11 Ups And 8 Downs From WWE Royal Rumble 2018

2. Predictable, But Unexpected

Charlotte Flair Asuka Alexa Bliss
WWE.com

Going into the Royal Rumble, both Shinsuke Nakamura and Asuka were on people’s short lists of who would win their respective Rumbles. But who would have expected that both of them would win?

Seeing the two of them win was a strange moment, in a very good way. Consider, we’re now going to get Nakamura/AJ Styles at WrestleMania for one of the most prestigious titles in professional wrestling. And we’re going to see Asuka battle for a women’s championship in what will hopefully be a coronation for the undefeated Empress of Tomorrow.

But after years of guys like Batista, Roman Reigns and Randy Orton winning the Rumble, it was a welcome sign to see Shinsuke and Asuka – wrestlers the fans really have taken to who aren’t WWE products – reach the mountaintop.

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Contributor
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.