Pretend there's been a women’s Royal Rumble match every year

[Burke]

Who do you think should have won them?

The rules are the same as the men’s with the winner challenging for the Women’s Championship at WM (or the Divas title for the years that applied).

I’m doing 2000-present but you can start whenever you want.

2000 – Stephanie McMahon
2001 – Lita
2002 – Trish Stratus
2003 – Trish Stratus
2004 – Victoria
2005 – Lita
2006 – Mickie James
2007 – Melina
2008 – Beth Phoenix
2009 – Gail Kim
2010 – Maryse
2011 – Kelly Kelly
2012 – Eve Torres
2013 – AJ Lee
2014 – Nikki Bella
2015 – Paige
2016 – Sasha Banks
2017 – Becky Lynch

I’m surprised I only have 2 two-time winners.

[Tiarnán]

Ooh fun. Mine seem pretty similar tbh.

If we're being reasonably realistic with a bit of wiggle room for fun...

2001: Chyna - Ivory's reign of terror continues, and she feuds with Lita, Trish, Molly, Jackie etc. Chyna remaining injured by RTC up until the PPV when she makes a surprising return, winning the Royal Rumble much to Ivory's horror. Ivory and Steven Richards do their best to take out Chyna before WrestleMania, and almost succeed when they target her neck again, but ultimately she powers through and has her moment in the sun, as was the case in real life.

2002: Lita - This seems the most likely scenario, and quite a fun one. Trish was battling Jazz for the title at this point, whereas they seemed to be saving Lita for the WM title match. As Trish battles on, Lita wins the Rumble and begins to regain her footing in the division. At WrestleMania, they either do the Triple Threat as happened in reality, they go with Lita against a defending Jazz, or Trish fights Jazz off before the big show and has a big blow off with Lita at WrestleMania 18.

2003: Jazz - Trish seems more likely because of her name value, but she's already in the middle of a rivalry with Victoria at this point. Instead, Jazz returns from injury and enters the Rumble, decimating the competition and winning with ease. She seems poised to challenge Victoria one on one, but somehow Trish Stratus finds a way into the match before April, leading to the three way.

2004: Victoria - Molly has successfully fought off Lita a month or so prior to this. All signs point to one of these two winning nonetheless, but as in real life, Victoria surprisingly picks up momentum and popularity come December/January, and defies the odds when she beats the favourites in the Royal Rumble match. She beats Molly for the belt at WrestleMania, and Molly is shaved bald a month later at Backlash in her return match. Alternatives are the obvious Lita rematch, or a non injured Gail Kim winning yet another battle royal and battling her mentor for the title.

2005: Trish Stratus - This one I'm not sure of, because Lita not gaining the belt in that Raw episode and leaving it to WM risks leaving the title change for too long and killing the insane momentum of the feud. I'm guessing Trish was never meant to regain the belt at NYR and it was purely on account of the injury. My suggestion is that Lita wins the belt to lots of fanfare, Trish vanishing for a month in a fit of rage and embarrassment. She returns last minute in the Rumble, cheating to sneak a win. The build up to Mania is Trish vowing to crush Lita's fairytale once and for all and creating her own princess story by becoming a record setting seven time champion.

2006: Mickie James - An increasingly psychotic Mickie James does everything she can to win the Rumble, entering early on and becoming more and more unhinged as the match progresses and winning. The same build up to to WrestleMania then happens. Alternatively, Ashley wins the Royal Rumble, but is absolutely dismembered by an incensed Mickie James in the lead up to WrestleMania. She ends up horrifically injured, leaving Trish with no choice but to defend the title against Mickie in the honour of her friend and protege.

2007: Melina - Mickie James is champion leading on from Survivor Series, and feuds with Victoria leading through January. Melina is involved in a minor role as an aid for Victoria, a la NYR 2007, but doesn't capture the title from Mickie until WrestleMania in the equivalent of their Backlash match. This gives time for a fully developed story leading up to the match full of bitchy blogs and tidbits about how Mickie spent years toiling on the indies and couldn't stand the fact that Melina was making headlines in half the time. The Falls Count Anywhere happens at Backlash instead as the follow up. In reality, WWE would probably have had Melina win the belt in January and Ashley win the Rumble (shudder).

2008: Mickie James - Mickie is devastated by her series of losses to Beth. Whoever the GM was at the time (Coach?) tells her that the only future chance she has at getting another rematch is by winning the Rumble, and stacks the odds against her. She sees it through, wins the match and climbs Glamazon mountain at WrestleMania, which is the equivalent of their UK Raw title match. The alternative is Candice returning in time for the RR.

2009: Melina - Melina's return and Rumble title win are put on the backburner. She comes back instead closer to January, a fresh version of herself with still bearing the scars of her heating rivalry with Beth Phoenix in mid 2008 before her injury. She wins the Rumble in assertive fashion. En route to WrestleMania she disposes of Victoria and Natalya (pretend Victoria hasn't retired yet) for injuring her in the first place. She wins the title in the end in a No DQ match, choking Beth out with a chair to gain revenge from I Quit. Alternative is Gail Kim on SmackDown, leading to Maryse/Michelle/Gail at WM.

