On January 24th, the WWE brought you the 2016 Royal Rumble! Airing on the WWE Network, the show has been met with varying responses. Naturally, we have our own opinions on the event so let’s not waste any time and let’s get to what we thought of the show, along with revealing the winners!
WWE Royal Rumble Kickoff
The Ascension (Konnor and Viktor) vs. Mark Henry and Jack Swagger vs. Damien Sandow and Darren Young vs. The Dudleys (Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley)
Jon Potter: This match was solid enough. I suppose. I may have been a little harsh on these guys during our preview. I will say that it was weird to see The Dudleyz blend into the background and not win this match. There was nothing notably bad though and Sandow was surprisingly popular with the crowd. If any of the titles were held by heels, I’d say he deserves a feud for the IC or US title, at least letting him sniff a title scene.
My final word on this match is how it was pretty much rendered moot due to how the winners were treated in the main event. Oh well.
Winners: Nark Henry and Jack Swagger
Steve Coulson: This was more than acceptable for a pre-show match. With the except of Konnor’s baffling stumbling at one point, this was perfectly fine wrestling. Beyond that, it was memorable if for nothing else than the huge ovation Damien Sandow would get. This would be the start of a very loud crowd throughout the show and one that definitely delivered with interest in the show without getting obnoxious and trying to put themselves over. So overall, not a memorable affair outside of Sandow’s love but perfectly adequate.
Winners: Mark Henry and Jack Swagger
Intercontinental Championship
Last Man Standing
Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens
Jon Potter: This is how you start a show! I was initially surprised at where this match was positioned on the card, but considering how chaotic they were allowed to be, it was likely the right move. Both Steve and I have criticized supposedly bitter rivals starting matches at a slow pace in the past. Well, this felt brutal from the very first moment, while still managing to peak at the right time.
Some would call this a garbage brawl. They’re not entirely wrong. But when two men manage to just use tables and chairs in an era somewhat saturated with gimmicks and still whip the crowd up into a frenzy, you know you’ve witnessed a true classic. At a time when WWE get a lot of flack for not creating stars, these two definitely looked special tonight.
Ambrose’s win, didn’t surprise me, with both himself and Kevin Owens looking to be justly rewarded with high profile matches heading into the biggest show of the year. I’ll discuss those later, but for now, I’ll label this as must watch and move on.
Winner: Dean Ambrose
Steve Coulson: This was incredible. I don’t know how else to put it. This match was just awesome. I can’t sing the praises enough. When we talked about what we wanted from these two, this is everything I personally was looking for. Ambrose and Owens brought the hate but they also made some big spots very interesting. Naturally the finish was being built up to and I loved how they went about it, but really the entire thing from start to finish was a total blast to watch and my match of the night. Excellent, excellent match that I recommend everyone to seek out.
Winner: Dean Ambrose
WWE Tag Team Championship
The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Big E, with Xavier Woods) vs. The Usos (Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso)
Jon Potter: This was really solid. I think they struggled to follow the opening matc at first, as the crowd seemed initially burnt out. However, the antics of The New Day pulled the crowd back up, while The Usos did their high-flying routine in order to do their part also. While a lot of this was fairly standard action, I’ll personally remember this match for the finish involving an Uso splash seamlessly transitioning into a Big Ending to allow the champions to retain.
This has been a perfect run for The New Day and I expect them to continue into Mania, before dropping the belts to The Usos or The Dudley Boyz. The tag team division is in a really good place right now and the impressive crowd reactions to this match are indicative of that. Watch this if you have time.
Winners: The New Day
Steve Coulson: This turned out better than I expected. Between the New Day antics being so entertaining and an extremely hot finishing stretch, I thought this match over delivered. Worse, however, is that this match made me lose the predictions to Jon for the fourth time. We had all of the same people aside from this match, but I decided to go out on a limb for this one. Unfortunately it didn’t work out. Jon wins again.
But the match itself delivered. I have no idea what the WWE Tag Team Championship scene will look like for Wrestlemania, though. I assumed maybe the Usos would win to extend the feud but now I have no idea what we can expect. I’m interested, though.
