What if Shawn Michaels wins the Royal Rumble?

4. Shawn Michaels vs. AJ Styles

A match with AJ Styles may be the best championship bout WWE could book for HBK

If WWE doesn’t use HBK as an opponent for Brock Lesnar, the other most logical option for him as a Royal Rumble winner would be to have him challenge AJ Styles for the WWE Championship. Michaels-Styles is a dream match that fans have speculated about for some time, pitting the best in-ring performers from two different generations in the ring with one another to let them work magic.

A bit counterintuitively, Michaels may be less likely to win this match than one with Lesnar. While HBK could cash in his legendary status to somewhat credibly upset Lesnar, Styles is HBK’s modern day equivalent, and Michaels would likely as not work this WrestleMania showcase match in order to put him over to a higher degree and shore up Styles’s legacy as an all-time great WWE Champion.

Of course, the best news for fans is that even with Michaels’s having lost a step, putting these two in the ring together would almost certainly still result in at least a four-star classic.