5 Superstars that should’ve challenged AJ Styles for the WWE Title at the 2018 Royal Rumble  

10 seconds may seem like a short insignificant amount of time, but for many wrestling fans, when the Royal Rumble rolls around that countdown has created legends, ground-breaking history and unforgettable moments that have each immortalised themselves in Royal Rumble chronicles, and the 2016 edition of the Royal Rumble produced one such surreal moment. The wrestling world was shocked when they realised the man stepping through that curtain after the 10-second countdown was the “phenomenal one” AJ Styles. Styles jumping ship from NJPW to WWE had stunned many wrestling fans and two years later, fans are still amazed every time he sets foot in the squared circle.

However, no wrestling aficionado could’ve foreseen that AJ Styles and the Royal Rumble would eventually become synonymous with one another. From his explosive debut at the 2016 Royal Rumble match all the way to his classic performance against John Cena at the 2017 edition, Styles has created a Royal Rumble highlight reel for himself in a matter of two years, and this year the “phenomenal one” has a chance to continue his classic string of outstanding performances as he walks into the 2018 Royal Rumble as the WWE Champion for the second time in his storied career. While most would expect WWE to select a high-profile opponent to face a veteran such as Styles in singles action, the WWE creative team has booked a two on one handicap match between AJ Styles and Kevin Owens/ Sami Zayn for the WWE Title.

The Royal Rumble is a prestigious event that kicks off the road to Wrestlemania, and even though the Royal Rumble match is the real draw for the company, a strong undercard is extremely important to the overall success of the entire pay-per-view. Therefore, WWE needed to book strong World Title programmes for the show, but with Raw's Universal Title match being an ageing veteran Kane vs a man that should’ve already been World Champion in Braun Strowman vs a part-time champion in Brock Lesnar, Smackdown Live needed to produce highly anticipated WWE Title programme. However, the creative team created a handicap match that doesn’t benefit any of the competitors going forward.

While AJ Styles vs Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn is a refreshing idea for a marquee PPV such as the Royal Rumble, WWE has booked themselves into a corner by making this match. As the probable outcome for this match has only two possible results either Styles defies the odds and beats both Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens which in turn will damage the duo’s credibility immensely or the best friends use their numbers game to their advantage and come out with the win. However, it is highly unlikely that WWE will book Zayn and Owens as co-champions up until Wrestlemania which will result in an unfortunate one-month reign for the talented superstars.

However, WWE had a plethora of better options at their disposal, as their very extensive underutilised roster is beaming with future World Title contenders, veterans in their prime and young up and coming superstars that would’ve been the creatively correct decision to step into the ring with the “phenomenal one” for the WWE Championship at the 2018 Royal Rumble. Whether it is igniting a Wrestlemania programme, giving the WWE universe, the dream feud they have been clamouring for or allowing a future World Champion a spot in the main event for one night only, any one of those options could’ve added to the legacy of the WWE Title at the Royal Rumble and ensured a much better overall programme.

Here are 5 opponents that should’ve faced AJ Styles for the WWE Title at the 2018 Royal Rumble

#1 Finn Balor

Balor would've been a hot commodity on Smackdown Live

Ever since the spectacle known as Wrestlemania 33 concluded, and Monday Night Raw commenced, there was only one thing the fans had requested for all night long: the return of Finn Balor. The moment Balor had stepped through that curtain, fans exploded in a crazed frenzy. The creator of the Bullet Club had been sorely missed on Raw after his unfortunate shoulder injury forced him to vacate his Universal Title and stay out of action for many months.

In Balor’s absence, Raw become a monotonous show with repetitive matches and feuds but no one would’ve predicted that the WWE creative team would slowly weave Balor into that same dull pattern just as every other Superstar.

Therefore, Balor’s Rockstar momentum took a shattering hit as the ups and downs of his career had dented his once special presence. Even though Balor was battling jobbers on a weekly basis and in a terrible feud with Bray Wyatt, Balor’s return run was saved by a one on one dream match with AJ Styles which made him relevant once again.

