One of WWE’s most exciting and unpredictable PLE’s of the entire year, ‘Royal Rumble’ took place this past Saturday, January 31st, live from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The show contained 4 matches on the card, the respective Men’s & Women’s Royal Rumble matches of course, AJ Styles putting his career on the line against ‘The Ring General’ Gunther, & Sami Zayn’s conquest for the Undisputed WWE Championship against Drew McIntyre. So, let’s get into it shall we?
The show started off with the Women’s Royal Rumble and in a fun and interesting turn of events Charlotte Flair drew #1 and her best friend Alexa Bliss drew #2. The 2 decided to team up in the early goings of the match, but things took a turn when Charlotte accidentally eliminated Alexa while eliminating Nia Jax as well. Charlotte stuck around for a long while though and lasted just 10 seconds from a full hour inside this Rumble match. I’m not entirely sure if that’s the women’s record or not, but if it isn’t then I’m sure it’s up there. There was a lot of fun face-offs and showdowns throughout this contest as well. Charlotte and Becky had their moment, Maxxine & Becky and Maxxine & Nattie had their moments as well before Becky eliminated Maxxine followed almost immediately up by Nattie eliminating Becky. This is a much more vicious and serious version of Natalya, she’s Bloodsport Nattie now and nothing to be played with. Lash Legend had a hell of a showing (even without Nia Jax by her side) and was the biggest threat of the entire Women’s Rumble, eliminating a lot of big names in her path of wreckage. Sol Ruca had herself a very impressive showing as well, hitting a picture-perfect Sol-snatcher on Jacy Jayne at one point and ultimately coming down to the final 3 of the match. The final 3 were a returning Tiffany Stratton who entered at #30, Sol Ruca, and Liv Morgan (after Liv eliminated her Judgment Day bestie Raquel Rodriguez when her back was turned). I found myself backing my girl Tiffany quite a bit in the closing moments of the match as the 3 women battled shakily on the apron for their spot at WrestleMania. Tiffany eliminated Sol after shoving her into the post, but ate a match ending Oblivion from Liv on the apron just moments later. Miss Liv Morgan went on to win her 1st Rumble match ever, with this being the 9th that she’s competed in. That stat alone shocked me, I hadn’t realized she had been in this many Rumbles already. So, I’m actually quite happy for her and interested to see where they take this now. Will Judgment Day start to split on the road to Mania now as Raquel still clearly has her eyes set on the Women’s World Title as well?
Next up, the ‘Phenomenal’ AJ Styles put his career on the line against the career killer, ‘The Ring General’ Gunther. This was an excellent back and forth and a very compelling affair as AJ Styles fought with all he had to prove to not only to Gunther and the WWE Universe that he could beat him, but also to himself. Gunther fought back just as hard to prove to everyone that he is one of the greatest of the modern era and to add AJ to his resume of casualties. AJ kicked out of 2 powerbombs from the Ring General, the 2nd of which came following a low blow by Gunther when the referee had his backed turned. Styles didn’t go down that easy though and pulled out a rare powerbomb of his own onto Gunther and the 2 men beat each other’s chests into a pulp trading chops in the corner. At one point, Styles even hit a 450 Splash followed up almost immediately by a Styles Clash in what was his closest moment to victory in the entire matchup. Gunther caught him on the top rope shortly after as he was going for the Phenomenal Forearm and began his merciless grip on the Sleeper Hold as AJ slowly faded. AJ fought back on a few occasions and nearly powered out of it, but Gunther rained down relentless elbows to AJ’s neck region (similarly to Cena just a month and a half ago), and eventually AJ just had nothing left in the tank to fight back with as he faded and passed out. Gunther walked away victorious yet again, ending yet another legendary career in his wake. That’s 3 legends he’s retired with a victory over in a matter of 7 months now and another name to add to the collection. AJ emotionally hit his pose in front of the crowd one last time as he walked out to a standing ovation.
