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