Looking At 5 Potential Winners Of The 2022 WWE Women’s Royal Rumble
The month of January brings a lot of excitement to WWE fans because we know the Royal Rumble is coming at the end of the month. This week, I am going to discuss the five potential winners of the 2022 Women’s Royal Rumble match.
The 2022 Royal Rumble takes place on Saturday, January 29 in St. Louis. Last week I discussed five potential winners of the 2022 Men’s Royal Rumble match.
The women’s match has gotten a little bit more buzz due to WWE announcing some of the surprise participants already including The Bella Twins, Lita, Kelly Kelly, and the reigning Impact Knockouts World Champion, Mickie James. Hearing them reference a rival wrestling promotion on live television was surreal in itself. The one difference between the men and women seems to be that Smackdown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair entered herself into the Women’s Royal Rumble.
#5: BAYLEY
This might seem like a long shot, but we’ve seen several times in the Men’s Royal Rumble where a superstar returns from injury early and wins the Rumble match. I think it is reasonable to assume that Bayley could return for the Rumble match if they want her to win. If you believe the reports floating around out there, Bayley’s timetable puts her out of action until mid-February, which would be a few weeks after the Rumble. Below, you can see a Bayley tweet responding to a fan commenting on when he reported return will be.
OMG GOOD TO KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!! THEY ARE ALWAYS ACCURATE
— Bayley (@itsBayleyWWE) January 15, 2022
If she’s up for it, they could easily have her be the surprise #30 entrant to come out, eliminate a few people, and win the Rumble. Then there are three more months until Wrestlemania so she can still rehab her injury without competing. Bayley is the type that can further a program just as easily with the mic as she can in the ring. The story is there too. The current Raw and Smackdown Women’s Champions are both Horsewomen and two women she has a lot of history with. I wouldn’t rule out Bayley. However, as I stated last week in regards to Drew Mcintyre’s injury, if the plan isn’t for her to win the Rumble, I would keep her out of it altogether.
#4: ALEXA BLISS
We saw last week that the road to returning has officially begun for Alexa Bliss. My take on those segments is that this is being used to transform Alexa Bliss out of her creepy character and back to the “normal” Alexa Bliss. That’s just my take.
Given WWE’s admiration for Alexa Bliss, I wouldn’t be surprised if she officially returned at the Royal Rumble. Regardless of what character she uses. She has to be considered a favorite. The return of Bliss, along with Bayley, should give the women’s division the shot in the arm it needs going into Wrestlemania season.
#3: SMACKDOWN WOMEN’S CHAMPION CHARLOTTE FLAIR
I know this may seem out of left field, but hear me out here. Usually, when WWE puts one of the World Champions in the Royal Rumble, there’s a reason behind it. Whether it’s to defend the title in the Royal Rumble such as Roman Reigns. Or whether it’s to set up a feud with the person who eliminates you such as Brock Lesnar and Drew Mcintyre in 2020. Again, if the reports are to be believed, Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks seem to be on a collision course for Wrestlemania. That means that Sasha likely won’t be there to eliminate Charlotte as she’s nursing an injury that will put her out 6-8 weeks. So another theory is that Charlotte Flair wins the Women’s Royal Rumble which means she gets to choose her own opponent for Wrestlemania.
Like a natural heel, she says she’s not facing anybody and is taking the show off. Sasha Banks then comes out and goads Charlotte into either choosing her for Wrestlemania or having a match in which Sasha earns her match at Wrestlemania. It is an easy story to tell. I’m not saying that’s the story I want them to tell, but it is one I can see them going with.
#2: LIV MORGAN
Liv Morgan has come a long way over the last few months. She came so close to beating Becky Lynch on two occasions. I was at the WWE Day 1 show and she was massively over with the audience. They bought into every pinning attempt. I think she is a reasonable choice to win the Women’s Royal Rumble. It would be a great story to tell of her getting knocked down to the bottom and working her way back up to winning the Rumble and getting her revenge against Becky Lynch at Wrestlemania. To be honest, if I was able to choose the winner of the Royal Rumble, it would be Liv Morgan. However, that doesn’t mean I’ll be mad if the #1 pick ends up winning….
#1: BIANCA BELAIR
It looks like Bianca Belair is on pace to become the first woman to win two Women’s Royal Rumbles. I started way back at Summerslam to not rush to judgment on Becky Lynch beating Bianca Belair in 26 seconds. I got laughed at for saying to let it play out even after Becky beat Bianca twice in the follow up. I said that Binance would be the eventual one to dethrone Becky Lynch and I was met with Kofi Kingston comparisons and overall lack of faith in Bianca’s overall direction. What has happened since then? She’s remained strong while they got her away from Becky for a little bit. Now comes the Women’s Royal Rumble and the most logical choice to win the match is Bianca Belair.
Whether she wins or not, I’m still of the belief that she will be Becky Lynch’s opponent at Wrestlemania. The easiest way to get there is obviously having her win the Royal Rumble match. Bianca stated about a year ago that her goal was to defeat all of the Four Horsewomen. She defeated Sasha Banks at Wrestlemania 37. She followed that up by defeating Bayley. That’s two down and two to go. I think she adds Becky Lynch to that list at Wrestlemania 38 as she becomes the WWE Raw Women’s Champion.
FINAL THOUGHTS
There were others I considered such as Lita but I think she is one and done at the Rumble despite her talks of one more run on Smackdown. Then there was Sasha Banks but I feel like her injury is too fresh for her to return at the Rumble even in a #30 spot. I also considered Naomi, but I honestly feel like they’re stretching this feud with Sonya Deville so they can get a Wrestlemania match out of it, which would take her out of contention. I feel like those are five solid picks. I’m still riding with Bianca Belair as a two-time Royal Rumble winner.
Thanks for reading. Check out my TJRWrestling writing archive here. I’m on Twitter @GiftedMoney talking about wrestling among other things, so feel free to message me on there with any thoughts or comments. Until next time.