Ranking Early WWE Men's Royal Rumble 2026 Favorite After SummerSlam 2025 Results
With WWE SummerSlam 2025 weekend done, fans now shift their focus toward Royal Rumble coming up at the onset of 2026.
Although no date has been officially set for the always-anticipated event, it's been confirmed it will emanate from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, marking the first time the Rumble will be held overseas.
Of course, anything can change in the coming months, including injuries, debuting and departing stars, and much more. However, looking at the landscape of WWE post-SummerSlam, a few names can be considered early favorites to win the men's Rumble match in particular.
SummerSlam ended with Seth Rollins and Cody Rhodes leaving as the new world heavyweight and undisputed WWE champions, respectively. The former successfully cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase on the newly-crowned Punk to take his title, while the latter avenged his loss to John Cena from WrestleMania 41 to regain the gold.
It's safe to assume they'll be in possession of their prestigious prizes for the foreseeable future, and there are a number of notable names already waiting in the wings for a shot at both belts. Winning the Rumble would guarantee them a world championship opportunity on The Grandest Stage of Them All.
The following six Superstars are the best bets to reign supreme in the 2026 men's Rumble, at least as of early August 2025.
6. Jacob Fatu
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Despite his questionable loss to Solo Sikoa inside of a steel cage at SummerSlam, Jacob Fatu is unquestionably a star on the rise and thus bigger and better things are on the horizon for him.
Fatu regaining the United States Championship from his rival would been the logical outcome, but WWE opted to go in a different direction instead and end their cage clash in anticlimactic fashion. The post-match chaos indicated their bad blood is far from over, though it should be.
The Sikoa vs. Fatu feud has little to light the SmackDown midcard on fire this summer. They've had a stunning lack of chemistry in the ring and neither has benefited greatly from working with the other.
At this point in time, it'd be best for both of them to move on, specifically with Fatu leaving the star-spangled prize in his rearview and continuing his ascent toward world championship glory.
He'd be the perfect challenger for Cody Rhodes as WWE champion sometime this fall, even if it were merely a one-off. However, if WWE wanted to hold off on Fatu vs. Rhodes until WrestleMania 42, that would work just as well.
Fatu winning the Royal Rumble would instantly cement his status as a main event player and put him in a prominent position toward the top of the card—where he belongs.
5. Drew McIntyre
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As a former Royal Rumble winner, nothing is stopping Drew McIntyre pulling off the impressive feat for a second time in 2026 and punching his ticket to the main event of WrestleMania 42.
The Scot has had a hot heel run dating back to the fall of 2023, but he hasn't done much of note since his stellar rivalry with CM Punk wrapped up in October 2024.
McIntyre has settled scores with Sami Zayn and Damian Priest but has largely been relegated to the midcard scene on SmackDown, just recently teaming with Logan Paul to beat Randy Orton and country music artist Jelly Roll at SummerSlam.
The Scottish Warrior is long overdue for another opportunity at the main event level, and a feud with Cody Rhodes over the Undisputed WWE Championship would make the most sense given their extensive history.
Similar to Rhodes vs. Fatu, it's a storyline WWE can just as easily explore this fall, but it's very much a 'Mania-worthy encounter. McIntyre can spend the next few months being built back up and scoring high-profile victories before winning the 2026 men's Royal Rumble.
Winning the 2020 Rumble catapulted him to superstardom and was supposed to establish him as the new face of WWE. It did for a time, but Rhodes has since usurped him in that spot, and that alone can be the catalyst for a rivalry between them en route to WrestleMania.
4. Roman Reigns
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After the record-setting four-year run Roman Reigns had with the Universal Championship, fans aren't ready to entertain the idea of him being back in the mix for a world title anytime soon.
That said, The OTC remains a strong candidate to emerge victorious in the 2026 men's Royal Rumble, regardless of which world championship he ultimately sets his sights on.
