Push 'Em to the Limit: WWE Stars Primed for Big Run Leading Up to WrestleMania

Above any other time in the year, The Road to WrestleMania is when every WWE Superstar hopes to make a name for themselves.

Whether defending or challenging for a championship, securing a high-profile match against a legend or just making sure they're undeniable for a spot on the card, a WrestleMania moment is one of the most sought-after things in everyone's careers.

Several Superstars already took a big step forward with their performances at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view and others are on the bubble for more.

Let's take a look at some of the names worth keeping an eye on who are likely to be major focal points leading up to WrestleMania 37 on April 10-11.

To no surprise, two names on the list are Bianca Belair and Edge, who won this year's women's and men's Royal Rumble matches, respectively.

The EST of WWE and The Rated-R Superstar outlasted 29 other wrestlers in each of their Battle Royals and will be rewarded with title shots against the champion of their choosing on The Grandest Stage of Them All.

At the moment, neither has made a decision on their opponent. That in itself is a big story worth tracking and will keep them at the forefront of WWE television for the coming weeks.

Eventually, though, they'll officially challenge a champion and start the build toward that match. Along the way, WWE will continue to position them up as viable threats so fans remain invested in their journey and want to see whether they can succeed in winning the gold.

Four obvious picks for this list should be Asuka, Drew McIntyre, Roman Reigns and Sasha Banks. They hold the top titles on Raw and SmackDown and should be involved in the biggest matches on the card.

Three of those are no-brainers. One of them, sadly, isn't as sure of a bet as it should be.

There is no way Reigns will his title before The Show of Shows. The same goes for Banks, who shows no signs of slowing down her momentum as SmackDown women's champion.

McIntyre does have Sheamus out to get him, though. While it's hard to believe WWE would change the title picture right now, the WWE champ is in more danger of dropping the belt than Reigns or Banks. But he should still be safe.

However, this may not be the case for Asuka.

After winning the Raw women's title by virtue of her Money in the Bank victory in May, it's become blatantly obvious WWE doesn't prioritize Asuka over other Superstars.

Bayley and Sasha Banks were brought over to Raw to make up for a lack of Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair, rather than revolving stories around The Empress of Tomorrow. And Lana's feud with Nia Jax upstaged her title reign, while Flair's return also took priority over the champion.

The Queen has continued to take the spotlight away from Asuka, which may be a signal of things to come.

Look at what happened at the Royal Rumble. The main talking point of the Women's Tag Team Championship match was Flair's feud with Lacey Evans, which has been given more time on Raw than its women's title as of late. The Queen then lasted until the final three of the women's Rumble match.

On Monday's Raw, Asuka and Flair lost a chance to become No. 1 contenders, which may well signal the end of their team as WWE moves on to other feuds while continuing Flair vs. Evans.

That leaves Asuka with no clear direction, and history has shown before that WWE has no qualms about changing titleholders prior to WrestleMania.

Flair beat Asuka to win the SmackDown Women's Championship before WrestleMania 35. John Cena dropped the title to Bray Wyatt to set up a match against Randy Orton. Kevin Owens lost to Goldberg so he could drop the title to Brock Lesnar.

WWE seems much more interested in telling stories revolving around Flair than anything with Asuka, so we may see a title change at Elimination Chamber and The Queen hoisted back to the top of the food chain while The Empress of Tomorrow falls.

All too often, the Intercontinental Championship gets pushed aside these days. Back when there was only one world title, this was at least the third most prominent match at most pay-per-views.

Eventually, it became just another match and the champion was often thrown into the Money in the Bank or other matches that WWE cared more about.

This year, though, Big E may be in a much better position as the IC titleholder. It's unlikely he'll main-event one of the nights, but he should at least have a featured match.

WWE will be aware of the amount of support The New Day man has to do something bigger with his career. Many fans have been clamoring for him to challenge for the Universal Championship, which isn't entirely impossible, even if it doesn't appear to be the direction the company is going.

However, holding the intercontinental title going forward should secure a solid match for him. As he isn't alongside Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston, Big E won't just be another member of a multi-team match or clapping on the sidelines while his two friends fight.

Instead, he'll be the driving force behind the blue brand's midcard title and one of the top champions hoping to retain his belt in front of the fans at Raymond James Stadium in April.

Similar to Big E, Bobby Lashley is in a good spot as the United States champion on Raw.

Every time it seems someone is ready to dethrone him—namely Riddle—he continues to prove he's on the best run of his career.

WWE has done a tremendous job protecting The All Mighty over the past year. He's in a very different position than this time in 2020 when he was arguing with Lana in romantic squabbles.

Now, he's not only held the title over 150 days, but he's also won nearly every match since the start of last year. The ones he does lose tend not to be his fault or by disqualification.

After such a concerted effort to make Lashley a powerhouse player, it's unlikely WWE will have nothing in mind for him to do these next two months. He'll go into WrestleMania 37 as a confident champion poised to defend the U.S. title with all he's got.

If not just because they're fresh, exciting and different from the norm, any part-timer or legend who comes back around this time always gets extra attention.

That's not a criticism of the likes of Carlito or Christian, who surprised the WWE Universe with their returns at the Royal Rumble.

Carlito looks fantastic—arguably in the best shape of his career—and Christian was thought to have no chance of returning to the ring after being medically disqualified from competition in 2014.

It's more interesting to watch Carlito get in the ring with people he's never wrestled than to watch another Jeff Hardy vs. Elias match, so it's easier to build intrigue with everything the apple-spitting legend does.

