Royal Rumble 2018 Betting Odds: Nakamura And 3 More Heavy Favorites To Win

For the first time ever, wrestling fans will get double the rumble this Sunday. The WWE Royal Rumble, in which 30 wrestlers enter but only one leaves, is doubling up this year with the introduction of the Women’s Royal Rumble. Though 60 wrestlers in total will waltz into that ring looking to secure a spot in their respective championship matches at Wrestlemania, only two will leave.

Professional wrestling may not be a sport, per se, but people bet on it all the same. This year, oddsmakers more or less came to a consensus a few days out on who would win both the men’s and women’s Royal Rumble matches. At least one of the answers would be shocking, if not for all the rumor-mongering ahead of time.

On the men’s side, multiple sources have Shinsuke Nakamura as the favorite to come out on top. OddsShark has Nakamura at +100 to win, while OddsChecker has multiple aggregated sources listing him as the safest bet. The 37-year-old superstar built a strong reputation as one of the world’s very best wrestlers in Japan, but did not get a shot with WWE until 2016. Since joining the main roster, Nakamura has not had as many big moments as fans expected; a Rumble win and a Wrestlemania match against AJ Styles would do a lot to change that.

Nakamura is the favorite, but oddsmakers also gave nods to 2015 Rumble champion Roman Reigns and Smackdown general manager Daniel Bryan as possible winners. WWE has pushed Reigns ceaselessly over the past few years, so he can never be counted out. Bryan retired almost two years ago due to concussions, but clearly wants to wrestle again and remains enormously popular with fans. Few people got applauses as big as Bryan got on the 25th anniversary episode of “Monday Night Raw.”

Things are simultaneously simpler and more complicated on the women’s side of things. Oddsmakers have it down to two likely winners: WWE star Asuka and former MMA fighter Ronda Rousey. Yes, many believe the first ever Women’s Rumble champion could be someone whose only prior WWE appearance was a brief segment during Wrestlemania 31 in 2015.

Rumors have heated up for a while about Rousey joining WWE full-time, but she vehemently denied them in an interview with TMZ Thursday. According to Rousey, she will not even be in the United States on Sunday. Still, plenty of folks did not buy it. Commentators during the women’s tag team match on the most recent episode of “Raw” treated Asuka’s impending Rumble victory as all-but-certain, which could be a set-up for deception.

Such an event might upset fans of Asuka, a highly accomplished and beloved wrestler who has never been beaten in a WWE match. That said, it would certainly generate headlines, which would please the people in charge of the company.