12 WWE Royal Rumble 2018 Impulse Reactions
6. Strong Styles
From jack sh*t to a king in a night, Shinsuke Nakamura's victory was subversive reminder that the company can do whatever the hell they want with a wrestler for the better part of year and redeem the entire mess in a single night.
Finn Bálor was a beneficiary of similar treatment at October's Tables, Ladders and Chairs pay-per-view. A match with AJ Styles was all it took for him to be reborn just as was yet again here despite ending his evening flat back bumping on pancakes. His NXT and NJPW rival had an even greater prize to reach for.
In surviving the collective onslaughts of John Cena, Randy Orton, Roman Reigns and countless others during his 44:25 stint in the match, Nakamura at long last looked like the 'King' in WWE he'd been proclaimed as since first arriving from across the Pacific in 2016. His throaty and breathless 'COME ON!' hadn't carried such guttural heft since dished out to Sami Zayn on that glorious Dallas night.
Spaying 'The Big Dog' to claim ultimate supremacy was the most crucial moment of all for 'The Artist'. The upper echelon so rarely allow anybody to cause a crack in the glass ceiling. Shinsuke Kinshasa'd right through it.