My little list of Who's Who in the Rumble.
GUYS WHO I COULD VERY EASILY SEE WIN IT
Carlito He's both my pick to win the Rumble
and the guy I
want to see win it-- great charisma and talent to boot, what's not to like?
Edge He's been pushed very strongly throughout 2006-07, but I'm not sure they'd do
another Edge/Cena rematch as the WrestleMania main event.
Jeff Hardy He's had two strong runs as I-C Champion since returning, and has been a highlight of RAW.
Shawn Michaels It's been a long time since he's had a title shot, and it
would be something interesting for him to do since HHH is on the shelf indefinitely.
Randy Orton Just to spite me.
The Undertaker It's pretty much the one accomplishment he hasn't achieved, and Batista/Taker has been thrown around for some time as a WM main event possibility.
DARK HORSE CANDIDATES
Shelton Benjamin Shelton's one of the most amazing talents in WWE, but his lack of charisma and a consistent push have been his biggest Achilles heels. (I could also go into a whole racism-in-sports-entertainment diatribe, but I'll postpone.)
Chris Benoit No doubt many would tout him as a favorite, and it's never a good idea to bet against Benoit. But the fact that he won the Rumble back in '04 makes me doubt that he'll be pushed to win it again in '07. The glass ceiling may have been shattered but guys like Chris Benoit don't get pushed to win multiple Rumbles. (I certainly wouldn't be the one to complain if he did, though!)
Ric Flair It'd be a nice story-- Flair gets one last shot at glory, and capitalizes by winning his 17th world heavyweight title on the Grandest Stage of Them All. I put him as a dark horse only because this is the same guy who's been jobbing to freakin' Kenny Dykstra recently.
Finlay WWE could do a lot worse, and I
like Finlay. Not sure I could see him main-eventing a WrestleMania, at least not as the challenger, anyway.
Kane He always puts together an impressive Rumble showing, and if he and The Undertaker were in the ring together for an extended period of time, the Brothers of Destruction would certainly combine for many eliminations. I put him down here 'cuz it's been so long since Kane's main-evented a pay-per-view I don't really see him main-eventing WrestleMania.
King Booker He had a solid run as World Heavyweight Champion and made the road back to the World Title harder for Batista than most expected. But I put him down here 'cuz I think his big push might be over.
Chris Masters I put him down here only because I can't
believe WWE could be stupid enough to let HIM win it. But I've been proven wrong before.
Johnny Nitro He's certainly had a good singles push, but unlike Jeff Hardy for some reason, I still think of Nitro as being one-half of a successful tag-team more than as a successful singles star.
MVP He's gotten plenty of TV time, but I don't think he's over enough to get a WM main event slot. By a long shot.
Rob Van Dam RVD's been WWE and ECW Champion before, of course, and has been pushed as The Guy in ECW, but I'm not sure WWE will ever give him quite the same push he had before simply because of what happened last time.
CM Punk Punk's the only ECW guy other than RVD who I could legitimately see winning the Royal Rumble. Only thing is, I can't see an ECW Title match being the main-event of WrestleMania,
ever, I don't see them pulling Punk out of ECW anytime soon, and I don't think they'd have time for him to build heat with either the WWE or World Heavyweight Champion and make it believable.
Kenny Dykstra He was the one guy in the Spirit Squad WWE wanted you to care about, and he's gotten about a zillion wins over Ric Flair in the past month or two. Plus he's only 20 years old so they might try for the youngest-champion-ever thing like they do every few years.
SNOWBALL'S CHANCE IN HELL
Chavo Guerrero Stranger things have happened, and he's certainly been feuding with Eddie's buddies a lot, but surely they don't make Eddie Guerrero posthumously (figuratively) main event WrestleMania two years in a row, right? Especially since Chavo's a heel.
Matt Hardy I like Matt, but I'm not convinced WWE will ever make him a main-event superstar like I think he's capable of.
Hardcore Holly They may yet be stupid enough to have Randy Orton win the Rumble, but surely the thought of Bob Holly main-eventing WrestleMania scares even Vinnie Mac, right? Right?
The Miz Might be good playing the "Ernest 'The Cat' Miller" role for 2007. Too bad the hair's real and he doesn't have a midget sidekick.
Sabu I haven't been watching ECW as of late (probably haven't been missing anything, anyway), but after Sabu failed to win the ECW Title from The Big Show for the zillionth time I figure his flirtation with the main event was nothing more than WWE teasing his fans.
The Sandman Down here for pretty much the same reason as Sabu. The ECW Originals in general haven't been pushed as anything more than cannon fodder for RAW and SmackDown rejects, and Sandman hasn't been an exception.
Viscera Oh, please.
"Hurt me if you must, but let the duckie go."
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