WWE Royal Rumble 2018: 10 Outside Bets To Win The Men's Match

In recent weeks, Shinsuke Nakamura has overtaken John Cena and Roman Reigns to become the bookie's favourite to win this year's Royal Rumble match. So how can he possibly top a list of outside bets? Well, despite all the logic and rumour in the world, it's still hard to see WWE pulling the trigger on this.

Nakamura's main roster career has been a shambles so far. He went 50/50 with a lukewarm Dolph Ziggler in his debut match, fell repeatedly to Jinder Mahal during the summer, and was the first man eliminated in the main event of last year's Survivor Series. The phenomenon that rocked NXT was nowhere to be found on SmackDown Live. Instead, we saw a man with limited English skills who can do some impressive kicks, but little else to stand out from the crowd.

Look, Nakamura winning the Royal Rumble and going on to face AJ Styles in a dream match at WrestleMania makes all the sense in the world. A simple stare off between the two was the highlight of the Money in the Bank pay-per-view, and there genuinely is no better title match that SmackDown can give us. But someone in the creative team clearly doesn't regard Shinsuke Nakamura that highly, and the idea of him coming from behind to claim victory on Sunday seems far-fetched, despite the consensus among the IWC.

Still, stranger things have happened.