Shinsuke Nakamura Wins Royal Rumble As WWE Finally Gets It Right

Shinsuke Nakamura pulled off a huge upset Sunday night, as he eliminated Roman Reigns to win the Royal Rumble. Immediately after winning, the “King of Strong Style” announced he’d be facing A.J. Styles for the WWE title at Wrestlemania 34.

Most expected Reigns to win, as he has long been expected to face Brock Lesnar in the main event at Wrestlemania 34, but WWE finally threw fans a curveball, and it was awesome.

The organization finally gave one of its newer stars a win at the Rumble. The last five winners of the Rumble have been: Randy Orton, Reigns, Batista, John Cena and Sheamus. For a company looking to promote its newer talent, that’s not a great track record. So giving the 37-year-old Japanese superstar an unexpected win was a huge deal.

Nakamura has long been one of the best professional wrestlers in the world and he had a great run in NXT. But since his move to the main roster, he’s been a bit mishandled by the creative team. Now he’ll finally get a chance to be in the ring with a guy in Styles who can match his pure ability. That pair should put on a fantastic show.

They’ve faced each other before in Japan and it was awesome:

Nakamura will get a chance to shine on the big stage of Wrestlemania in a marquee match. It’s long past time he got that opportunity. And it’s long past time Styles and Nakamura finally got a big-ticket, one-on-one match in WWE.