10 Potential WWE Royal Rumble 2018 Winners

5. Samoa Joe

Samoa Joe Extreme Rules
WWE.com

The 'Samoan Submission Machine' was the popular outside bet to win the 2017 Royal Rumble. Samoa Joe hadn’t even made his main roster debut at that point, but critics and fans alike were hypothesising that the former NXT Champion was on his way to a WrestleMania showdown with John Cena. That belief stayed strong all the way up until a second after the countdown ended for number 30, when Roman Reigns strode out to the ring.

Is Joe in a stronger position now? Without a shadow of a doubt, yes. Despite his recent injury, Joe’s stock has risen exponentially in 2017. A summer feud with Brock Lesnar established him as a top guy, no matter how quickly their match ended. Joe isn’t a favourite for the 2018 Rumble, but he is definitely in the conversation.

The John Cena vs. Samoa Joe match that many predicted for WrestleMania 33 could well take place next year instead. Joe is a top tier performer in WWE, but a major accolade is yet to come his way. Royal Rumble 2018 is the place to change that.

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.