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WWE Releases Official Royal Rumble Poster & Some Fans Think It's Teasing The Rock's Return

Royal Rumble fever is here — and it may be affecting our thinking as we guess who's gonna show up.

By Chris Phelan
Dwayne The Rock Johnson; Stage at WWE Royal Rumble

Here’s something to ponder over the weekend!

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It could just be our imagination, but there seems to be a theme of sorts going on with official WWE promotional material for the Royal Rumble. Now we’re not sure if we’re making too much out of nothing, or we have stumbled upon the scoop of the century. It all started with a tweet that's made the rounds around the internet the past few days, posted by the official UK-based WWE on BT Sports' account:

At first look, the poster is filled with many of the top Superstars on the WWE roster, and common sense says that the WWE Universe can expect most — if not all — of them to appear at Royal Rumble on Jan. 28. Even a confident-looking Cody Rhodes appears on the poster, which makes us think that unless something catastrophic happens during the last few weeks of his recovery, we will absolutely see the American Nightmare back in the ring for the event.

Upon closer inspection, there sure does seem to be a lot of lightning bolts on the poster, doesn’t it? Even the caption, which reads “The official #RoyalRumble poster is electrifying,” well, raises an eyebrow, if you can follow what we’re saying.

To make matters more interesting, when you head over to WWE’s official Royal Rumble site, the promotional banner for the Mountain Dew Pitch Black match between Bray Wyatt and L.A. Knight has the same telltale lightning bolts adorning the graphic.

Sure, maybe this all means nothing and this is all just a case of wishful thinking; maybe the WWE design team just got like, really into lightning bolts over the past week. Maybe the theme of the Royal Rumble has been “a lot of lightning bolts” this whole time and we just haven’t noticed. After all, nobody batted an eye back in the 2000s when Backlash pay-per-view had that giant swinging hook all over promotional materials, right?

But maybe this could all be signifying the return of the Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment. Maybe this is all one big Easter egg pointing to the return of the Rock at Royal Rumble.

But maybe it’s nothing. Maybe we’re overthinking it. Still, it’s not the worst thing to think about going into the weekend, if you ask us.

As the official starting point of the Road to WrestleMania, the Royal Rumble has served as a launching pad for the next champions of WWE as well as serving as a platform for unforgettable Superstar returns over the years. Whether the lightning bolts seen in these web banners and posters mean the Rock is going to make an appearance at the Rumble remains to be seen — but let’s be honest, even if the Great One doesn’t show up, the WWE Universe will surely be able to describe Jan. 28 in one word: electrifying.

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