WWE Royal Rumble: 10 Potential Winners of the Women’s Rumble

Credit: WWE.com

Carmella

While currently the beloved partner of R-Truth and practitioner of a frequent “dance break” on SmackDown Live, don’t underestimate the skills of former SmackDown Women’s Champion Carmella. In 2017, with unlikely ringside assistance, Carmella won the first-ever Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match. Now holding the briefcase, Carmella had her future opportunity saved for the opportune moment.

Despite a few attempts being foiled prior to the bell ringing and saving her contract, Carmella held tight to her briefcase. Prior to Carmella, the longest time frame anyone had held the contract for was 280 days, a record set by “The Rated R Superstar” Edge over a decade ago when he won the inaugural Money in the Bank contract. Edge eventually cashed in on John Cena at New Year’s Revolution 2006 to capture his first WWE Championship.

Carmella’s plan wasn’t much different, as she cashed in after 287 days with the contract. Only two nights after WrestleMania 34, then-SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair was attacked by The IIconics. With the champion vulnerable, Carmella saw her chance and finally cashed in the Money in the Bank contract and became the SmackDown Women’s Champion. After nearly ten months with the briefcase, Carmella had chosen the right opportunity and turned it into championship gold. It’s fitting that her win could be called opportunistic, because that’s exactly how Carmella’s championship reign turned out.

Questionable tactics or not, she picked up big wins in title defenses over Charlotte Flair and Asuka, but ultimately lost the title at SummerSlam. Now having won Mixed Match Challenge with R-Truth, Carmella has earned the coveted Number 30 entry spot. She’ll be the last woman entering the WWE Royal Rumble and will as a result be the freshest competitor in the ring with a group of exhausted opponents, but can she turn that opportunity into a golden ticket to WrestleMania 35?