5 Potential Winners for the Men's Royal Rumble
The Royal Rumble pay-per-view is four weeks away and many fans are speculating what level of quality we'll get from the 2018 edition of event.
The WWE Championship will be defended in a handicap match, the Universal Championship will be defended in a triple threat match, a new United States Champion will be crowned, and the Women of WWE take their next step on their road to elevating women’s wrestling with the first-ever 30 Woman Royal Rumble match set to take place.
All of those matches will make for an interesting show and a few more matches may be added, but the biggest draw for the 2018 Royal Rumble pay-per-view is still the Men’s Royal Rumble.
With a guranteed world title match and a potential main event on the line, watching 30 superstars compete for the chance at glory is always entertaining especially when you factor in debuts from NXT and former wrestlers and legends returning and making us feel nostalgic.
AJ Styles and Brock Lesnar are the current world champions and while there are a variety of superstars that fans want to get these title opportunities, there’s rarely more than 5 wrestlers with a realistic chance at winning the match.
So, this article will be looking at my top five picks to win the 2018 Men’s Royal Rumble match.
#5 Finn Bálor
Finn Bálor eclipsed Monday Night Raw’s midcard and barreled through the main event scene to become the first Universal Champion in 2016. Unfortunately, 2017 would not be as fruitful for the Irish Young Gun.
Aside from Bálor’s dream match against Bullet Club alum AJ Styles at TLC, most of 2017 was filled with uninteresting feuds and continued losses for the former Universal Champion. His status as a top star saw an even further decline when Bálor’s planned match with Brock Lesnar at the Royal Rumble was replaced by the triple threat match with Kane and Braun Strowman.
Bálor needs a big win in 2018 to prevent any further damage to his main event status and a Royal Rumble victory would be an unexpected delight for many – especially considering how fans were hoping for him to make his Royal Rumble match debut in 2017.
Bálor facing Lesnar in a singles match is a divisive topic amongst fans due to the size difference and believability factor, but Bálor challenging AJ Styles for the WWE Championship could make for a great twist.
Styles’ match with Bálor at TLC was a last-minute call and many fans felt that both men could have an even greater match if given more time. If Bálor wins the Royal Rumble, WWE would have more time to build up the match and ensure that the next meeting of the former Bullet Club leaders is everything the fans hoped for.