One of the biggest shows of the year in WWE promises to be just as exciting as it’s ever been.
One of the greatest traditions in WWE is the Royal Rumble, and with WrestleMania looming just a couple of months away it’s time to see who can break through the melee of the Royal Rumble match on Sunday night to earn a spot in the main event.
But that’s not all that’s on the line during the Royal Rumble pay-per-view — both of the main brand championships are on the line, with Kevin Owens defending the Universal Championship for Raw against Roman Reigns, and John Cena returning to challenge AJ Styles for Smackdown’s WWE World Heavyweight Championship, plus Charlotte Flair defending the Raw Women’s Championship against Bayley.
The pre-show featured three fantastic matches, with Naomi, Nikki Bella, and Becky Lynch winning in a big upset over WWE Smackdown Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss, Natalya, and a returning Mickie James, a result that throws the women’s title scene wide open on the blue brand. The biggest upset of the pre-show, though, was The Club winning the Raw Tag Team Championships over Cesaro and Seamus, with Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows looking utterly dominant en route to winning their first WWE title.
Speaking of domination, Nia Jax ended the pre-show with a statement, dropping Sasha Banks with authority to force her way into the title picture on Raw. There could be room for her now as well, after Charlotte beat Bayley to defend the Raw Women’s Championship to start the main Royal Rumble show off. It was an impressive performance by the champion, who now has won her first 16 pay-per-view singles matches since coming up to the main WWE roster.
Roman Reigns and Kevin Owens had a hellacious battle for the WWE Universal Championship, with Chris Jericho watching helplessly from overhead while locked in a shark cage. Jericho would manage to get involved, dropping a pair of brass knuckles that Owens used to land Reigns’ own signature Superman Punch on the Samoan, but in the end it was the impact of Braun Strowman, who came out of nowhere to demolish Reigns just as he was setting up to spear Owens, that ultimately helped give Owens the win to defend his title.
Neville was finally crowned as the King of the Cruiserweights, defeating Rich Swann for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship, getting Swann to tap out to the Rings Of Saturn submission maneuver after a thrilling match. It was as hard hitting as it was high-flying, and Neville has finally earned a championship for the first time since coming to the main WWE roster almost two years ago.
AJ Styles and John Cena had another epic of a match for the WWE World Championship, with Cena finally getting a big win over Styles and winning his record-tying 16th career World Championship title. He’s now tied with Ric Flair for the all-time total, and now the wait is on to see how Styles responds, and whether or not Cena will be able to win number 17 before he hangs his armband up and calls it a career.
The Royal Rumble had all the drama it possibly could have, with Big Cass and Chris Jericho starting off the festivities and the early rounds of the Rumble proving to be a lot of fun, with Braun Strowman coming in early and dominating the proceedings until Baron Corbin got a huge elimination by knocking him out.
The big story, though, was the entrance of Brock Lesnar, who immediately took control of the match — but only until Bill Goldberg showed up. In a shocking repeat of their Survivor Series encounter, Goldberg immediately speared the Beast, then clotheslined him straight out of the ring. Undertaker showed up shortly afterward, getting a big elimination of his own on Goldberg, but Roman Reigns would pop up as the 30th and final entrant and shock everyone by knocking the Dead Man out.
Jericho would be eliminated by Reigns shortly afterwards, setting up a confrontation with Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton as the final three men in the ring. Wyatt and his newest family member got the upper hand on Reigns at first, but Wyatt was eliminated before long, and for a moment it looked like Orton would follow him out — but he countered a Reigns spear with an RKO, and moments later Orton was pointing at the Wrestlemania sign as the Royal Rumble winner for the second time in his career.
It was a huge and exciting show, with several big title changes and a lot of interesting storylines set up for the near future. With Elimination Chamber coming for SmackDown in two weeks and Fastlane for Raw two weeks later, there’s a lot still going to happen between now and WrestleMania, so hold on ladies and gentlemen — the road to Wrestlemania is going to be bumpy.