Predicting WWE Royal Rumble 2018 Match (6 Months In Advance)

After Shinsuke comes down to the ring, Matt Hardy will be eliminated by AJ Styles, and The Miz will be eliminated by Shinsuke. That leaves us with AJ Styles, Finn Bálor, Kevin Owens, Shinsuke Nakamura, Dean Ambrose, and Seth Rollins, a six-way fight which can go on for at least ten minutes, as far as I'm concerned.

After a hard fought battle, Kevin Owens will manage to opportunistically eliminate Shinsuke, before he himself is eliminated by Seth Rollins. Another brawl between the former Bullet Club members and the former Shield members will take place, before Ambrose is eliminated by Bálor and Rollins is eliminated by Styles.

That leaves us with the two men who started the match, and I would pick AJ Styles as the winner. I am absolutely of the belief that SmackDown's main event at WrestleMania next year should be AJ Styles vs Shinsuke Nakamura, and having Styles win the Rumble, and Nakamura win the Championship at Elimination Chamber (or whatever SmackDown's February pay per view happens to be) sets that match up nicely.

Also, it will have been fourteen years since Chris Benoit won the Rumble from the number one position, and this will allow the commentators to talk about that statistic without awkwardly saying "two men including Shawn Michaels".

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So what do you think? Does this seem like a realistic version of next year's Royal Rumble match? Would you enjoy it if this prediction came true? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.