WWE Royal Rumble 2026: 5 Nightmares That Could Come True
3. A Legend Goes Back On Retirement
Listen, the pop from Riyadh's wrestling-daft masses would be audible from the moon if none other than John Cena marched out to take his place in the 30-man Rumble. Similarly, but to a lesser extent, people would lose their minds if Bill Goldberg was involved in the bout and cracked his dome hardway on a door before heading to the ring for a short shift.
Neither return should happen. Why would they?! Realistically, Cena isn't going back on his retirement vows so soon, and Goldberg has nothing to gain from showing face himself. Not that either guy needs it, but...money talks. What if the payday Saudi's money masters put on the table is too big to resist? Cash changes pretty much everything.
WWE's 2025 would come crumbling down in an instant if 'Super Cena' told Stu the cameraman, "I'm back. Let's go to work" before sprinting down the aisle for some Royal Rumbling. Triple H's league spent the entirety of last year telling the tale of John's send off - it wasn't always great, and some of it was clunkier than a Viscera vs. Mark Henry match, but 2025 belonged to Cena's retirement.
On that note, what kind of message would this send to fans? Cena or Goldberg showing up in Saudi at the end of the month would nullify the story being told in Gunther’s match with AJ into the bargain, and that doesn't sound like the right thing to do. After all, AJ is steaming mad at the heel for gloating about putting legends out to pasture, so his purpose would ring hollow if one of those icons nabbed one final payday for the hell of it.