Opinion: Shinsuke Nakamura could really win the Royal Rumble

The WWE 2018 Royal Rumble is almost upon us with just two weeks to go, all eyes appear to be on Raw superstar and WWE Intercontinental Champion Roman Reigns being the last man standing.

The other rumored name that had even bigger odds than Reigns winning at one point was John Cena. However, in a very surprising turn of events, it appears John will be facing the thought-to-be-retired Undertaker in New Orleans. If there is one other superstar who may come out on top, it's the King of Strongstyle Shinsuke Nakamura.

I won't say the odds for this are as big as they are for John Cena and Roman Reigns, but a Royal Rumble win for Shinsuke Nakamura is quite realistic, when you think about it, especially compared to everyone else. Everyone seems to be betting on a Raw superstar to take it home, which is making SmackDown seem even more like the 'B show'.

Had the news of Randy Orton winning last year's Royal Rumble not been leaked just two days before the event, it would have been a big surprise as everyone was expecting a Raw star to win it. Could the same thing happen again with Nakamura? Let's look at these three reasons.

#3 Shinsuke Nakamura vs AJ Styles could be on the card

With such big WrestleMania matches planned such as John Cena vs The Undertaker and Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar, another rumored big match to be happening over the past number of months has been Shinsuke Nakamura vs AJ Styles.

Although the rumors were very strong, the WWE Championship was not a part of those plans. In fact, it had been planned that Jinder Mahal would still be WWE Champion today and that he would defend against Rumble winner John Cena at WrestleMania. Those plans have now changed.

It seems like Shinsuke vs AJ may still very much be the plan. The two men are literally the only two top stars on SmackDown who have never faced each other in the WWE.