2010: Beth Phoenix - While Michelle and Mickie close out the Piggie James storyline, Beth, who is becoming more and more face-like, wins the Rumble, much to the horror of Lay-Cool and Vickie. At No Way Out (Elimination Chamber? icr), Michelle regains the title from Mickie and Beth defeats Vickie Guerrero, giving her a clear path to the title match against Michelle at WM.

2011: Layla - I was thinking of possibly Kelly or Eve, but this sounds more interesting. Natalya battles Melina at the Rumble instead of on Raw, whereas Lay-Cool both enter the Rumble, vowing to win it together. Michelle finds herself tangled in the ropes with Eve or whoever at the end of the match, and an opportunistic Layla pushes them both off to win. Michelle is angry but puts it behind her and ends up convincing herself that this is a Lay-Cool victory. Layla gets more and more frustrated at this, because she's never been allowed her own spotlight. Michelle somehow beats Nattie for the title in the lead up to Mania, and Michelle says to Layla that there's no need for a title match anymore because she's won the title already and the case is closed. Layla shocks the world when she stands up to Michelle and says she'll be cashing in on her title shot that she earned against Michelle at Mania. WM27 = Lay-Cool implodes.

2012: Eve Torres - This is where it gets blurry because I stopped paying as much attention. Eve is in the middle of her transition into an opportunistic heel, so it makes sense that she wins the Rumble by nefarious means. Kelly Kelly then regains the title from Beth in the lead up to WrestleMania, and Eve faces off with Kelly for the title. Maria Menunos can be in Kelly's corner.

2013: AJ Lee - Yeah, so Kaitlyn has just won the title, AJ is on fire at this point. This is the year when they had the weird semi-interaction leading up to WM with no culmination. So AJ goes psycho on her former best friend and they have their Payback match a few months earlier that they did in reality. The alternative is Kaitlyn wins and Eve doesn't retire until she loses the belt to Kaitlyn at Mania.

2014: Paige - I'd like to say Naomi, but can't see them committing to it, and all the other Total Divas were never going to compare to AJ at this point in time; she was too over and too popular and too developed. So Paige debuts two months earlier during the Rumble itself, elimination Nattie or Nikki or whoever in the closing stages. This gives her time to build up to facing AJ at WrestleMania, rather than winning automatically.

2015: AJ Lee - Paige is embroiled in a feud with the Bellas at this point, so AJ returns prior to the Rumble and wins the match, setting up a clash with the Bellas at WM, or a four way to include Paige. The alternative is them sticking to the Bella feud and drawing it out, with Brie winning the Rumble and challenging Nikki after months of torture at the hands of her sister. I'm saying the former, with Paige winning, disposing of the Bellas a while later and then feuding with Naomi, who would have her heel turn.

2016: Sasha Banks - Yeah, she has her big moment at the Rumble and the remaining path to WrestleMania is the same, with Becky remaining involved. Charlotte is still victorious in the end because that worked well.

2017: Naomi - Bayley is the alternate, but Naomi has her moment in the sun when she wins the Rumble and goes onto Orlando to beat Alexa Bliss and banish her from SmackDown. Feel the Glow etc.

So, my ideal scenarios:

2001: Chyna --- Chyna d. Ivory @ WM to win
2002: Lita --- Lita d. Jazz @ WM to win (Trish is involved on the card elsewhere)
2003: Jazz --- Trish d. Jazz and Victoria @ WM to win
2004: Victoria --- Victoria d. Molly @ WM to win
2005: Trish Stratus --- Lita d. Trish @ WM to retain
2006: Ashley --- Mickie James d. Trish @ WM to win (this sounded more fun)
2007: Melina --- Melina d. Mickie @ WM to win
2008: Mickie James --- Mickie d. Beth @ WM to win
2009: Melina --- Melina d. Beth @ WM to win
2010: Beth Phoenix --- Beth d. Michelle @ WM to win
2011: Layla --- Layla d. Michelle @ WM to win
2012: Eve --- Kelly (w/MM) d. Eve @ WM to retain
2013: AJ Lee --- AJ d. Kaitlyn @ WM to win
2014: Paige --- Paige d. AJ @ WM to win
2015: AJ Lee --- Paige d. Nikki, Brie & AJ @ WM to win
2016: Sasha Banks --- Charlotte d. Sasha & Becky to retain
2017: Naomi --- Naomi d. Alexa @ WM to win

[Burke]

I was split between Becky and Naomi for 2017 but since you reminded me of it being her hometown WM I'd probably change my pick to Naomi.

[Brandon]

Whew, this is exhausting to think about, so I'm just gonna agree with like 90% of what Tiarnán said. Except, Gail in 2009, maybe Christy Hemme in 2005 since WWE was being so scandalous, and a Total Diva in 2014.