WWE Rumors: ‘Royal Rumble’ Entrants, Enzo Amore Injury, Baron Corbin Push, Batista, Kenny Omega

WWE rumors are a never-ending conveyor belt of possibility, intrigue, and debate for WWE fans. The latest batch should be sure to get people guessing, as they concern entrants to the 2017 WWE Royal Rumble, a potential injury to a popular Raw Superstar, a bright future for a SmackDown Live up-and-comer, and a top WWE name paying tribute to a New Japan Pro Wrestling star.

The field for this year’s Royal Rumble is fairly thin in terms of numbers so far, if not star power. Eight names have been confirmed, including Goldberg and Brock Lesnar (who so memorably fought at Survivor Series) and Chris Jericho (who will also be trapped in a shark cage during the WWE Universal Championship match between his best friend Kevin Owens and challenger Roman Reigns).

New Day in the 'Rumble. Wonder what Kofi's got in store for us this year.. #RAW pic.twitter.com/UtXisLluHF

— Darryl Griffiths ????? (@LegallyBOD) January 3, 2017

Also confirmed for the 30-man Royal Rumble match are New Day members Kofi Kingston (the only member to enter last year’s match), Big E, and Xavier Woods, as well as Braun Strowman and Baron Corbin.

While WWE always makes room in the Royal Rumble match for one-off cameos, legends appearances, debuts, and surprise returns (here’s looking at you, Finn Bálor), there’s plenty more big names without anything to do so far at this year’s Royal Rumble event. As such, the latest WWE rumors from Cageside Seats suggest that we’ll find out more entrants for the match, which guarantees the winner a world championship shot at WrestleMania 33, on Monday’s episode of Raw.

In recent weeks, Enzo Amore has been rolling around in a wheelchair on Raw alongside Big Cass. At first, it appeared as though the injury was completely related to a storyline, as he jumped up out of his chair to attack Rusev and Jinder Mahal, with whom he and Big Cass have been feuding.

However, it seems that Enzo has a legitimate knee injury, according to the Wrestling Observer. He suffered the injury on December 30 and while he was in Cass’ corner for singles matches during house shows this weekend, he was limping heavily. There’s no timetable for his return to action. He’ll reportedly have the knee evaluated in two weeks.

ALSO NEXT WEEK: The #LoneWolf @BaronCorbinWWE looks to make a huge statement when he goes toe-to-toe with @JohnCena on #SDLive! pic.twitter.com/IjOF2zWOy3

— WWE (@WWE) January 4, 2017

Elsewhere in WWE rumors, it’s shaping up to be a big year for the aforementioned Baron Corbin. The Lone Wolf has had a taste of life in the main event scene over the last few weeks, with a WWE Championship triple threat match against champion AJ Styles and Dolph Ziggler on the Wild Card Finals at the end of December. He’s also been in the main event of house shows with Styles and John Cena over the last weekend.

Needless to say, Corbin, who has been improving rapidly since joining the main roster, is set for a big push in the near future. It’s not completely unfathomable that he’ll win the Royal Rumble match after taking home the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal trophy at WrestleMania 32.

On the subject of Royal Rumble winners, two-time victor Batista made an appearance at a Wizard World convention in New Orleans this weekend in an appearance booked through WWE. However, the latest WWE rumors suggest that doesn’t mean that he’s in line for a return to the ring anytime soon, with the expectation that his wrestling days are largely behind him.

John Cena helped increase speculation that Kenny Omega would be moving to WWE when he posted an Instagram photo of the top New Japan Pro Wrestling star. However, as the Inquisitr previously reported, Omega is expected to stay with New Japan, and there was nothing much to Cena’s posting of the image. It seems that either Cena was intentionally stirring up the WWE rumors pot or he was simply paying tribute to Omega after his stellar performance in last week’s Wrestle Kingdom 11 main event against Kazuchika Okada.

Lastly, in the latest WWE rumors, WWE is apparently no longer allowing independent stars to keep the names with which they garnered a reputation elsewhere when they join WWE. Some stars such as Samoa Joe, Shinsuke Nakamura, Austin Aries, and Roderick Strong have been allowed to keep their existing names. But recent signees such as Chris Hero (who was previously in NXT as Kassius Ohno and has returned to using that name), Tommy End, and Big Damo have new monikers.

Stay tuned to the Inquisitr for more WWE rumors in the near future.

[Featured Image by WWE]