It’s that point of 12 months again, the time where 30 men and 30 women all compete in a match to find out who gets a world title shot at WWE WrestleMania. The Royal Rumble is finally here.
The 2026 Royal Rumble Premium Live Event takes place on January 31 in Saudi Arabia, and each the lads’s and ladies’s Rumble matches are shaping as much as be a few of the most unpredictable in recent times. As usual, the total field for each matches have not been announced to permit room for surprises, debuts, and returns, and in the newest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer speculated on who fans might see within the Rumble matches this Saturday.
Starting with the women, a complete of 17 women have officially been confirmed for the Rumble match on the time of writing, with more set to be announced on the January 30 episode of “WWE SmackDown.” Last 12 months’s winner Charlotte Flair, the first-ever women’s Rumble winner Asuka, and former winners like Bayley, Rhea Ripley, and Becky Lynch are amongst the participants, but one previous winner that hasn’t been confirmed just yet is the 2021 winner, Bianca Belair. Meltzer noted that Belair has been out of motion since WrestleMania 41, but must be ready to come back back by now and is rumored to be involved on this weekend’s Rumble.
Someone who has never been in a Rumble match is AJ Lee, who made her return to WWE in September 2025 and has since competed in the ladies’s WarGames match at Survivor Series. Meltzer stated that Lee has got a WWE Women’s Intercontinental Championship match planned against Becky Lynch, something that was penciled in when Lee returned to wrestling, and that the Rumble match this weekend might be used to begin that program which is more likely to conclude at WrestleMania 42. There’s also the potential of some involvement from the “WWE NXT” roster as each Kelani Jordan and Sol Ruca are reportedly in Saudi Arabia, while Lola Vice and Jacy Jayne are rumored to be there as well, with Meltzer noting that Jayne wasn’t on the January 27 episode of “WWE NXT” and was pulled from this weekend’s house show loop.
The Men’s Rumble Could Have A Number Of Surprises
Very like the ladies’s Royal Rumble match, 17 men have been confirmed to be involved in the lads’s Rumble match, including the winners of the previous 4 Rumble bouts, Jey Uso, Cody Rhodes, and Brock Lesnar.
One man who was confirmed to be within the match was Rey Mysterio, but his position within the match is unsure resulting from an injury he suffered on the January 26 episode of “WWE Raw.” Meltzer believes that Rey might be replaced depending on how serious the injury is, but that the Rumble match is straightforward to guard someone in, and that WWE could run an angle to maintain him within the match. Rey’s son Dominik Mysterio has also been out of motion with an injury, but while Meltzer has not received an update on Dominik’s condition, he was told that he would likely be ready to come back back for the Rumble match. While the AAA Mega Champion might be back in time, AAA is more likely to have some representation within the Rumble match as Mr. Iguana is reportedly in Saudi Arabia.
Meltzer stated that there are quite a lot of roster members that must be expected to be within the match, including LA Knight who was reportedly planned to return on the event after doing an injury angle at the tip of 2025. Aleister Black is one other name fans could see because the broken tailbone he suffered firstly of 2026 is not serious enough to maintain him out of Saudi Arabia, and Chad Gable can also be rumored to be ready for a return after his own spell on the sidelines with an injury. Meltzer noted that Grayson Waller was pulled from the identical “NXT” house show loop that Jacy Jayne was, but that he could just be used for “SmackDown,” which is similar situation for Fraxiom and The Motor City Machine Guns, who’re slated to be within the country.
Then there’s the case of potential recent signings. Meltzer didn’t say anything about former AEW TNT Champion Powerhouse Hobbs, or WWE’s newest Saudi signing Fahd Tuwaiq, but he did say that there’s a possibility of Chris Jericho finally making his WWE return. Jericho has been expected in the corporate for all of January but has yet to look, and remains to be on the AEW roster page on the time of writing. Nonetheless, Jericho is anticipated in WWE very soon, and Meltzer believes that the Rumble match is the natural landing place for him.