In news that will have chief content officer Triple H enraged, it would appear the opening contestant in tonight’s Royal Rumble has been made public knowledge ahead of schedule.
While many would expect a leak of this magnitude to come from a savvy report or an online disclosure, the sensitive information was made public by WWE themselves on SmackDown last night.
The order in which the 30 competitors will take part in the 2026 Royal Rumble, as in past versions of the Road to WrestleMania kick-starter, has been kept under tight guard by those in charge, who seek to keep fans in the dark regarding the chronological order of its Superstars who will take part.
The Royal Rumble has often been the place where surprise entrants have emerged, with big moments throughout its storied history. Who can forget John Cena’s return at the 2008 Royal Rumble or AJ Styles’ WWE debut in 2016 as well?
While the surprise additions of this year’s event in the King Abdullah Financial District are unknown, the likes of legendary wrestlers Jeff Hardy and Chris Jericho are among the names rumoured to be taking part, but as of yet, unconfirmed. The identity of who will first enter the ring this evening, however, is seemingly no longer up for discussion.
First Entrant in Men’s Royal Rumble
The first contestant of the 2026 Royal Rumble in Riyadh is none other than The Vision heel Bron Breakker. The slip-up that revealed the news occurred when those behind the scenes accidentally played a graphic ahead of a bout at the newly constructed, purpose-built arena in Saudi Arabia.
While Axiom was making his walk to the ring with Nathan Frazer, it was expected that the former two-time NXT Tag Team Champions’ combined name, Fraxiom, would be used; instead, to the bemusement of those watching live and on social media, a graphic for the upcoming Royal Rumble was shown.
As the pair made their way to the ring for the scheduled fight with Johnny Gargano (which was won by Axiom), the visual was shown at the bottom of the screen detailing Bron Breakker as entrant #1 of the 2026 Royal Rumble.
The blunder did not go unnoticed, with a screen grab for the event circulating online and prompting many to ridicule the mistake. Although with time still to go and WWE no stranger to switching things up at the last minute, don’t bet against the wrestling company making a change to the running order in time for the match where anything can happen.
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