5 Women Who Could Realistically Win the Royal Rumble to Challenge Charlotte Flair

Who Will Win the Royal Rumble and Challenge Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania?

It's Royal Rumble season which means that WWE is officially on the road to WrestleMania 38 in Dallas, Texas on April 2nd and 3rd.

Historically, the Royal Rumble event provides a good blueprint for the major matches that will be featured at the premium event, as the winners of the Men's and Women's Royal Rumble matches earn the right to face the champions of their choice.

.@MsCharlotteWWE looks to win the #RoyalRumble Match and pick her own opponent at #WrestleMania! https://t.co/bbvzgFtoZ9

In looking ahead to the Women's Royal Rumble match and WrestleMania, it's not clear at this stage who the company is focusing on to potentially win and challenge Charlotte Flair for the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship. Due to recent releases and roster moves between SmackDown, Raw and NXT, the women's division, as a whole, is a bit thin. However, the following profiles five potential challengers for Charlotte at the big event.

5. Returning at the Royal Rumble, Nikki Bella

Can’t wait to be in front of the #BellaArmy again! Can’t believe Evolution was the last time! Let’s get wild like that again Bella Army!!! ❤️🖤N #RoyalRumble #BrieMode #FearlessNikki twitter.com/totaibellas/st…

Would this be the match that fans would want to see? Would fans believe Nikki Bella has a chance to defeat Charlotte? Probably not, but WrestleMania is traditionally a showcase for big attraction matches and if Bella is healthy, a Royal Rumble win and high profile WrestleMania match could be in her future.

Could Nikki Bella be WrestleMania-bound?

Nikki is clearly the best worker of the Bella twins with decent mic skills. Despite the outcome being predictable, Nikki vs. Charlotte could give the WrestleMania card a marquee match on paper that it needs to make it feel bigger than the average show. For one thing, Bella has mainstream appeal outside of WWE, given her past work on the "Total Bellas" and "Total Divas" reality shows.

She's also slated to be a judge on the upcoming "America's Got Talent Extreme" competition series. So there will be some good opportunities for some outside promotion for the match, potentially making this an attractive option for WWE.