Most remember that dream match for its aftermath on Raw where WWE inexplicably had Kane squash the hot young talent which sparked a worldwide outrage in the wrestling world. Since then, WWE has still been constantly misusing the inaugural Universal Champion, that is why a simple transfer to Smackdown Live would’ve revived Balor’s stagnant WWE career and gave fans the dream feud they have been clamouring for.

While some of the WWE Universe complained that WWE jumped the gun with regards to giving away this dream encounter on a C grade paper view such as TLC 2017 and it was robbed of a big stage, WWE could’ve easily amended it by giving fans the much-anticipated rematch at the 2018 Royal Rumble.

Balor vs Styles is much more than a dream match, it is a championship programme that would’ve been pivotal in carrying Smackdown Live through Wrestlemania season, their Bullet Club roots and the side which Gallows and Anderson would ultimately choose would’ve made for a sure-fire classic rivalry and it could’ve commenced at the Royal Rumble.

#2 Randy Orton

Randy Orton has been irrelevant for far too long, a match against Styles would've given him a clear direction

Although the 25th anniversary of Raw was hyped up as the most important episode of WWE’s flagship show in months, the execution of the show ultimately left the WWE Universe disappointed.

However, the company had showed many things to the world that Monday night, things such as they are willing to put over retired veterans at the expense of young rising stars, many of the current Superstars’ lack character to hang with the charismatic Superstars of the past and the fact that the company will have to work without most of the veterans they have been relying on.

As Triple H is competing less and less, the odd appearance from John Cena will get fewer and the Undertaker has one more match left in him.

Even though star power is decreasing in the company, WWE have constantly wasted one of the greatest Superstars to come out of the company since the Attitude Era, Randy Orton. Ever since Orton placed on the newly revamped Smackdown Live, many wrestling fans expected WWE to use Orton’s megastar presence to shape WWE’s resident “B show” into a formidable brand that rivals Raw.

However, ever since Wrestlemania 33 concluded, Orton slowly drifted into obscurity as damaging feuds with Jinder Mahal had tarnished his legacy, an unwarranted mini-feud with Rusev was a waste of his star power, and being shoehorned into meaningless matches had made him irrelevant.

However, one of the bright spots from Orton’s blue brand run was his excellent match with AJ Styles which was treated as a mere roadblock on his path to Wrestlemania 33. A feud between AJ Styles and Randy Orton was one of WWE’s biggest missed opportunities of 2017, as a solid rivalry between the two is a dream meeting of two different worlds.

It is baffling why WWE never booked this feud, and the 2018 Royal Rumble might have been the last chance to do so on a grand stage. Instead, WWE chose to build up Orton as a threat at the Royal Rumble match by having him dish out a couple of RKO’s, while the 13-time World Champion could’ve been contesting a classic with Styles at the event.

#3 A breakout NXT superstar

NXT has breakout stars that are waiting to prove they are World Championship material

The wrestling world knows that WWE has evolved into a product that has too much weekly content for casual or even hardcore wrestling fans to watch, their shows are coated in controversial booking errors and they are more focused on being an entertainment programme rather than a wrestling show.

But even though WWE is constantly making those mistakes, there is no denying that they have built a strong brand to house all their future World Champions.

NXT has given the company most of their biggest wrestling stars today such as Shinsuke Nakamura, Samoa Joe, and Seth Rollins to name a few. However, most of those talented athletes scorching hot momentum are completely wasted once they set foot on the main roster.

That problem only exists because of the NXT call-up procedure. The NXT call-up system is usually implemented after Wrestlemania, but instead of WWE allowing these NXT veterans to continue to build up themselves either on Raw or Smackdown Live, WWE hits the reboot button on these superstars and suddenly end their rapid rise.

That is why around Wrestlemania season, WWE should’ve revised their NXT call-up system and made an instant megastar out of any one of their young rising talent down at Full Sail University. And the best way to make a Superstar that has impeccable wrestling skill with appealing charisma and a solid connection with the fans into a future main eventer is to put that Superstar into the main event.

Which Superstar on WWE’s main roster can craft a 5-star match, make his opponent look like a million dollars and send a breakout star to the next level? AJ Styles!

