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Ahead of Sunday's Royal Rumble PPV event, three Superstars from WWE SmackDown officially declared their names for the Men's Royal Rumble match on this week's episode of the Blue show.
In addition to being members of SmackDown, Shinsuke Nakamura, Sami Zayn, and Dolph Ziggler are also former Intercontinental Champions while The Showoff is currently one-half of the SmackDown Tag Team Champions along with Robert Roode.
WWE's Royal Rumble is one of the Big Four events of the company where the focus is primarily on the Men's and Women's Royal Rumble match. The winner of the Royal Rumble gets to challenge the respective World Champion of his/her choosing at that year's WrestleMania.
While Shinsuke Nakamura is a former Royal Rumble winner, he was unable to defeat AJ Styles for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 34. Zayn and Ziggler have never won the Royal Rumble but the current SmackDown Tag Team Champion can boast of being a former two-time World Heavyweight Champion.
It remains to be seen if either of these three men can win this year's Royal Rumble event. Nakamura's recent face-turn however has cemented him as one of the favorites to win this year's Royal Rumble match.
Ziggler declares his name for the WWE Royal Rumble on SmackDown
While Shinsuke Nakamura was not seen on this week's SmackDown, his friend Cesaro came down to the ring to confront Daniel Bryan and bragged about defeating the Leader of the Yes! Movement on last week's show. Both Cesaro and Bryan have declared themselves for the Royal Rumble on previous episodes.
Bryan was eager to have a rematch with Cesaoro but the Swiss Superman was not willing to wrestle with Bryan who was not in his ring gear. The winner of the first Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal then laid out an open challenge to anyone in the locker room that have declared their names for the Rumble.
His challenge was met by Dolph Ziggler who came out to the ring and declared that he would be entering the Rumble. Both Superstars then locked horns with each other and Cesaro came out as the victor after putting away The Showoff with the Neutralizer.
