So the Royal Rumble was good. Really good. Most people's expectations of the Royal Rumble PPV and match itself have fallen in recent years but in 2016 WWE managed to get everything right. They went in the right direction for setting up plenty of Wrestlemania feuds and gave fans many reasons to be hopeful in the coming weeks and months.
The PPV opened with the Last Man Standing match between Kevin Owens and defending champion, Dean Ambrose. This was risky call as everyone knew this match was going to be great which meant that there was a big chance that it would overshadow everything else. While it didn't do that, the match itself was excellent. There were plenty of awesome spots including Ambrose taking a fisherman suplex off the top rope through a table and a KO Cannonball through the timekeepers area. The majority knew that this was going to be more than a brawl than a wrestling match and we were OK with that because we all knew that's what needed to happen in this feud. Both men came out of this match looking very strong and the Intercontinental Championship looks like a more worthwhile prize at the same time. Both men deserve massive credit for this match and their involvement in it and it really got the crowd going for the rest of the night.
Next up was The Usos taking on the New Day for the Tag Team titles. The New Day won clean as everyone probably expected they would but the match itself was pretty good. I must admit, personally I didn't have a huge amount of hope going into this match as it felt like i'd seen it too many times on RAW already but it was a very good match nonetheless. Keeping the titles on New Day was definitely the right decision but the next step is unclear. New Day need some new competition and that is painfully obvious. They just have no one fresh to feud with on the roster and that is part of the reason why the have become a tiny bit stale in recent weeks. Whether the WWE put together an interesting dynamic team on RAW or surprise us with a call-up from NXT they definitely need to give the New Day something to do.
Kalisto vs Del Rio for the United States Championship and Kalisto actually won! With Kalisto being forced to tap on SmackDown two weeks ago and then taking the pin on Monday's go home RAW before the Rumble the smart money was on Del Rio retaining the title going into Wrestlemania season. However, Kalisto, like the underdog that he is, used Del Rio's tactic of exposing the metal turnbuckle and won the match. This was probably the better result looking at things but now the WWE have a dilemma on their hands. Being the underdog it's realistic to think that Kalisto won't hold onto the belt for a long period of time but this runs the risk of the title becoming a parcel at a children's party. The WWE have to be careful how they book Kalisto coming out of this otherwise the US title will continue to lose it's credibility.
The penultimate match was Becky Lynch vs Charlotte for the Diva's Championship (seriously, why is that still a thing? why do we not have the Women's Championship back yet? This was arguably the best Women's match on RAW in recent memory as it had everything it needed to be good. Unlike the majority of Women's bouts in recent times it had a good backstory as well as two talented in-ring wrestlers. Charlotte retained which is pretty much what most people expected to happen but Becky more than held her own in the ring and proved she deserved to be around the title picture. After the match Sasha Banks came out and did her whole thing of being a 'Legit Boss' and hit Charlotte with the Bank Statement. It looks like Charlotte vs Banks will be the feud going into Wrestlemania which, while it will be exciting, lacks a face in that partnership. Banks has a natural ability to play a Heel and turning Charlotte face now would just be, well, idiotic. I feel for Becky because it looks like she might just get pushed off to the side now which she proved she doesn't deserve in the match at the Royal Rumble.
And now the Rumble itself. The Rumble itself was interesting because there are always tons of talking points. This year was no different. I'll try to cover the in the order they happened and the first big talking point, was obviously, AJ GODDAMN STYLES. Everyone pretty much knew that Styles was backstage during the Rumble PPV but whether he was going to participate was a different story. We got our answer early on as AJ came out at number 3 to an unbelievably monstrous pop which was by far the loudest of the night. WWE apparently had reservations about Styles debuting in the Rumble because they weren't sure if people would know about him all that much. Well that idea went out the window straight away and AJ was the most over guy in the match with fans continually chanting for him. Eventually he was eliminated by Kevin Owens which garnered him some proper heat. Give the Creative team booking however because it was excellent booking to bring out Sami Zayn of all people after Styles got eliminated. People were obviously very unhappy when Styles went out but having Zayn make a surprise entrance in the Rumble helped calm them down. Elsewhere Mark Henry and Jack Swagger, or as I've heard them be referred to as 'Swagsual Chocolate' won the Pre-show match to be involved in the Rumble and they were both eliminated swiftly. What was the point of that? R-Truth did his whole thing of not understanding where the hell he actually is. It was funny the first time but now it just feels like the WWE are trying to force a laugh out of us. Lesnar vs the Wyatt's was good. Lesnar eliminated 3 of the Wyatt family who then got back in the ring and eliminated him. It was good because it made him look strong and it allowed Lesnar to be eliminated in a believable way. Then the big one. TRIPLE H returned at the Rumble at number 30 to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. I think most of us saw it happening but it was the smart booking decision nonetheless. Before this happened Roman was dragged out under the bottom rope by the league of nations, put through a table and went to the back. Bad move. Roman needs to be booked like a badass dude who doesn't care about anyone. Having him escorted to the back for more than half the match just makes him look pitiful and weak and is just not helping him in the slightest.
On the go home RAW episode Reigns was noticeably booed by the crowd during the Highlight Reel Segment and it was even worse during the Rumble. It was evident that Roman is no where near over yet and that he still faces an uphill task to do so. This is going to make Wrestlemania very difficult for WWE. Reigns vs HHH is the touted main event at this point with HHH being the evil authority Heel and Reigns being the underdog character. No. On current evidence that is not going to work and judging on how Wrestlemania crowds can react, HHH may well end up being cheered by 100,000 people in Dallas. WWE need to figure out what to do with Reigns fast as people are still not warming to him. I've said many times that I struggle to believe that Reigns will be as over as he has been the past few weeks when people such as Cena, Orton, Cesaro, Rollins and even potentially Bryan start returning from Injury. If it comes to it the WWE may have to even pull the plug on Reigns altogether because it just doesn't seem to be working for them.
Let's keep away from that though because the Royal Rumble was a great way to start off 2016. Last year was a pretty bum year for WWE but the Royal Rumble is a sign of good things to come this year. Eliminations in the Royal Rumble were clever because they allowed seeds for potential 'Mania story lines to be sown. Overall it was a great PPV to watch and every result was the right one.
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