10 Early Favourites To Win WWE Royal Rumble 2018 Match

3. Shinsuke Nakamura

Roman Reigns
WWE.com

SummerSlam was a terrible night for the King of Strong Style. Why did they bother getting the violinist out, when they were just going to follow him with the shovel a mere 11 minutes later?

His match with Jinder Mahal was at best tedious, at worst a disaster. Mahal showed - again - that he isn't WWE Championship material. He did little more in there than throw punches and work rest holds. Nakamura, stunted by the layout, could only repeat his come on taunt a few times to get a reaction. It didn't work. The referee, for whatever reason, didn't disqualify the Singh Brothers for interfering - possibly because he was in denial that WWE repeated the finish to the first two Orton/Mahal matches, again, on the second biggest show of the year. Nakamura wasn't even allowed to kick out of one botched Khallas. In an age in which finishers mean nothing, that was the biggest insult of all.

This is optimistic at best. The Nakamura/AJ Styles tease at Money In The Bank was engineered via petition on the part of the latter. But WWE must know what they have with Nakamura, else they wouldn't have put up him against Mahal in the first place. He might actually need a win this big to restore his disintegrated reputation.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!