Styles is arguably the best wrestler in the WWE which in turn makes him “the man” in the company, and as the saying goes, “to be the man you have to beat the man”, and if NXT royalty such as Aleister Black was given that opportunity at the 2018 Royal Rumble, WWE could’ve had the “next big thing” on their hands.

#4 John Cena

Cena vs Styles at the 2018 Royal Rumble would've benefitted WWE going forward

Over his storied career “The Leader of the Cenation” was constantly criticised by many wrestling fans for consistently being in the main event and ‘hogging’ the spotlight at the expense of many rising stars.

However, 2017 was the year the WWE creative team decided to listen to those grievances and gave Cena a secondary role in the company going forward. And even though Cena is a part-timer, the company outrageously wasted every single appearance by the 16-time World Champion in 2017.

Cena’s match with Baron Corbin was filler and his presence in the Survivor Series main event felt like a cameo. Therefore, a megastar like Cena was astonishingly underused in 2017.

While a majority of the WWE Universe expected WWE to give Cena main event feuds, his meaningless interactions with the likes of Elias is hardly enough to get a majority of the WWE Universe excited as “big match John” heads into the 2018 Royal Rumble match.

Although having a megastar such as Cena adds depth to an under-promoted Royal Rumble match, and while his chances of successfully winning his third 30-man battle royal are high, Cena is desperately needed elsewhere on the PPV’s card. Ever since AJ Styles and John Cena crossed paths in 2016, wrestling fans have been eager to watch another one on one in an epic dream match, and fans got to witness that match three times in the last twoyears.

Cena and Styles crafted a modern-day classic that had given Smackdown Live, the PPV’s they clashed at and the WWE Title, much-needed prestige, and it's only fair that these combatants should’ve concluded their ongoing rivalry at the 2018 Royal Rumble. In the three matches they clash clashed, both Cena and Styles picked up one clean win as their Money in the Bank match ended due to shenanigans of The Club.

Cena vs Styles at Summerslam 2016 was fantastic, their 2017 Royal Rumble clash for the WWE Title was a classic, and hence it's a wonder why WWE did not book the final match between these two legends.

#5 Shinsuke Nakamura

Nakamura needed this match to help him regain his lost momentum

In 2016, WWE had acquired some of NJPW’s biggest wrestlers such as AJ Styles, Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson, and Shinsuke Nakamura. When the company had signed these stand out performers, the wrestling world had expected WWE to make these talented athletes into mainstream superstars, and to especially make Shinsuke Nakamura a bona fide megastar.

The NXT creative team had done just that as Nakamura had one of the most memorable runs in NXT history by contending a 5-star classic against Sami Zayn, capturing the NXT Championship and becoming the overall face of the yellow brand.

Therefore, many had expected Nakamura’s main roster stint to be an immaculate run of him contending for titles, showing off the uncanny charisma he had developed in Japan and to be the biggest wrestler on Smackdown Live.

But soon as Nakamura had landed on the main roster, the creative team have misinterpreted what made him popular, to begin with, put him in competitive matches with wrestlers past their prime and made him a pawn in the Jinder Mahal experiment. All those baffling decisions have immensely slowed down Nakamura’s momentum.

While WWE might be building towards a rumoured clash between AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura at Wrestlemania 34, Styles is hotter than ever, while Nakamura's poor booking has cooled him down significantly.

Therefore, the only way WWE could’ve given Nakamura a lot of momentum on his road to Wrestlemania 34, which might culminate in a match with AJ Styles, was to have him face Styles early at the 2018 Royal Rumble.

While most might debunk that idea because Wrestlemania 34 is a bigger stage to showcase this much-anticipated dream rematch, Nakamura’s magic has dramatically faded over the better part of 2017.

Shinsuke Nakamura vs AJ Styles at the 2018 Royal Rumble would’ve resulted in a 5-star classic that would’ve given Nakamura most of his lost momentum back, provided a clear direction for his character to go in and give the WWE Universe a reason for their concluding match at “The Show of Shows”.