WWE Royal Rumble Coverage: The Animal Reigns Supreme

Even without a “crazy” Royal Rumble battle royal, this year’s Royal Rumble event was a success, thanks to a wild World Heavyweight title match that saw Brock Lesnar retain his title.

With Roman Reigns winning the Rumble, the stage is set and the driving lanes have been painted on the Road to Wrestlemania.

While the Philly-crowd was miffed that Daniel Bryan didn’t win the event, Reigns’ win is a huge step in a different creative direction that allows the youth of the company a bigger chance to grab the “brass ring.”

Matches:

Kickoff: Big E. Langston and Kofi Kingston w/Xavier Woods vs. Antonio Cesaro and Tyson Kidd w/Natalya Neidhart and Adam Rose: In a match that felt eerily similar to their last encounter early on, Kidd and Cesaro did the majority of the technical heavy lifting, while Kingston sold his tail off. After the action spilled to the outside, Langston tried to finish off Cesaro with an attempt at the Big Ending, but it was Kingston who tried to win the match after a tag (that the ref didn’t see) with a Top Rope Cross Body. After Kingston tagged in again, Cesaro and Kidd nearly got the win with a Superplex/Elbow Drop combination. After a few near-falls, Kidd locked in the Sharpshooter on Kingston, but Langston evened things up with a Belly-to-Belly. After Cesaro took out Langston with the Big Boot, Cesaro, now on the outside, nailed Kingston with European Uppercut, allowing Kidd to hit the Three-Handled Credenza for the win.

Viktor and Konnor vs. Road Dogg and Billy Gunn: A strike-heavy encounter that saw The Ascension in control when the New Age Outlaws weren’t going through the scrap books of their old moves. Although Gunn hit a beautiful Tilt-a-Whirl Sideslam on Viktor, he missed the Fame Asser and Konnor was able to make a quick tag, allowing The Ascension to hit the Fall of Man for the win.

Tag Team Champions Jimmy and Jey Uso vs. The Miz and Damien Sandow: A good back and forth between Miz and the Usos as Sandow wasn’t tagged in for a huge portion of the match, but still provided a lot of the drama and comedy. Miz couldn’t win the match by himself however as Jay kicked out of the Skull-Crushing Finale from both the Miz and later from Sandow. The Stunt Double’s help wasn’t enough though as Miz was pinned by a Top Rope Splash from Jimmy.

Natalya Neidhart and Paige vs. Divas Champion Niika Bella and Brie Bella: A decent and lengthy divas tag match that saw plenty of counters and double-team maneuvers. After Neidhart did the majority of the selling, Paige was unable to get tagged in, thanks to interference from Brie, leaving Nattie wide open to a Nikki Forearm and the Bella win.

WWE World Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar w/Paul Heyman vs. John Cena and Seth Rollins w/Joey Mercury and Jamie Noble: J & J security was hell bent on protecting Rollins, but Lesnar was on a crazy Suplex spree from the beginning. It was almost like a video game. Lesnar was that awesome. Looking to end the match with the Kimura Lock, Lesnar changed his gameplan and that’s what opened him up to punishment. After Cena powered out, Rollins hit both of his foes with his Double Knee and soon enough, Cena and Rollins began working on Lesnar. Cena then hit the Attitude Adjustment on Lesnar, but Rollins threw him out for the pin.

Lesnar kicked out at one and then threw Rollins out of the ring.

A segment later and Cena and Rollins began to tango, but Lesnar got right back into the back and hit Cena with a German before Rollins got involved again. Cena took advantage with a rare Michinoku Driver and got a near-fall, but Rollins fought back with a Blockbuster for a near-fall of his own.

With Lesnar back in the ring, Rollins was crushed with an F-5, but Cena made the save. With Cena still down, Lesnar set up the Spanish announce table, Cena caught him with three Attitude Adjustments, but he still kicked out. With Lesnar still down, Rollins took out Cena and then hit Lesnar with the Curb Stomp, but “The Animal” kicked out. On his feet later, the bionic Lesnar was up, but Cena went to work on him, using the ring steps and Spearing him through the barrier. Leans kept getting up.

Later with Lesnar on the Spanish announce table, Rollins hit the Elbow Drop from the top rope, keeping Lesnar on the outside, and allowing Rollins and Cena to duke it out in the ring. After Rollins escaped an AA, Cena hit his old Proto-Bomb finisher for another near-fall. Rollins wasn’t done yet though, as he hit his Turnbuckle Powerbomb for a near-fall of his own. Cena then locked in the STF, but J & J security attacked Cena and with Rollins, hit the Triple Powerbomb, but Cena stayed in it.

With medical personnel working on Lesnar, Cena took out Noble and Mercury with a double AA and almost won the match with the Attitude Adjustment on Rollins. After the two traded blows, Rollins nearly won the match with Curb Stomp.

After Rollins hit the 450 on Cena, Lesnar jumped back in and German Suplexed both Cena and Rollins. Rollins then used the Money in the Bank briefcase on Lesnar, but before he could hit the Curb Stomp, Lesnar hit the F5 for the win.

Royal Rumble:

Surprise Entrances:

#3 Bubba Ray Dudley
#7 The Boogeyman
#14 Diamond Dallas Page
The Rock

Cool Moments:

R-Truth and Bubba Ray Dudley hit the 3D on The Miz.

Bray Wyatt and The Boogeyman face-to-face.

DDP hits Diamond Cutter on Stardust, then a top rope variation of the move on Fandango and then another standard Cutter on Wyatt.

Kane sets record for career eliminations in Royal Rumble.

Big Eliminations:

Bray Wyatt eliminated Bubba Ray Dudley.
Wyatt eliminated The Boogeyman.
Rusev eliminated DDP.
Wyatt eliminated Daniel Bryan.
Kane and Big Show eliminated Ryback.
Dolph Ziggler eliminates Wade Barrett.
Ziggler eliminated Cesaro.
Big Show and Kane eliminated Ziggler.
Big Show and Kane eliminated Bray Wyatt.
Big Show and Kane eliminated Dean Ambrose

Final Four:

Big Show, Kane, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns.

Big Ending:

After Show and Kane eliminated Ambrose, Reigns was on his last leg and fought valiantly against the two giants. With Reigns almost eliminated, Show and Kane then began fighting amongst themselves, allowing Reigns to eliminate the both of them.

Not allowed to cherish the victory, Reigns was Chokeslammed, but was saved by The Rock, who hit the People’s Elbow on Kane and The Rock Bottom on Big Show.

Apparently, Rusev was never eliminated and Reigns quickly hit the Spear and threw out Rusev (who apparently went through the middle rope and just hung out on the floor for 25 minutes.) to win the Rumble.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14262 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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