Rock
It has been 10 years since Dwayne Johnson, a.k.a. The Rock, last wrestled a sanctioned WWE match (Let’s just forget the whole WrestleMania 32 situation). And while there has always been speculation about the return of “The People’s Champion,” the rumor mill has been going to the extreme in recent months about The Rock coming back for the 2023 Royal Rumble, winning, and challenging his cousin, Roman Reigns, to a title match at WrestleMania 39 in Hollywood.
Do we want to see another part-timer come back and end one of the best championship reigns in modern wrestling history? No, but hearing “If you smell…” near the end of the Men’s Royal Rumble match would be electric, to say the very least.
Cody Rhodes
Cody Rhodes, who made his long-awaited return to WWE at WrestleMania 38 in April 2022, is another wrestler we would all like to see show up in the 2023 Royal Rumble. Earlier this month, we listed “The American Nightmare” as the most likely candidate to win the match and punch his ticket to SoFi Stadium to challenge Roman Reigns in April.
It’s about time for Rhodes to return, as “the son of a son of a plumber” has been out of action since putting on a five-star classic against Seth Rollins at Hell in a Cell 2022, a grueling bout he fought with a torn pectoral muscle, we should add.
Randy Orton
Another injured WWE superstar from a multi-generational wrestling family we’d like to see return for the 2023 Royal Rumble is Randy Orton, who has been out of action since May 2022 with a nasty back injury. Orton was in the middle of one of his most entertaining runs in recent years as part of the RK-Bro tag team alongside Riddle (another wrestler we’d like to see, but who isn’t slated to return until February at the earliest).
Orton has had a great deal of success in the Royal Rumble throughout his 20-year WWE career, winning the 30-man battle royal in 2009 and 2017.
Naomi
Although we most likely won’t be seeing Sasha Banks in the 2023 Royal Rumble after she made her NJPW debut as Mercedes Moné at Wrestle Kingdom 17, it wouldn’t be all that surprising to see her former tag team partner, Naomi, return to WWE months after the pair walked out on the company with the Women’s Tag Team Championship in May 2022.
The two-time SmackDown Women’s Champion has a list of accomplishments to her name in WWE, but one that has long alluded her is a Royal Rumble victory and shot to be in one of the headlining matches on WrestleMania. It should also be noted she has been in every Women’s Royal Rumble since the match’s 2018 debut.
Edge
WWE Hall of Famer Edge has been out of action since suffering a loss to Finn Balor in a physical “I Quit” match at Extreme Rules in October 2022. And while there have been no signs that he’ll return for Royal Rumble, it’s hard to imagine the big event going down without Edge appearing and making life difficult for Balor and his former Judgment Day stablemates.
Like his former Rated-RKO partner Randy Orton, Edge is a two-time Royal Rumble winner, having outlasted 29 other WWE superstars in 2010 and 2021, the latter of which came just one year after he returned from retirement.
Carmella
Carmella, another decorated member of the WWE Women’s roster has been out of action since August 2022, and would make a great addition to the upcoming Women’s Royal Rumble match.
The former SmackDown Women’s Champion and Money in the Bank winner revealed on Instagram in October 2022 that she had an ectopic pregnancy, which resulted in a miscarriage of her child with husband and WWE commentator Corey Graves. We would all love to see her yell out “Mella is money” come late January, but it’s completely understandable if she still needs more time to recover.
Drew McIntyre
Former WWE Champion Drew McIntyre has been out of action since rupturing his eardrum at Survivor Series WarGames in November 2022, but there’s good reason to believe he’ll be back sooner rather than later.
He wouldn’t necessarily have to win the match (McIntyre was the 2022 Royal Rumble victor), but a strong outing that could set up a good feud for the two-time WWE Champion could go a long way as we kick off the “Road to WrestleMania.”
Rey Mysterio
Rey Mysterio, one of the best Latino wrestlers working today, hasn’t wrestled on WWE TV since Fall 2022, though he did appear in those hilarious videos of his son, Dominik, crashing Thanksgiving and Christmas family gatherings. How great would it be to see the masked cruiserweight show up and get revenge on Dominik and the Judgment Day during the 2023 Royal Rumble, kicking off a proper feud for the father and son heading into WrestleMania?
Mysterio has an incredible list of accomplishments in WWE, including being the 2006 Royal Rumble winner, in which he competed for 62 minutes, a WWE record 17 years later.
Natalya
It has been a little more than two months since Natalya was on the receiving end of a brutal onslaught by former SmackDown Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler, and hasn’t been seen since. Since then, Rousey has lost her title to a returning Charlotte Flair, and will more than likely be a heavy favorite to win the 2023 Royal Rumble, that is if Natalya doesn’t make a comeback and spoil things for the former UFC champ.
Natalya could very well make a nice run in the Rumble if she returns, especially considering she lasted 56 minutes during the 2019 event.
Logan Paul
And then there is Logan Paul, who has done a lot in his brief WWE tenure, but a Royal Rumble entrance is not one of them. Paul has been out of action since messing up his knee during Crown Jewel in November 2022, but who’s to say that’s going to stop him from stealing the show once again.
This is a situation where we don’t necessarily want the embattled social media personality to win the match and headline WrestleMania 39, but he’s one hell of an entertainer in the ring and could add some excitement to the mid-portion of the 30-man match.
There are other possibilities for returns during the 2023 Royal Rumble, including legends like Stone Cold Steven Austin, other former superstars like John Morrison, and even nostalgic wrestlers like X-Pac or D’Lo Brown. If you want to see who returns at the 2023 Royal Rumble (as well as watch other upcoming WWE events), you can do so with a Peacock Premium subscription.
