Check out our play by play for the 2016 Royal Rumble.
Although the last few Royal Rumbles have been a little lacking, this one has just as much intrigue as any in quite a while. For the first time since 1992, the winner will be the WWE champ.
In 1992, which we recapped last year, there was no champion. It was held up after Hulk Hogan and the Undertaker traded the title back and forth in November of 19991. And Ric Flair, who entered at number 3, won the thing after Hulk Hogan pulled Sid Justice out of the ring. Hogan was fair to Flair.
This year, Roman Reigns enters the match at number one and has to defend his title in the match. If he doesn’t win, he loses the title to whoever does.
We’ll be back with live coverage of the full show.
Mark Henry and Jack Swagger won a match on the pre-show and will be in tonight’s Royal Rumble match.
The show opened with Jojo interviewing Vince McMahon who walked out of a limo with his daughter. He was very excited about putting Reigns in a match as a way of screwing him.
Dean Ambrose Vs Kevin Owens
Ambrose did a dive through the ropes on Owens and Owens did a comical sell job and nearly took out Michael Cole. Outside the ring, Ambrose brought a kendo stick into play, but to his demise. Owens hit the lowest Superkick of all time to his bellybutton and did the Cannonball dive onto him against the barricade.
Owens hits a cannonball #WWE #RoyalRumble pic.twitter.com/xoayOvlCsy
— LARIATOOOOO!!! (@SenorLARIATO) January 25, 2016
Ambrose backdropped Owens onto chairs inside the ring, but they’re back outside with the ring steps involved. In the PG version of chair shots to the head, he tossed the chair on Owens’ head.
Lots of plunder going on here. Owens did his inverted superplex to Ambrose onto the table. Ambrose barely beat the count as Owens yells at him to stay down. He then gave him the pop-up powerbomb. Owens laid him on chairs that were sitting and went to the top rope, seemingly to do a moonsault. Ambrose pushed him off the top and he went through stacked tables that were set up earlier. Owens couldn’t beat the count.
Winner: Dean Ambrose
Usos Vs New Day
The New Day won the match after Big E caught Jey in the Big Ending as he was diving on Kofi who he just super kicked. After Big E pinned him, he grinded more fiercely than ever.
Xavier Woods has a new trombone. The match was solid, but the crowd hated the Usos and loved New Day. Not sure how New Day are even heels at this point.
Winner: New Day
Alberto Del Rio Vs Kalisto
Kalisto won the match with a second Salida del Sol.
Del Rio bumps well for Kalisto’s offense even though there’s a huge size difference. Del Rio went for his stomp off the top, but Kalisto moved out of the way. He then went for the first Salida del Sol. Del Rio grabbed the bottom rope to break the count. Del Rio exposed the turnbuckle and Kalisto missed a hurracanrana, but Del Rio had to run into the turnbuckle anyway. Then he ate the second Salida del Sol.
Winner: Kalisto
Stephanie was on her phone in the back and Paul Heyman joined her. He said he was there to renegotiate Brock Lesnar’s contract after he throws out the League Of Nations and the Wyatt Family. Steph said that if he tosses Roman, she’ll gladly renegotiate.
Becky Lynch Vs Charlotte
This match was much different from the rest. It was the most wrestling wrestling match tonight. They each worked each other’s arm early on and there was a lot of solid mat work.
Lynch had her in the arm bar, but Flair threw his jacket on her. She got up, Charlotte speared her, and she pinned her.
Winner: Charlotte
Sasha Banks came out and took out Lynch even more. She and Charlotte hooked pinkies and Charlotte was ready to walk out. Banks then hit her with the back stabber and the Bank Statement and Charlotte was tapping.
Royal Rumble
Reigns and Rusev start out. It didn’t take long. Reigns speared him and tossed him. Styles is out third – the Flair spot. Styles is very over with this crowd. Breeze didn’t last two minutes. Axel didn’t last two minutes either.
Truth came out and thought it was a ladder match. He grabbed a ladder and went up, but was tossed. Kofi was tossed out, but landed on Big E’s shoulders. The League of Nations came out and pulled Reigns out of the ring and beat on him. Reigns went to the back.
Strowman came out and dumped both Kane and Show. Styles had Neville in the Styles Clash and Owens super kicked him and dumped him. Before he did, he said, “Welcome to WWE!” Zayn came in and dumped Owens. The Wyatt family started clearing the ring. They dumped Neville, Stardust, and Henry.
Lesnar came out and targeted the Wyatt’s, dumping out Rowan and Harper after giving Harper numerous suplexes. He also dumped out poor Swagger who entered, at a F5 and then was dumped. He then dumped out Strowman right before Bray came in. Wyatt came in and the rest of the family came in as well to quadruple team him. He dumped the three again, went for a F5 on Bray, but the Wyatt’s came back in. Harper kicked him, he ate a Sister Abigail, and they all dumped him.
Triple H was last and rather than dastardly win the match, he destroyed everyone. He took big moves, but didn’t really sell as much as you’d think considering WrestleMania is lacking top matches. Roman tossed out Sheamus, but Triple H threw Reigns out and crotch-chopped him. It was Dean and Triple H and you knew the skinny guy in the tank top and jeans wasn’t winning. It’s 2016 and Triple H just made his entire roster look like jabronis.
Entrants
1. Roman Reigns
2. Rusev
3. AJ Styles
4. Tyler Breeze
5. Curtis Axel
6. Chris Jericho
7. Kane
8. Goldust
9. Ryback
10. Kofi Kingston
11. Titus O’Neal
12. R-Truth
13. Luke Harper
14. Stardust
15. Big Show
16. Adrian Neville
17. Braun Strowman
18. Kevin Owens
19. Dean Ambrose
20. Sami Zayn
21. Erick Rowan
22. Mark Henry
23. Brock Lesnar
24. Jack Swagger
25. The Miz
26. Alberto Del Rio
27. Bray Wyatt
28. Dolph Ziggler
29. Sheamus
30. Triple H
Eliminations
1. Rusev
2. Tyler Breeze
3. Curtis Axel
4. Goldust
5. R-Truth
6. Kofi Kingston
7. Titus O’Neal
8. Ryback
9. Kane
10. Big Show
11. Kevin Owens
12. Adrian Neville
13. Stardust
14. Mark Henry
15. Erick Rowan
16. Sami Zayn
17. Erick Rowan
18. Jack Swagger
19. Luke Harper
20. Braun Strowman
21. Brock Lesnar
22. The Miz
23. Alberto Del Rio
24. Dolph Ziggler
25. Bray Wyatt
26. Chris Jericho
27. Sheamus
28. Roman Reigns
29. Dean Ambrose
You don’t have when AJ Styles was eliminated