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Wwe
After being out with injury since last year’s Backlash event in May, Edge returned to the Royal Rumble, won the match of the same name and scored his ticket to ‘Mania. This likely means that Orton will win a world title between now and then, as their fight is set to continue to follow the events of the Rumble (see below).
The Rumble also saw the return of Seth Rollins and, more surprisingly, Christian.
The Women’s Rumble was won by Bianca Belair, who could be WWE’s next star. Both world champions retained their gold, with Roman Reigns defeating Kevin Owens and Drew McIntyre pinning Goldberg.
Overall, it was a pretty good show. More than other PPV events, it was affected by the lack of a crowd. None of the world championship games was a showtealer. But the main event was fun and it’s a genuine feel-good story to see Edge return.
Edge wins Royal Rumble
Edge has become the third person in history to win the Royal Rumble after entering No. 1. He survived at 29, including a canny Randy Orton and a returning Christian, to win the fight. The Rumble also saw Seth Rollins return, for the first time since November.
The match opened with Edge and Orton as contestants 1 and 2. They fought, and eventually Edge hit a DDT on the announcer’s table. Then he hit Orton on the leg with a chair. Orton was apparently out of this point, being assisted on the back by coaches who said Orton cannot compete because he cannot walk.
The finale came after Edge threw Rollins over the top rope, thinking he had won. Orton appeared out of nowhere and gave him an RKO. He picked Edge up and tried to throw him away, but Edge responded and it was Orton who ended up eliminated.
Daniel Bryan, called the “sentimental favorite”, lasted a long time, but was eliminated by Rollins. (Not before an impressive exchange between Bryan and Matt Riddle.) (Hopefully) it will lead to a fight as Rollins, hiding outside, hit Bryan from behind when Bryan was on a streak, hit him and kicked him out.
Other attempts by Rumble, Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura, were unceremoniously eliminated. A bit annoying in Nakamura’s case in particular, as his performance in the Gauntlet Match on SmackDown seemed to indicate more important things to him.
Beyond Edge’s victory, the biggest news is Christian’s return. Christian hasn’t fought since 2014, when he was delisted for concussion issues. He looked in excellent shape and made it to the final four.
Rating: 4 stars. Christian was a great surprise comeback, as was Rollins. As with the women’s match, this one really suffered from the lack of a live crowd. But everyone worked hard, and while it wasn’t as spectacular as a normal Rumble, it was solid and consistently entertaining. The injury angle to Orton couldn’t be more unconvincing, but Edge’s last-minute counterattack, snatching the win from Orton, was excellent.
Surprise participants so far: Carlito, Kane, Christian, Seth Rollins.
Roman Reigns retains the Universal Championship
After a long, occasionally absurd fight, Roman Reigns defeated Kevin Owens in a Last Man Standing match to retain his Universal Championship. Reigns strangled Owens with a guillotine lock to keep him down for the count of 10.
The match started hot, with Superman Punch, Pop-up Powerbomb and Spear in the opening minutes. The fight quickly moved from the ring to the Thunderdome, as the two fought over LCD screens showing the faces of the fans. They finally ended up in the back, which is where things got a little silly.
When Owens crawled to the rear of the stadium, he was literally run over by Reigns, who was driving a vehicle resembling a golf cart. However, that couldn’t keep Owens down, and the two continued to fight. The high point came when Owens hit a seat from the top of a forklift platform, across a table.
They returned to the entrance ramp, where Reigns passed Owens through the LED panels. Reigns then took out a pair of handcuffs, but Owens removed them and handcuffed Reigns to nearby lights, so that Reigns was unable to stand up. When the referee count was at 9, Reigns grabbed the referee by his belt and pushed him towards the lights, knocking him unconscious. He then threw a low blow at Owens. Paul Heyman came out to save, removing the handcuffs from Reigns. Reigns then focused on the Guillotine, retaining his title.
Rating: 3 stars. This was easily the underdog of the Reigns / Owens trilogy, following their very good cage match on SmackDown in January and their fantastic TLC match on PPV last month. I understand that after those two strong matches, they may want to do something different. But once people get run over in the middle of a match and that’s not even a key false ending, things have gone too far. It was hard to suspend his disbelief for this one, and the long 9 counts didn’t help walking either.
