WWE Royal Rumble: 10 Potential Winners of the Men’s Rumble

Credit: WWE.com

Samoa Joe

I hate to keep bringing up injuries and poor booking, but the world of wrestling is all about timing. If the timing isn’t right, things just don’t work out. If the timing is wrong enough, it can really hamper someone’s rise to the top. In 2017, Samoa Joe looked like he was on his way to making a mark on Raw and even came close to defeating Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship.

This year on SmackDown Live, he also got very close to gold. In a long and bitter rivalry with AJ Styles, Samoa Joe got only milliseconds from capturing the WWE Championship on more than one occasion. Unfortunately, Styles always found a way to escape with his WWE Championship. It may have been unsuccessful in making him WWE Champion, it did show that Joe could be a powerfully dominant force in the main event scene.

Samoa Joe has been fire on the mic since arriving on the main roster, and his rivalry with AJ Styles only cranked that knowledge up to another level with some terrifyingly real promos by Joe, even some targeting AJ’s family. Samoa Joe has always been the kind of competitor who will do anything to take his spot, find an advantage, and make his moment. There’s no better time to take your spot than at the Royal Rumble.

Despite those good moments throughout the last few years, Joe’s momentum has been hampered more than once by a poorly timed injury. If he’s been able to heal up in recent weeks since departing from the main event picture, and in the coming weeks towards the Rumble, Joe could be at his healthiest and most dangerous going into his first ever Royal Rumble Match. A win would certainly put both Raw and SmackDown on notice, because there aren’t many things scarier than a confident and determined Samoa Joe.