Three AEW stars that could appear at WWE Royal Rumble 2023
The WWE Royal Rumble is one of the most anticipated events in wrestling each year. Since its inception, it has been used as a way to debut and return superstars of all caliber. Some of the biggest and most memorable debuts happen at the WWE Royal Rumble.
Each year, fans tend to throw out their guesses on who could possibly show up from other companies. With AEW as WWE’s biggest competition in decades, many fans wonder who will be the first AEW star to show up at the event.
1. CM Punk
A CM Punk return at the upcoming WWE Royal Rumble would probably go down amongst the all-time greats.
Punk didn’t leave the best taste in wrestling fans’ mouths when he was last seen during the infamous AEW All Out media scrum. Regardless of what people think of Punk, there is one thing you can’t deny about him — he brings in ratings. Whether it is for good or bad reason, when Punk is around, people are talking about him.
Punk would be the first former AEW World Champion to wrestle for WWE. That accolade alone is enough to make the WWE and Punk interested.
2. Miro
Miro, formerly known as Rusev in WWE, has been extremely underutilized in AEW as of late. After a solid run with the TNT title, he has not been booked very well in recent months.
Miro was great in WWE, and one could argue he was underutilized there as well. He was given a push when he first debuted and gave us a memorable feud with John Cena over the United States Championship. His ‘Rusev Day’ gimmick went over huge with the crowd as well.
There are rumors that Miro and his partner, CJ Perry, could be interested in a WWE return, so what better place for that return to be than the WWE Royal Rumble?
3. Matt Cardona
Matt Cardona, known as Zack Ryder during his time in WWE, has arguably just had the best year of his career. He has wrestled for numerous companies, including putting out great matches in AEW and NWA.
Ryder never had trouble getting over with the fans but was never given the proper booking by WWE creative. Who could ever forget his WrestleMania moment capturing the Intercontinental Championship in a huge upset, just to lose it the very next night.
Cardona has really proven all his doubters wrong, not that he had many to begin with. WWE should be interested now more than ever in a return for the Long Island native.