Bianca Belair wins the Women’s Royal Rumble
After entering No. 3, Bianca Belair won the Women’s Royal Rumble. The last three were Charlotte Flair, Rhea Ripley and Bianca Belair. Ripley and Belair teamed up to eliminate Charlotte. They then fought back and forth for the last few minutes, which were excellent. No big surprises, no Ronda Rousey, no Becky Lynch, but overall a pretty good Rumble, despite some facepalm moments.
The first leg of the game has revolved around Billie Kay, of all people. When his number was called, he entered the arena but not the ring, hanging out at the announcer’s desk and handing his 8×10 to Jerry Lawler. As the ring filled with participants, such as Shayna Baszler and Toni Storm, Kay tried to convince them to join her, without success. Finally, surprise participant Jillian Hall agreed to be his partner and the two cleaned up the ring.
Their association came to an end around 7 minutes later, when Kay eliminated Hall. That was only the second elimination of the match, with 13 participants so far. Kay was later eliminated while gloating. Things got better with contestants 14 and 15, Rhea Ripley and Charlotte Flair. Lacey Evans then came in wearing Charlotte Flair’s robe, though she would later be eliminated by Baszler, slightly beating the point of this heat.
The Rumble then saw a title change. Alicia Fox entered at No. 21, and was followed into the ring by 24/7 Champion R-Truth. The 24/7 title boys rushed to the ring, and Truth and Fox fought them off. With his back turned, Fox enlisted Truth to win the title. After Mandy Rose eliminated her moments later, Truth ran over Fox to regain her championship.
The Rumble also almost went off the rails with crazy things from Fiend, when Alexa Bliss walked in and after getting beaten up by everyone, started transforming into her evil and invincible alter ego. But, while she was transforming, what seemed as silly as it sounds, was eliminated by Ripley. Phew.
After the Rumble, Belair was interviewed in the ring. Overwhelmed with royal joy, she gave a huge promo on how she will go to WrestleMania.
Rating: 3.25 stars. Decent, pretty good considering there were no live people to work with. There were awkward and sloppy points, and the Alexa Bliss segment was very cheesy. But the last minutes between Ripley and Belair were fantastic, climbing a notch.
Surprise participants so far: Jillian Hall, Victoria, Torrie Wilson.
Sasha Banks takes out Carmella
Carmella had the best fight of her career at the December TLC pay-per-view with Sasha Banks, but this follow-up wasn’t that great. After an average match, Sasha Banks presented Carmella with the Bank Statement.
These women found themselves in a tough spot after the WWE Championship match which, while light in action, had plenty of star power. The first half saw Carmella hitting Banks, but her offense wasn’t particularly convincing. It picked up speed as the fight progressed to more back and forth, but even then, little was noticeable.
Perhaps the funniest thing was how Reginald, Carmella’s manager, got involved, with Carmella using him as a launching pad at one point. He also accidentally caught Sasha when she fell out of the ring, inadvertently saving her from a fall, only for Sasha to work on a hurricanrana on him. Carmella then did a twisted suicide dive, landing head-on and thankfully not committing suicide.
Banks also won the match with a nice silver shoulder transition to his Banks Statement, if you like MMA being integrated into your WWE.
Rating: 2.5 stars.
Drew McIntyre defeats Goldberg
This turned out exactly as you expected. The match was short and consisted of three moves: several Spears, several Claymore Kicks, and a Jackhammer.
It started with McIntyre hitting Goldberg with a head butt and then a spear, copying Goldberg’s move. Goldberg then rolled outside and through a fence with McIntyre. Once they were inside the ring, the referee rang the bell. From there it was simply a swap of spears and Claymore Kicks, and Goldberg at one point hit a Jackhammer for two.
After a series of falls, Goldberg missed a spear, McIntyre’s Claymore landed, and victory came with it. They hugged after the game.
Rating: 1 star. It might have been fun if there was a live crowd that was at the exchanges, but as it was, this was sterile and boring. Goldberg’s limitations, the fact that he can basically only do one thing, a spear, are so naked that it’s really hard to get into action.
Show results
The Royal Rumble Preshow changed the titles, as Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler defeated Asuka and Charlotte. Charlotte was pinned down after Lacey Evans interfered with the match and punched her. Jax then hit a leg and got the pin.
