WWE Royal Rumble 2017: 10 Wrestlers With A Legit Chance Of Winning

WWE don't always get the Royal Rumble winner right. Case in point: this year. And the year before that. And the year before that.

In truth, you probably have to go as far back as 2010 to find the last time the company didn't waste the Rumble spot on someone who either didn't need it, or for whom the main event came calling far too soon.

Signs are more promising in the build-up this time around. For starters, 2016 winner Triple H hasn't appeared on television for months, while Roman Reigns - who hogged the limelight in the last two - has been mercifully demoted to the mid-card.

Thanks to the return of the brand split, the world title divisions are distinctly more malleable these days: guys like AJ Styles, Kevin Owens and Finn Balor have all been given the opportunity to headline pay-per-views just months after making their main roster debuts.

This means fans - with some justification - expect to see their NXT favourites step into the main event scene at the outset. And the Royal Rumble, where many careers have been made, represents the ideal time to throw one of them some shade.

Couple this with how unpredictable wrestling has been of late, and picking the next Royal Rumble winner is no easy task. Here are 10 candidates that might be in with a shout.

At 46 (albeit a very young 46), Jericho's days as a bona fide main eventer are probably well behind him, but his slow-build storyline with Universal Champion and best friend Kevin Owens seems to be heading all the way to WrestleMania, and Y2J winning the Rumble would be one way to test the strength of their blossoming bromance.

Although Jericho is little more than an outside bet when you consider his age and his dismal win record of late, the curtain is slowly coming down on his in-ring career, and a blow-off title match on the Grandest Stage of Them All is a fitting way for the inaugural Undisputed Champ to bow out.