WWE Royal Rumble 2016: 4 Early Choices to Win and Headline WrestleMania 32

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Roman Reigns

Reigns was the winner of the 2015 Royal Rumble but is a top candidate to win in 2016.

If Reigns wins, he would somewhat defy the Rumble statistics. He would only be the fourth star to win back-to-back matches, is considered a “rising star” despite winning last time and also lost his title match.

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So why does Reigns have a good chance of winning again?

We know that WWE still has high hopes for the former Shield man. He has only taken one pinfall since WrestleMania 31 (Bray Wyatt at WWE Battleground). WWE clearly knows that they have to rebuild his stock after losing on Seth Rollins’ cash in, so it’s been a process for the past six months. It means we’re probably going to see Reigns in the title picture in the near-future. Whether that begins before, at or during the Royal Rumble remains to be seen.

WWE runs the risk of having fan backlash against Reigns once again if he’s still a babyface for this. We saw him get booed at WWE SummerSlam, despite receiving a better reaction from other arenas. This Royal Rumble is in Orlando, Florida, so the crowd response should be positive.

Reigns is the most interesting case of the bunch so we’ll have to see if WWE goes through with him winning.

(h/t Pro Fight DB)

Next: Candidate No. 4