Chris Jericho has to be in the running. It's crazy how an innocent (and I assume unplanned) gimmick like The List of Jericho and the Best Friend pairing with Kevin Owens made Chris Jericho his most interesting since the major 2008 heel run. He went from being a groan-worthy returnee every few months to actually being one of WWE's MVPs. The run will fizzle out soon so I hope they make the most of it before it's gone.

AJ Styles had such a rough start, including the loss to Jericho at Mania, but he's definitely the biggest star of 2016. He did what so many more before him failed to do: make a name for himself without WWE, then finally sign with WWE and make an even bigger name for himself. He took a diamond-encrusted career and dipped it in 24 karat gold (I know that probably wouldn't work).

Calling it now. I don't wanna ruin it for the rest of you, so don't click if you want a huge surprise at the Rumble.

So this year's Rumble... I can't, off the top of my head, think of a bigger one in terms of star power (at least since maybe sometime in the 90s before WWF's big names went to WCW): Goldberg, Lesnar, Undertaker, and probably another major name to be announced with it being 3 weeks out. And then there's Rollins, and several other main event stars on the two main rosters still to be announced, as well.

Shawn said he wasn't going to be in it, but... I wouldn't be so sure. For him to make an appearance tonight just to promote a movie seems kinda pointless. And Balor is also a potential surprise entry, and would make it even bigger.

Damn the winner is just 19, it was a GREAT tournament

My new prediction- Dean Ambrose wins the rumble and faces Cena at Mania.

HBK is too fat for the big return I originally predicted
Taker, Brock, Goldberg are too big to need it
Braun, Baron Corbin, etc... aren't ready for the big win yet

So Ambrose is the only guy that fits the bill for me. He's still not a full time established main eventer like the other two Shield members, but giving him this woule push him up there. A Vince/HHH guys wins and the crowd doesn't revolt? That's better than the last few rumbles lol.

I really think it'll be a "surprise" entry. Taker, Goldberg, and Lesnar (and all the other notable names in the Rumble this year) are distracting from returnee/call-up entries. I'm going with Balor as the winner. But I wouldn't be surprised if the rumors/speculation of a Samoa Joe entry and win come true.

Personally, I'd love for Taker to win it, setting him up for a likely final title shot in Texas. As things stand, his final WrestleMania match probably won't have much impact otherwise, and he deserves something more than another bout with an established name.

The audacity to put Roman in there was actually kinda hilarious.

Orton doesn't make a ton of sense at the moment. This obviously means that Cena is losing at Elimination Chamber, but to who? Is Bray v Randy really a Mania main event when their first match so was meh. Randy v AJ would be cool I guess.

GURL.

They're gonna feed Taker to Reigns at WM, aren't they? And this might actually be Taker's last mania.

Like I'm speechless. Reigns wont ever recover from beating taker on his last match.

Despite a great number of big names in the Rumble this year, it was kind of underwhelming. Orton is an unusual winner. He's already won in the past, and hasn't really been a main event star for awhile now either. I don't know, it feels like he was chosen pretty last minute by Vince/creative, I doubt this had weeks/months of preparation.

And Reigns being #30 and being one of the final two... I like Reigns, and believe WWE fans treat him unfairly, but what an underwhelming final entry and result following the almost consecutive entries of Lesnar, Goldberg and Taker. The audience really quieted down after that.

Overall though, a solid/strong Rumble. All the singles matches were very good.

Rollings might be out of wrestlemania?

That is a HUGE loss if real, the match that has had the most build up may not happen?!?!

The rumored mania card is awful. This year had sooo much potential and instead were gonna get the likes of Cena/Nikki vs Miz/Maryse , AJ v Shane and the title matches will be Goldberg/Lesnar and Wyatt/Orton.

We all knew Goldberg and Lesnar was going to happen and will close the show. Might as well have a title involved. It should be interesting to see how they pull off a genuine match that doesn't get booed out of the building.

Royal Rumble continued the streak of horribly mishandled Rumble matches. How do you get down to Reigns and Orton? And Orton wins? Is this 2004? With big names already confirmed for Mania, it was a chance to have a better name win the Rumble. Chris Jericho should have won and built a major turn on Kevin Owens. Heck, give it to Goldberg, then have an infuriated Lesnar stop at nothing for a rematch, even winning the Universal championship to face Goldberg at Mania. It devalues the title a bit but no more than they already will if they make Goldberg v. Lesnar for the Universal title.

Well I'm guessing they knew Orton would be booed unless they brought their biggest heel out there to challenge them. It was a very rare instance of self awareness when it comes to Roman.

But as you said, why not go with someone younger like Bray? It would be the biggest accomplishment of his career (by far) and get us to the exact same Wyatt showdown.

I saw that the odds were strongly in favor of Orton going into the weekend. What changed?

How could you KO?

The Festival of Friendship was the best thing Raw has done since the brand split though.

I thought they'd break-up the night after Fastlane. Great segment, and quite surprising.

Also, BRAY! NAOMI! Let's just hope they don't drop the titles almost immediately.

Lol Naomi. Poor babe.

But when you hace Queen Alexa making D-Bry look like a fool on the mic. It doesn't matter. She is so faaaaar above everyone not named Charlotte. She is the future of the women's dividion

Jesus. The crowd is rude tonight.

Aries v Neville is the most exciting Mania match. Still can't believe we are going with AJ v Shane...

I don't get the fascination with injecting Shane into wrestling. A Mania match will be wasted for AJ as it was last year for Taker.

How do u go from Cena vs Taker to that mixed tag team mess?

WE WANT PAIGE to the New Day beat might be the best chant ever

Thank you Undertaker!