Josh Isenberg: My pick to win the Royal Rumble is Chris Jericho. He is the likely choice for a few reasons. I feel that the creative writers had absolutely no idea what they want to do with the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania, so this would give them a peace of mind and assurance that Jericho will win and face off with CM Punk. We have heard rumors about Jericho vs. Punk for many months now, dating back to their war of words on Twitter, so this would be extremely safe and easy for the WWE to build around that. I wish that a younger star would win the Rumble, such as Wade Barrett or Cody RHodes, but look at the history. Since 2006, only two superstars have won the Royal Rumble who haas never been World Champion, Rey Mysterio and Alberto del Rio. And out of those, Mysterio was already an established star with extreme popularity. The Royal Rumble seems to be the first step with a "return" and then thrusts the already established star onto WrestleMania's championship match.
Chris Jericho deserves to win, and is the best choice to put on a classic and great feud with CM Punk. Two guys who are similar in size and stature, as well s their career paths they have taken. Both started small, and because of their personalities and in-ring abilities, became much bigger than expected. Punk and Jericho will put on a fantastic 30-minute match at Mania, as well as about two months of solid storytelling and angle building on so many levels.
Justin LaBar: For weeks I believed that Randy Orton would be the winner of the 2012 Royal Rumble. He would come back and make the surprise return in his hometown. However, when he was promoted to return on Friday's Smackdown, to me the probability of him winning went down. I also thought that Dolph Ziggler could pull a swerve by losing in the WWE title match and then winning the Rumble. While I would be happy for him if that did happen, who does he face? I feel he is destined for a lengthy title run in 2012, but it won't come at WrestleMania 28.
So who wins? Chris Jericho. He wins the Rumble but he doesn't want a World title match at WrestleMania. Why would he? He has had several title reigns including being the first ever Undisputed Champion. He has fought Shawn Michaels, beat The Rock and Stone Cold in the same night. Chris Jericho has one thing left that he wants to do: end the WrestleMania streak of the Undertaker.