Winners: The New Day
United States Championship
Alberto Del Rio vs. Kalisto
Jon Potter: They did well here. They managed to turn a match that seemed like a foregone conclusion into something that the crowd bought into by the end. Unfortunately, Steve is right that they lost some of that shine by botching severely a couple of times. It brought this down to just “good” territory instead.
But I don’t want to sell this little mini feud short. WWE are almost addicted to 50/50 booking these days, but this whole thing has really favored Kalisto. My guess is that WWE feel like they have a new Rey Mysterio on their hands. After a strong and unprompted “lucha” chant broke out in support of Kalisto, they may not be wrong.
Like I said, the in-ring action was tarnished, but the tiny Mexican still wowed the crowd and was shown to hold his own with a former World Champion. I don’t know if this push will last, but it can never be taken from his resume and was well-deserved. This wasn’t amazing, but it may be worth your time if you like title changes.
Winner: Kalisto (new champion)
Steve Coulson: This was real unfortunate. The match was going fairly well. The outcome was extremely satisfying as well. But unfortunately, they had a string of ugliness that culminated with a real unfortunate botch that hurt the match quite a bit. Ultimately, it won’t be remembered one way or another, so it could be worse, but the match should have been better than it was. With that said, the important thing is that Kalisto won the title. Where does he go from here? Could he revive the United States Championship Open Challenge? Will he toil away in the undercard and the title’s prestige goes with it? I couldn’t really tell you, but I’m on board with a Kalisto run.
Winner: Kalisto (new champion)
Divas Championship
Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte (with Ric Flair)
Jon Potter: This was finally what I’ve been looking for from this revolution. For anyone who’s been following The WWE Network Chronicle from day one, you’ll know I’ve always acknowledged the hard work evident in the so-called Divas revolution. I just always felt like a certain lethargy to it all was really limiting potential all round.
Well, this felt fast paced and made sense. For the first time in months, the crowd bought into a match featuring women on the main roster. This whole thing teased a title change perfectly. Becky seemed to finally have the champion’s number. The usual Flair tricks seemed to be pretty ineffective. I was smugly expecting my prediction to be fulfilled. Then Charlotte pulled out a victory.
I was stunned and confused. Where did Charlotte go from here? How could WWE build Becky up so well, then let her burn out? I could feel a rant building. Then some familiar music hit and the audience exploded.
For all the missteps WWE make creatively, this was executed practically flawlessly. Sasha Banks went from being a criminal underuse of talent to a badass in just 5 minutes. Rather than having her side with anyone, Banks made it clear that her focus was the title. Not friendships or allegiances, just the need to be the best. That elevated the title more than its entire history has ever done.
As a match, this was strong, but as a complete package, this could be a turning point to much better things.
Winner: Charlotte
Steve Coulson: Well, before I get to the highlight of this let me talk about the match and the outcome: It was a good match. Not by diva standards, but in general. It was a really solid match. I wasn’t hot on the finish, I thought it was okay though. More than that, I was displeased at Charlotte winning. Becky was over and is such a good talent, I really want to see her get a run. Charlotte winning is weird. Unless…
Unless what we saw happened, happened. And it did! Sasha Banks made her return to a huge ovation. One of the top 5 of the show for sure, possibly top 3. Oh, and the moment delivered big. Will we be getting a 3 way at Mania? Maybe call Bayley up and re-do the classic 4 way? I’m not really sure where it is headed, but with the Boss around it is bound to be good.
Winner: Charlotte
WWE Championship
30 Man Royal Rumble
Jon Potter: Oh boy, I may get flack for this one, First, let me discuss the match itself. I unapologetically feel like this was one of the top 10 best Royal Rumble matches of all time. It was paced very well and delivered surprises without leaning on the crutch of nostalgia. We don’t say that for modern Rumbles very often. Let me just break down how many people were given a chance to shine:
AJ Styles came out at number 3, given the full 90 seconds to be treated like a star and praised highly by the commentary team. Not as a promising newcomer, but an elite veteran. He then lasted nearly 30 minutes (the 4th longest tenure of anybody) treated as an equal to all the top names, before being eliminated by Kevin Owens. Add in Sami Zayn eliminating Owens later and we could be looking at a dream 3-way for Mania.