Next up, my boy, the perpetual underdog Sami Zayn got his chance at the Undisputed WWE Championship again as he took on the champ himself, The Scottish Warrior, Drew McIntyre. There were a lot of interesting sidebars coming into this matchup. Sami Zayn has never won a World Championship in the WWE, and he’s also never beaten Drew McIntyre in 1-on-1 competition. He’s a pitiful 0-11 against him actually. Sami also was coming off a massive victory in his hometown of Montreal the week before though and competing in Saudi Arabia, a place that welcomes him like his 2nd home and a place that he’s never taken a loss in. This match was hard hitting and emotionally tugging all the way through. I found myself rooting Sami on strongly, even if the hope slowly slipped away as time rolled on into the match. Momentum and action swung back and forth as the match drug on, and each man hit their finishers (Helluva Kick & Claymore) as the action started to break down further into the match. Sami had a couple close 2 counts and Drew did as well, especially after connecting 3 Future Shock DDTs onto Sami at one point. Things really started to head South and look like it was coming to an end for Sami after Drew powerbombed him through the announce table at ringside and drug his limp body back into the ring. Sami fought back with a final burst of energy though and threw Drew into the corner with an exploder suplex, but as he ran for the Helluva Kick Drew met him in the middle of the ring with a thundering Claymore Kick. Instead of immediately going for the pin on Sami though, he drug the pain out and let the fighter try to fight his way back to his feet, but as he drug himself to his knees Drew connected with a 2nd Claymore for the pin and the win to remain the Undisputed WWE Champion.
Then it was time for the Men’s Royal Rumble match! The massive recent call-up from NXT, Oba Femi entered in at #1 and ‘The Badass’ Bron Breakker drew #2. Before Bron could even hit the ring though he was attacked by another masked man who jumped him before hitting a Stomp and rolling his lifeless body into the ring for Oba to quickly and easily eliminate before #3 even entered. Oba Femi ran the table for a bit then and cleared the ring in front of him until Damian Priest entered at #7 and evened the odds and allowed some more bodies to pile up in the ring. Jevon Evans, the bouncy recent call-up from NXT, also had a good showing entering at #8 and surviving till the end of the match, as did Cody Rhodes who made it deep into the match from the #11 spot…but that was to be expected. He was one of the most likely to win on most people’s bingo cards, I’m sure. Royce Keys (formerly known as Powerhouse Hobbs in AEW) made his WWE debut in surprising fashion, entering at #14 and taking control of the ring for a handful of big moves on his fellow field of competitors. Logan Paul came in at #20 which allowed for all ‘The Vision’ members (minus Breakker) to start teaming up on the competition and hold shop in the ring, that was until #21 was revealed to be a returning LA Knight who has problems with ‘The Vision’ for putting him on the shelf. He came to the ring like a bat out of hell and quickly eliminated Theory and Bronson Reed, before #22 ‘The Beast’ Brock Lesnar made his way to the ring and laid wreckage in his wake. Cody met Brock as he entered the ring and was quickly German suplexed out of his boots for his efforts, as was a majority of the remaining competitors for the next several minutes. Jey Uso entered at #24, looking to win back-to-back Rumbles and in the midst of his crazy and distracting entrance, Cody Rhodes and Logan Paul formed an unlikely, momentary alliance to eliminate Lesnar from the match. Roman Reigns entered in at #25 and looked like he was going to team up with his somewhat gullible cousin Jey Uso until he punched him in the mouth, proving it is in fact every man for themselves. Fatu entered at #27 followed shortly by Randy Orton and Gunther at #29 and #30 respectively. Fatu came in with his usual intensity and directed it all at Cody Rhodes. As Cody was dangling on the ropes looking to save himself from elimination, Drew McIntyre made his presence known and Claymore Kicked Cody off the apron and eliminated him. The distraction to Fatu was enough for Roman Reigns to eliminate him from the match as well. Randy Orton, Roman Reigns, Logan Paul, and Gunther were the final 4. Gunther eliminated Orton and Reigns eliminated Paul to take us down to our final 2. Gunther looked to lock in his patented Sleeper on Reigns and get him to fade, but Roman ended up slipping out of it and connecting with a Spear before throwing Gunther over the top rope for the win. This is Roman’s 1st Rumble win since 2015 and the crowd seemed much more excited and accepting of it this time around. The Tribal Chief may be a made man who didn’t necessarily need to win another Rumble, but this washes the bad taste out of his and the fans mouths from the 1st Rumble win as well.
Match Ratings: 1-10 scale (.25 applicable)
Women’s Royal Rumble match: 7.75/10
AJ Styles vs Gunther: 8.25/10
Undisputed WWE Championship match: Drew McIntyre (c) vs Sami Zayn: 8.5/10
Men’s Royal Rumble Match: 7.25/10
That’s going to do it for this one though folks! Make sure to like and follow the page on social media or keep checking back with the website to keep up with all my latest posts over WWE, horror films, newly released movies, and much more! Until next time, be good to one another out there!
