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The WWE Royal Rumble is once again almost upon us and once again all eyes seem to be on a superstar from Monday nights to be the last man standing. That is until very recently, and now superstars from Smackdown are sparking up interest, and thankfully so.
Smackdown has always been portrayed as the B show in WWE, but since the second brand extension of 2016, Smackdown authority figures Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan had mentioned almost every week how they were the 'A' show. However, since November's Survivor Series, where Smackdown lost all high profile RAW vs Smackdown matches, they have looked like even more of the 'B' show now more than ever.
Throughout all of November and December, former Royal Rumble winners, RAW's Roman Reigns and 'Free Agent' John Cena were the two top favourites to come out on top. Within the past few days, however, there has been a shift on professional betting websites with Smackdown's Shinsuke Nakamura and General Manager Daniel Bryan coming out of retirement to win, and if you ask me, these two make far more sense than Roman Reigns and John Cena.
John Cena's name is pretty much out of the running for winning the match now as he is expected to have a very special non-title match in New Orleans. Roman Reigns is still planned to face Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship, but this match has been planned for almost one year now and Roman does not need to be the last man standing to get their, especially in front of the same Philadelphia audience that booed his Rumble win out of the same building in 2015.
Daniel Bryan is still one of the most least likely to win the match,as he is still not cleared to wrestle by WWE's doctors (that we know of). It is always possible however that Bryan has been cleared and it is just been kept from the public when WWE wants to hide something big from online dirt sheets, they go to extreme length and this could be one of them.
Shinsuke Nakamura on the other hand, is much more straightforward. Nakamura vs AJ Styles has been rumoured for WrestleMania since the summer and as of this writing, AJ remains the WWE Champion. The previously planned Jinder Mahal vs John Cena for the WWE Championship in New Orleans has obviously been scrapped and I can't see WWE taking the title off AJ Styles for now. Unlike Roman Reigns, Shinsuke Nakamura is still very popular with fans of all ages. I'm going to go ahead and assume WWE is aware that a victory for Nakamura in the 30-man match would make more sense. The 2014 and 2015 Royal Rumble match, one of which Roman won, ended embarrassingly for WWE as two top babyface stars presented by them were booed out of the building.
Shinsuke winning the match would end the night on a fine note and it would also set up the Nakamura vs Styles storyline in motion.
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