WWE has officially announced who will be serving as the announcer for the Royal Rumble pay-per-view this weekend. Fans may recall that WWE Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler let it slip that he would be returning the the announcer’s booth during the show to call the men’s Royal Rumble match. Lawler said that he would be calling the match with Michael Cole and John “Bradshaw” Layfield. It appears that WWE actually has a couple of surprise guests that they will be bringing in for the show. Each of the Royal Rumble matches will have their very own unique announce team this year. The company has confirmed that a couple of names from both the past and present will be covering the PPV this Sunday night.
For the men’s Royal Rumble match, JBL and Jerry Lawler will be returning to commentary with Michael Cole and Corey Graves. Cole and Graves will also be joined by Raw announcer Renee Young and WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix for the women’s Royal Rumble match. Also, the Cruiserweight Championship match between Hideo Itami, Akira Tozawa, Kalisto, and Buddy Murphy will be called by Nigel McGuinness, Vic Joseph, and Percy Watson. Michael Cole, Corey Graves, and Renee Young will do commentary for the other Raw-branded matches. Graves, Tom Phillips, and Byron Saxton will do the same for the SmackDown matches. The Royal Rumble airs live from Phoenix, Arizona in just five days.
The Royal Rumble match almost always features a surprise entrant or two every single year. These could be debuting stars, NXT Superstars, or even some names from the past. News on surprises for the Rumble this year remain scarce, but according to former WWE Superstar Carlito, he will not be involved in the match. When asked if he will return during the men’s Royal Rumble match this Sunday, Carlito reminded fans that WWE hasn’t even uploaded his profile to the alumni section on their official website. This would seem to suggest that no one from the company has contacted the former United States Champion to partake in the match. Fans should not expect to see some “Caribbean Cool” in this year’s Rumble match.

For those of you that still ask every year if I’m going to be in the Royal Rumble. I’ll put it to you like this. https://t.co/fyH5ocjoCf still won’t put me on their alumni page. I hope this clears things up for you????
— carlito (@Bodyguylito) January 22, 2019