Ranking All 34 WWE Royal Rumble Winners

22. Shinsuke Nakamura – 2018

WrestleMania title shot: Lost to AJ Styles at WrestleMania 34

Remember when Shinsuke Nakamura felt special?

Unfortunately, WWE looked like they were going all-in on Nakamura in 2018, giving fans the dream match they wanted, only to pull the plug at Mania, when AJ Styles successfully defended his title. It was quite the letdown for those wanting Naka-Mania to run wild.

Worse, Nakamura turned heel at Mania, then lost all subsequent rematches against Styles. He got an uneventful run as United States Champion, but now he’s back to treading water.

Authored by Scott Carlson

Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.

Posted On: 21st Jan 2019

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WWE Royal Rumble