10 Most Likely WWE Royal Rumble 2018 Winners

You won't believe who's number one! 

Shinsuke Nakamura
WWE.com

Picking the winner of WWE's annual Royal Rumble has traditionally been a fairly straight-forward task. Last year, for example, Randy Orton went into the event the odds-on favourite, and duly came out of it with a place in the WrestleMania 33 main event.

It's the same familiar story this time around too - at least on paper. Everyone knows that Roman Reigns is going to challenge Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship at the Show of Shows, making him the outstanding candidate to claim victory on January 28.

Delve a little deeper, however, and things are perhaps slightly less clear-cut than they first appear. While The Big Dog probably is heading into New Orleans as the number one contender, there's no guarantee that he gets there via the Rumble.

In fact, if WWE has learned the lessons of history, this is exactly pitfall they will want to avoid. Roman's latest push should be a more organic one that doesn't undercut any of the company's more popular faces, in the way that it did Daniel Bryan three years ago.

As such, there are one or two others potentially in the running...

10. Jason Jordan

Shinsuke Nakamura
WWE.com

You could almost hear wrestling fans everywhere breathe a collective sigh of relief when Triple H returned to the Monday Night Raw scene late last year, sewing the seeds for what looks like being a WrestleMania 34 showdown with old foe Kurt Angle.

This, so one would think, ought to preclude Jason Jordan - who, talented though he undeniably is, doesn't yet seem ready for a place so high up the WWE card - from taking on his old man on the Grandest Stage of Them All. Crisis averted.

Then again, perhaps we're not quite out of the woods just yet. There's still an outside chance that the American Alpha co-founder could find himself in the thick of the 'Mania action by winning the Royal Rumble in two weeks; the recourse of a desperate creative team as they look to legitimise the Golden-Blooded One in the eyes of the fans.

It doesn't seen particularly likely - hence his lowly place on the list - but, until he actually gets eliminated, you can ill-afford to write him off. The fact is that WWE have (or at least had at one point) have big plans for "this kid," and victory on January 28 would open up a lot of doors.

Contributor