WWE Royal Rumble 2023: Predicting All 30 Entrants

16. Cody Rhodes - #15

It is important here not to dispatch Cody Rhodes too late.

While there's a loose thread of fantasy booking linking these entries together, this is true in reality. The latter numbers are stigmatised as those drawn, conveniently, by returning/surprise part-time entrants who go on to win the whole thing. Batista drew #28 in 2014 and was instantly marked as a wheezing, unfit, entitled mercenary who didn't put in a worthy enough shift to earn the victory.

Cody Rhodes must therefore enter at the midway point, if he's to win the whole thing or at least fail nobly with a view to finding another route to WrestleMania. The man to dethrone Roman Reigns, after all this time, can not be seen as somebody who waltzed in at the last minute and was handed that mega-push - nor as somebody who has done little in comparison to Sami Zayn.