Chris Jericho got to be the iron man at 50 minutes, it kept someone who is generally there to build young stars looking credible. With Dean Ambrose eliminating him, we could see a grizzled veteran Jericho challenge Ambrose for his Championship. Another strong match for the Mania undercard.
Finally among the match’s minor threads was Lesnar vs The Wyatts. It would have been so easy to just have Lesnar be the invincible beast once again. Yes, WWE were smart enough to have Brock look powerful, but The Wyatts were relentless enough to eliminate Lesnar, leaving the group looking more formidable (especially Bray) than ever. So, you’ll notice that this Rumble achieved a lot. I’m just mentioning the more obvious threads here. If the Rumble is supposed to set the stage for WrestleMania, then we now have a fascinating second act coming up.
But I can’t avoid the finish forever. I’m relatively okay with it. If the universe revolved around me, it wouldn’t be my top choice. But Triple H still has “it” and can be trusted to do the right thing these days. Plus, with Fastlane reportedly planned to be a much more important show, anything could happen between now and then. This match has instilled me with enough goodwill to where I’m going to just enjoy the ride for now. If you can refrain from painting HHH as the Devil, there’s more than enough cool moments to make this match special.
Steve Coulson: Well, this has the world divided. I’ll be honest, I am not fond of the decision of having Triple H going over. At least not if it is just a place holder for Roman Reigns to take the title back from him at Wrestlemania. However after that ending, if somehow we get Dean Ambrose in Roman’s spot instead by the grace of Flair, then it’ll all be worth it. So yeah, the ending was hot although the winner isn’t how I wanted things to go.
Now enough with that, let’s talk about the rest. Because oh man did this have a LOT to talk about. The most obvious is the WWE debut of AJ Styles to an absolutely huge ovation. The crowd was behind him for his entire run and commentary put him over huge. That was just absolutely awesome and surreal, while even now it still doesn’t completely sink in that he was in the match.
There was another huge moment as well, however, and that was Sami Zayn showing up in the Rumble and eliminating his rival Kevin Owens. This was amazing and as a huge Sami fan, I was extremely excited to see this. Will we be getting Sami vs. Owens at Wrestlemania? Also it looks like Bray vs. Brock could very well be in the works and that is very interesting as well. Overall, this Rumble was far stronger than a lot we’ve had even if you weren’t fond of the finish.
Winner: Triple H
Closing Thoughts
Jon Potter: This was one of the best top-to-bottom pay-per-views that WWE has produced in years. The Last Man Standing match should go down as a minor classic, while Charlotte vs Becky was a strong showing wrapped up in masterful post-match storytelling. The rest of the undercard was solidly enjoyable with nothing major to complain about.
Of course, some may condemn this show purely on the winner of the main event. If you see Triple H’s victory as an infuriating abuse of power that tarnishes the whole night, I can respect that. However, if you treat that moment as just one part of an hour-long, multi-faceted tale, I think you may find some cool stuff to be optimistic about.
Also, even when my predictions turn to crap, I still win. So, Steve, if my predictions were crap, what does that make yours? Just sayin’… ;)
Steve Coulson: This was a very strong pay-per-view. Had the ending been something different, it likely would be remembered as one of the best PPVs we’ve had in a long time. The entire show was solid-great with big surprises, a huge debut, and some fantastic action. We even had a title change. The show will be memorable and it certainly delivered.
Looking ahead, the build towards Fastlane then Wrestlemania should be interesting as a Triple H title defense doesn’t seem likely. Will a new number one contender be decided on that show? What else will we see with Undertaker and Brock Lesnar likely both in major matches at Mania and not likely appearing at the next show? I think a lot things are up in the air right now, which definitely makes things more exciting. Overall, I thought the show delivered big time even if I didn’t love the final winner. Great show! Oh and again, Jon won. I will get you at Fastlane. Mark my words.