Cody Rhodes has declared himself as the first person to be officially an entrant into this year's Royal Rumble match.
On this week's episode of WWE Friday Night SmackDown (full results here), the opening segment of the show was Drew McIntyre addressing his title win. Among other topics, he stated that there was a clause that he had SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis add as a stipulation to the 3 Stages of Hell match from last week, wherein if Rhodes lost the title, he wouldn't be granted an automatic rematch. [Note: Remember how WWE made it a point to say that that was no longer a thing, but then quietly started to just do it anyway? Pepperidge Farm remembers!]
As a result, Rhodes will have to work his way back up from the bottom, so to speak, even though he's obviously not at the back of the line by any means. Nevertheless, he still needs to earn a title opportunity, and The American Nightmare addressed that.
While pointing out that his title reign had grown "episodic" to many people, and dealing with a crowd that wanted to boo him until he mentioned that they should get a WrestleMania (which selfishly turned them around to being pro-Rhodes for the rest of the segment), Rhodes has decided to announce that he is going to be in the 2026 Royal Rumble as a means to earn his way back into the title scene for WrestleMania in Las Vegas.
If Rhodes were to win, he would tie Stone Cold Steve Austin as the only two wrestlers to win three Royal Rumbles. Currently, he's in a group with nine others who have two wins (being Hulk Hogan, Shawn Michaels, John Cena, Batista, Triple H, Randy Orton, Edge, Brock Lesnar, and Charlotte Flair, in order of when they accomplished that feat)
Whether or not he can pull off a hat trick will be interesting, especially since the stadium from King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia isn't even completed yet, calling into question whether the Royal Rumble event is even going to be able to happen there by Saturday, January 31st when it is scheduled to go down.
As of yet, no one else has declared themselves for the men's match, nor any female WWE Superstars for the Women's Royal Rumble.
Is Cody Rhodes going to win the Royal Rumble this year? Drop your predictions in the comments below!