10 Fascinating WWE Royal Rumble 2012 Facts

6. John Cena Was Strongly Considered As A Possible Rumble Winner

Sheamus Royal Rumble 2012
WWE.com

John Cena was busy the night of the 2012 Royal Rumble, facing off with Kane as part of a rivalry to see who could do a better job of making the increasingly-popular Zack Ryder look like a pathetic, helpless tool (eventual winner: Eve Torres).

There were other plans for Cena at the event, and one can only imagine the reaction had they actually come to pass. At one point, Cena was in the running to actually win the Rumble match, but there would be a conundrum: he'd already agreed to face The Rock at WrestleMania 28 in the biggest challenge match of the modern era. So what to do?

According to those plans, Cena would have voluntarily abdicated his title shot, which would have rendered the Rumble match a waste of time. On the one hand, it would demonstrate the importance of the match with Rock, but it would also devalue the Rumble's importance, a match that SuperCena didn't need to win. Seems like this was a close call.

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Justin has been a wrestling fan since 1989, and has been writing about it since 2009. Since 2014, Justin has been a features writer and interviewer for Fighting Spirit Magazine. Justin also writes for History of Wrestling, and is a contributing author to James Dixon's Titan series.