The WWE held their annual Royal Rumble pay-per-view, arguably the most entertaining PPV of the year outside of Wrestlemania. This year’s card only had three matches outside of the Rumble itself, as well as one pre-show match on WWE.com. Here is a look at the WWE Royal Rumble results and recap for the big show.
Breakdown
The pre-show saw Cody Rhodes and Goldust defend their WWE tag team titles against The New Age Outlaws. With all the excitement that went into the Rhodes brothers tag team title win and the great matches that have resulted since then, it is strange to see the New Age Outlaws win the match.
Rumor has it that the Outlaws will be transitional champs to get the titles on the Usos.
The first match of the actual Royal Rumble pay-per-view saw Daniel Bryan take on Bray Wyatt. This was the revenge match for Bryan turning on the Wyatt Family two weeks ago. The match was one of the best of the year and will be a Match of the Year candidate when the year comes to a close as Bray Wyatt got the big win over Daniel Bryan after over 20 minutes.
The match was hard fought and it succeeded in turning Bray Wyatt into an actual star. This was a perfect start to the pay-per-view.
The next match was The Big Show vs. Brock Lesnar. While this was looking to be a hard fought big man match, especially after Big Show destroyed Brock Lesnar twice now on WWE Monday Night Raw, it did not happen. Instead, Lesnar attacked Big Show before the bell and killed him with a steel chair, then another, then another. When the bell rang, Big Show quickly hit his knock out punch, but Lesnar wouldn’t go out. When Big Show tried another punch, Lesnar blocked it nad hit the F5 for the win in just over one minute of match time.
After the match, Lesnar just completely destroyed Big Show.
Next up was the WWE World Championship match between John Cena and Randy Orton. There is no special stipulations and the winner has to be by pinfall or submission. While the crowd loved the first three matches, they turned on Cena and Orton.
They chanted for Daniel Bryan a lot during the match, started doing random chants and even chanted “This is Awful” at one point. The crowd did get into it at the end when the two tried to use the other wrestler’s moves to win. Then The Wyatt Family ran in. Randy Orton used the distraction to hit the RKO and pin Cena and The Wyatt Family beat down Cena after the match.
This sets up the rumored Bray Wyatt vs. John Cena match at Wrestlemania 30. The fans actually cheered the Wyatt’s attack.
The Royal Rumble was next. CM Punk stated out with Seth Rollins. The surprises in the Rumble included Alexander Rusev from NXT, Kevin Nash, JBL, Torito and Sheamus. Nash, JBL and Torito were just fodder for Roman Reigns, who broke Kane’s record with 12 eliminations, including Sheamus near the end.
CM Punk lasted a long time, but rested in the corner for long periods in the match. He was eventually eliminated by Kane, who was an entrant but had already been eliminated himself.
The fans started chanting for Daniel Bryan at about #19 and when Rey Mysterio was the 30th entrant, the fans started booing. They booed Mysterio for not being Bryan and then booed at the end when Batista eliminated Roman Reigns to win the Royal Rumble. Reigns looked like a dominant monster and Batista will be in the main event at Wrestlemania 30.
The fans booed the ending of the Royal Rumble show as well, angry at not getting Daniel Bryan in the Rumble match.
Analysis
The Daniel Bryan vs. Bray Wyatt match was the best one on the entire show and might be the best WWE PPV match I have seen in a long, long time. The New Age Outlaws were actually over when they won the tag team titles and the Brock Lesnar beat down on Big Show was fantastic.
Then the show fell apart. John Cena and Randy Orton did the best they could but the crowd turned on them when the match started and never let up. It was clear the crowd did not want them in the world title match and made their voices heard.
The Royal Rumble match itself was really pretty decent with Roman Reigns coming out of it as a huge star. The problem was not having Daniel Bryan in the match because he is the most over man in the WWE and the company just won’t let him run with the ball. The fans turned on the show, and while it was entertaining to listen to them, it hurt the overall presentation.
From the look of it, here is what Wrestlemania 30 looks like right now (and these are just my predictions):
- John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt
- Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar
- Randy Orton vs. Batista
- CM Punk vs. Triple H
There is no telling what they plan on doing with Daniel Bryan and I can also see The Shield being in a six-man match and Roman Reigns turning face at the big event. Either that or The Shield implodes now and there is a three-way at the big card. Also, expect Big E Langston to have a high profile match at Wrestlemania for the IC title, maybe against that new NXT kid Alexander Rusev.
What were your thoughts on the show? Let us know in the comment section below.