It has been made official.
Brock Lesnar will indeed be in the WWE Royal Rumble match this year, which will see Roman Reigns defend his WWE World Title against 29 other superstars at one of the biggest events on the WWE calendar.
Brock Lesnar made his return on Monday night’s edition of Raw in New Orleans. Lesnar made his way to the ring and proceeded to viciously attack The New Day, Kevin Owens, Sheamus and Alberto Del Rio before WWE World Heavyweight champion Roman Reigns got hit with an F5 from the former UFC and WWE Champion.
Lesnar will play a big role at the Royal Rumble at the Amway Center on Sunday, Jan. 24 and possibly further on toward WrestleMania.
Lesnar has not competed in the actual Royal Rumble match since winning the over-the-top Battle Royal in 2003 in only his 2nd year with WWE. Believe it or not 2003 was also the last time Lesnar participated in a match in Orlando on a June 12th edition of Smackdown against the Big Show, which had one of the more memorable moments when Lesnar and Big Show caused the ring to collapse .
Lesnar left the WWE in 2004 as he was burned out with the full-time WWE schedule. Lesnar tried out to make the Minnesota Vikings in training camp, which he came up short. Lesnar joined the UFC in 2008 where he would make himself the biggest draw UFC ever seen in the Heavyweight division.
Lesnar did what many critics thought was impossible. Becoming the UFC Champion at UFC 91 beating Randy Couture. Lesnar would leave UFC after a loss to Alistair Overeem at UFC 141 in 2011, in big part due to health issues as Lesnar mentioned his struggles with diverticulitis right after the fight.
Lesnar returned to WWE in 2012 on a limited schedule where he has been a big success as along with John Cena has been one of major faces of the company. Lesnar chose to stay with WWE last year over coming back to UFC by signing a new deal with WWE which he announced on ESPN’s SportsCenter.
With Lesnar’s confirmation, the match now has 29 participants, meaning there is only room for one surprise entrant if all the following names end up competing as advertised. According to Bovada, Lesnar is tied for 2nd favorite to win the Royal Rumble at 3 to 1 along with Triple H who at this time has not officially been announced to be part of the Royal Rumble match.
Roman Reigns is the odds makers favorite to win the Rumble at 2 to 1 odds.
Roman Reigns
Kalisto
Dean Ambrose
Kofi Kingston
Big E
Xavier Woods
Brock Lesnar
Chris Jericho
Bray Wyatt
Erick Rowan
Luke Harper
Braun Strowman
Big Show
Stardust
Goldust
Jimmy Uso
Jey Uso
Titus O’Neil
Ryback
Alberto Del Rio
Sheamus
Dolph Ziggler
Mark Henry
D-Von Dudley
Bubba Ray Dudley
Adam Rose
Heath Slater
Bo Dallas
Curtis Axel
