With Sheamus, Randy Orton, Chris Jericho and Big Show in as the final four of this year’s WWE Royal Rumble, it appeared one of the predictable winners–either Randy Orton or Chris Jericho–was winning the match at the WrestleMania title shot.
Instead, that honor went to Sheamus, who eliminated Chris Jericho to win the 2012 Royal Rumble. Unless WWE works an angle to strip Sheamus of his shot, he will be in one of the featured bouts at WrestleMania.
Over the past month, WWE had been hyping that “any Superstar” could enter this year’s Royal Rumble. That stipulation was used to explain some surprise entrants, although it is not entirely clear why (several performers who are blatantly not “superstars” still managed to work the match).
The “unexpected” entrants were as follows:
All three announcers (Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, Booker T)
Hacksaw Jim Duggan
Road Dogg
The Great Khali
Kharma
Ricardo Rodriguez