With Christian, comeback stories are always heartwarming and fascinating. Edge is going for a world title, so where does that leave Captain Charisma for WrestleMania? Who will he start a program with and will it lead to his own swan song?

Any returning noteworthy Superstar, such as John Cena, Goldberg, Brock Lesnar or whoever else WWE has waiting in the wings, will always get a big share of the spotlight because they are featured guests.

The whole point of bringing them into the WrestleMania fold is to bring attention to the product.

Despite already fighting at WrestleMania 33 and TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs in December, WWE seems determined to continue the program between Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton, even if Alexa Bliss has been doing the heavy-lifting for the past month.

The Legend Killer's feud with Edge appears to have been quickly wrapped up after their match on Monday's Raw ended thanks to the interference of The Goddess.

There's a chance the Orton-Wyatt-Bliss storyline wraps up by Elimination Chamber or Fastlane and all parties move on to something else, but with no alternative programs being teased, that's not a smart bet.

Even so, it wouldn't mean these three would stop being big parts of Raw. Orton vs. anyone else and The Fiend's next target alongside Bliss would still be major matches for WrestleMania just because of their star power.

WWE is clearly having too much fun playing with the lights, shooting fireballs and setting up playground equipment to end this feud, so these three are deadlocked to eat up lots of time on Monday nights going forward.

Whenever Keith Lee is cleared to return to the ring, we can only hope WWE makes up for him missing out on the Royal Rumble.

The Limitless One is too good to get lost in a shuffle. He is one of the most entertaining big men in the business and someone Raw could be built around if WWE plays its cards right.

He could be the one to take out Lashley and win the United States Championship. He could be a prominent player in the Elimination Chamber if it involves the Raw Superstars in some fashion. His friendship and rivalry with McIntyre and Sheamus will likely put him in the way of The Celtic Warrior as he says "I told you so" about the inevitable betrayal.

If there's an Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal and WWE has slept on Lee, he would have to be one of the favorites to win.

The possibilities are limitless for a reason: He's the type of Superstar with the talent to make himself stand out even if WWE doesn't have a spot carved out for him.

There's a 50-50 chance Edge chooses McIntyre as his opponent for WrestleMania 37. If that happens, someone else will need to be built up to challenge Reigns for the Universal Championship.

At the moment, there's no better option than Daniel Bryan, who was one of the favorites heading into the men's Royal Rumble match for that reason.

He's already spoken about wanting to fight The Tribal Chief, always has championship gold on the mind and is the biggest babyface the blue brand has to offer by far. No one else comes close, particularly after Kevin Owens already lost numerous chances to win the title.

Even if Edge challenges Reigns, though, Bryan won't be left with nothing to do. Instead, he'll likely start a program with Seth Rollins, who eliminated him from the Royal Rumble.

The Messiah is one of the biggest names on SmackDown, albeit on the heel side of the equation. He'll need someone worth fighting and can't realistically fall back on his program with Owens from last year.

The Yes Movement may not be as strong with less fans than usual inside Raymond James Stadium, but there will still be lots of fingers up in the air chanting for Bryan no matter who he fights at The Show of Shows.

WWE reverted back to having Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler hold the Women's Tag Team Championship titles at the Royal Rumble.

As Jax and Baszler weren't going to fight for the Raw or SmackDown Women's Championship, this was their next-best means to do something noteworthy on the card. It may not be the biggest splash, but they'll still make waves.

The next few weeks will be spent with the two retaining their titles against any and all challengers, including the next No. 1 contenders in line for a shot, Lana and Naomi.

If there's an Elimination Chamber on the Raw side of the women's division, they're guaranteed to take part. They may even eliminate each other in some fashion, just like at the women's Rumble match.

Baszler and Jax will go into the marquee event to defend the titles or as two of the biggest names in the WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal, if that returns this year. If it does, look out for The Queen of Spades as a possible winner to compensate for Jax eliminating her from the women's Rumble match.

Even if it takes a full year, beating the drum for Rhea Ripley to be given a stronger push in order to undo the damage that was done to her momentum by losing to Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 36 will pay off.

Surely, WWE can't just keep this train going on forever of having her lose everything, only for Triple H to drop her name as the future of the business in every interview and think that washes it all clean.

Sooner than later—hopefully, at least—the company has to have plans to make her a big focal point. Based on her being the runner-up in the women's Rumble match, now seems to be the time to actually pull the trigger on The Nightmare's push.

The best-case scenario is that Ripley has a solid run in the next two months and positions herself to challenge for the Raw or SmackDown title that Belair doesn't choose. In an ideal world, she can best The Queen for the Raw belt and undo more of that mistake from last year.

For Ripley to become the big deal everyone claims she is, WWE has to actually treat her like that and not sideline her heading into WrestleMania.

Damian Priest has had a whirlwind few days, with lots of signs he could have a decent spot at WrestleMania.

After a great performance in the men's Rumble match, The Archer of Infamy has officially been called up to the main roster with a spot on Raw.

WWE took time out of the broadcast on Monday to show Edge endorsing Priest, too. With a firm handshake, he said: "Good job last night. You impressed me. Welcome aboard. We need guys like you."

A Hall of Famer, 11-time world champion and men's Rumble match winner gave Priest the nod of approval. That can't possibly be for nothing.

What role he plays may not even be figured out yet, but WWE made a point of him fighting alongside Bad Bunny to beat The Miz, which means he won't be fading into obscurity over the next two months.

Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.