Mark Henry among eight men in Royal Rumble qualifier announced for Kickoff show

Rumors have been swirling all week about Mark Henry's status for the Royal Rumble match this Sunday, Jan. 24 in Orlando, Fla.

The World's Strongest Man cut an impassioned promo during an interview last week where he announced his intention to win the over-the-top rope battle royal to claim a spot in WrestleMania 32's main event in order to retire after that match. Earlier this week, a lot of folks noticed he wasn't even listed on WWE.com's roster for the Rumble match.

Now, it looks like the culprit was WWE's usual flexible booking plan. All but two of the bouts on the Rumble card were announced Monday night on Raw, but we still didn't have a pre-show attraction. Today, the company's website announced the Kickoff show match, which will be available for free on YouTube and other platforms.

Lo and behold, there's Mizark.

Henry will tag with Jack Swagger in a Fatal 4Way against The Ascension, The Dudley Boyz, and the new team of Darren Young & Damien Sandow (I guess Titus O'Neil is a singles wrestler again, and prime time enough of a player to get his own Rumble berth). The winning team will be entered in the Rumble match at the end of the pay-per-view (PPV).

Given that the former World Heavyweight champion's speech, you'd have to think he and the All-American American are the favorites here.

But we'll have to tune in Sunday at 7PM Eastern to find out.