Watch: The WWE's Top 10 Royal Rumble Run-Ins

This Sunday (or Monday, for us in the UK) marks one of the biggest days in the sporting calendar. No, I'm not talking about anything to do with the FA Cup fourth round or the fact that the 29th January marks the birthday of Brazilian legend Romario. I am of course referring to the fact that we are only four days removed from the 31st annual WWE Royal Rumble.

The Rumble essentially acts as the commencement of the WWE's WrestleMania season, which is basically Christmas for fans of pro-wrestling/sports entertainment.

Since the inaugural event in 1988, won by Hacksaw Jim Duggan, the 30 man over-the-top-rope battle royal has thrown up some of the most shocking plot twists in WWE history, with everything from surprise eliminations to unexpected entrants keeping wrestling fans on the edge of their seats and, obviously, in fits of hysteria on the internet.

Sometimes, however, the 30 entrants in the match don't end up being the stars of the show and, instead, are upstaged by uninvited guests, who take it upon themselves to make an impact in order to spite their sworn enemies or just to make a name for themselves.

With this in mind, WWE have put together a list of the top 10 'Rumble Intruders', with everyone from Bret Hart to Brock Lesnar to Triple H playing their part in ruining the WrestleMania plans of some poor sod:

Credit: WWE

The winner of the Rumble match, which will air on both the WWE Network and Sky Box Office, will go onto face either the WWE Champion (currently AJ Styles) or WWE Universal Champion (currently Brock Lesnar) at WrestleMania, with SmackDown superstar Shinsuke Nakamura and 2015 Rumble winner Roman Reigns heading the list as the current favourites to emerge as the last man standing in Philadelphia, this Sunday.

This Sunday also marks a history making moment for the WWE, with the company promoting their first ever Women's Rumble match which, just like the men's bout, will feature 30 superstars. We recently caught up with former Women's Champion Sasha Banks last week to talk about the match, what it means to her and which surprise entrants she's hoping to mix it up with.

"I'm so excited. I've been pumping up my cardio game like crazy knowing I could be the first entrant and hopefully stay in it for the whole sixty minutes." said Banks.

"I'm extremely nervous and excited to see who the surprise entrants could be be. I can't wait for it to happen.

"I would love to see Trish and Lita of course, Beth Phoenix, Molly Holly, Jazz, Jacqueline - all the women I grew up watching. Madusa would also be amazing.

"Even the girls from NXT would be awesome to see: the Iconic duo and maybe Ember Moon. The list is endless because we probably only have about thirty girls with Raw and Smackdown combined so we need those extra girls."

With just four days to go until the 31st annual Rumble, who are you picking to win both the men's and women's matches and go onto WrestleMania? Will Reigns or Nakamura reign supreme? Should we be expecting a surprise Ronda Rousey appearance?

Have your say in the comments section, below.

Topics: Wrestling, Royal Rumble, WWE

Joe Baiamonte

Northerner. Assistant Editor of SPORTbible. Studied Journalism and Broadcasting in a portakabin on a car park of Salford University for three years. Believes football peaked with Serie A in the '90s and strong-arms pro wrestling references into as many articles as possible. Neymar once took 50 euros off me during a game of poker.

@JoeBaia