The Tribal Chief came close to clinching the Rumble win earlier this year before being thwarted by Seth Rollins and CM Punk, two longtime rivals he went on to face in a Triple Threat at WrestleMania 41. There, he was betrayed by Paul Heyman, who joined Rollins, and they've all been embroiled in a storyline with each other since then.
While Reigns and Jey Uso knocked off Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed in the SummerSlam Night 1 opener, Rollins closed the evening by becoming the new world heavyweight champion in what Michael Cole coined the "ruse of the century."
That significantly increased the odds of Reigns winning the upcoming installment of the men's Rumble, which would then set him up to face Rollins in a World Heavyweight Championship clash at WrestleMania 42.
The two are on a collision course and will go one-on-one eventually, but gold doesn't necessarily need to be up for grabs. It's a realistic possibility that can't be completely counted out, nonetheless.
3. Bron Breakker
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Being handpicked by Paul Heyman to be in a Seth Rollins-led faction has its perks, especially now that The Visionary is the world heavyweight champion.
From the moment they joined forces on this year's post-WrestleMania Raw, fans speculated as to when tensions between Breakker and Rollins would begin to boil over. A WrestleMania match didn't seem all that unreasonable, and although they're currently a cohesive unit, that doesn't mean they won't be at odds with each other come WrestleMania 42 season.
Breakker vs. Roman Reigns looks more likely for the event based on their interactions leading up to SummerSlam, but Breakker vs. Rollins can be seamlessly set up with the former winning the men's Royal Rumble next year, provided the latter is still holding the gold by then.
It could follow a similar formula to Triple H vs. Batista from the early months of 2005 when Batista broke away from Evolution and won his first of many world titles by beating The Game, his mentor. Such simple storytelling would effectively get Breakker over with the audience as a main event-level babyface.
WWE can wait to deliver this marquee match until later down the road when The Vision stable has run its course, but going ahead with it at WrestleMania 42 wouldn't be the worst thing, either.
2. CM Punk
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Winning the Royal Rumble has always alluded CM Punk. He was a front-runner to come out on top in the 2024 and 2025 installments but fell short on both occasions.
The Best in the World did go on to headline Night 1 of WrestleMania 41 as part of a Triple Threat and did briefly hold the World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam (before being cashed in on), but the Rumble is the one accolade he has yet to achieve in WWE. That could be crossed off his bucket list in 2026.
Punk will be in hot pursuit of the title going forward now that he has another reason to wage war with Rollins. The safe choice would be to have them face off again at WrestleMania 42 and for that to be where he finally takes the title (for real), and if so, Punk winning the Rumble would be the appropriate path.
That would require WWE keeping them apart until then, which could be a tall task seeing as how they've already been feuding for the better part of the past two years. It might be in the company's best interest to blow it off before then and for them to have other opponents at WrestleMania next spring, but that doesn't mean Punk can't still win the Rumble and choose to challenge for the WWE Championship on SmackDown instead.
1. Sami Zayn
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For many months now, it's been rather apparent that Sami Zayn is destined to win the World Heavyweight Championship within the next year.
It was always more a matter of when than if, especially once Seth Rollins and Karrion Kross started to taunt him over his inability to become world champ in his WWE career.
Zayn decisively defeated Kross at SummerSlam, but it's unknown what's in store for him beyond his Raw match with Rusev next Monday.
Winning the men's Royal Rumble next year would be the ideal underdog story to tell with him, culminating with him capturing the world heavyweight title against Rollins at 'Mania.
Similar to Punk, the key is to keep him compelling as a character until then and put him in worthwhile storylines for the remainder of the year where he has to continue proving himself as a main event-worthy commodity.
Outlasting his opposition in the Rumble would make for a monumental moment and his championship of choice for The Show of Shows would be quite clear.
Rollins vs. Zayn works as a WrestleMania attraction, and if anyone can be elevated from being the one to unseat Rollins as champ, it's Zayn.
Graham Mirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, has specialized in sports and entertainment writing since 2010. Visit his website, WrestleRant, and subscribe to his YouTube channel for more wrestling-related content.
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