WWE Royal Rumble 2016 Review

The Road to Wrestlemania is once under way as The Royal Rumble took place at the Amway Center in Orlando on Sunday 24th January. Will Roman Reigns make history by successfully defending his World Heavyweight Championship at the Royal Rumble match? Let's take a look.

The match on the Kick Off Show was a fatal four way tag team match. The teams of The Dudley Boyz, Damien Sandow and Darren Young, Mark Henry and Jack Swagger and The Ascension faced each other with the winners taking part in the Royal Rumble match. In perhaps a surprise move, Mark Henry and Jack Swagger get the win after being inspired by Edge's book "How to be the Ultimate Opportunist". The Dudley Boyz hit the 3D on Konnor but Swagger pulls Bubba Ray off from covering him. Henry then splashes Bubba Ray and pins Konnor to get the win. I thought that the Dudleys would win but Henry and Swagger have been teaming up on Main Event recently so I think the WWE wanted to give them a slight push. We'll see how they do in the Rumble match later on.
Winners: Mark Henry and Jack Swagger (0 for 1)

The event officially with Kevin Owens challenging Dean Ambrose in a Last Man Standing match for the Intercontinental Championship. An early highlight was Amborse sending Owens over the announce table. After that, they proceeded to beat the fuck out of each other doing moves such as Owens cannon balling Ambrose into the timekeeper's area; Ambrose reversing a powerbomb into a back body drop, sending Owens onto 2 steel chairs; and Ambrose hitting dirty deeds twice, once onto a steel chair. In the end, Owens tries to splash Ambrose onto some chairs. However, Ambrose manages to push him off the turnbuckle, sending him crashing through some tables that had been set up earlier to get the win. Once again, this was a really good match and I can watch these two wrestle all day long.
Winner: Dean Ambrose (1 for 2)

Next was The Usos again challenging The New Day for the Tag Team Championship. The New Day get the advantage after Xavier Woods (who wasn't part of the match) hitting Jey Uso with a tornado DDT on the outside. Jimmy Uso does get eventually tagged in and gets back some momentum. However, it was all in vain as Jey goes to splash Kofi but he's caught by Big E, who hit the big ending to get the win. This was another enjoyable match between the two and I really liked the ending.
Winners: The New Day (1 for 3)

We now get the United States Championship match as Kalisto challenges Alberto Del Rio. During the match, Del Rio does some moves that throw Kalisto round like a rag doll. He tries to do his double stomp in the corner but Kalisto gets out of it and hits the salida del sol for a 2 count. In the end, Lakisto sends Del Rio into an exposed turnbuckle then hits another salida del sol to get the win. I was honestly surprised that Kalisto won. Hopefully his reign will last a lot longer than a few days.
Winner: Kalisto (1 for 4)

The penultimate match was for the Divas Championship as Becky Lynch challenges Charlotte. As expected, Ric Flair did fuck with Becky a couple of times. In the end, Becky had Charlotte in the dis-arm-her and Ric throws his jacket onto her head (which bizarrely, doesn't cause a disqualification). This gave Charlotte the chance to rake Becky's eyes then spear her to get the win. Afterwards, Charlotte beats down on Becky and "The Boss" Sasha Banks comes out, who beats up Becky then puts Charlotte in the Bank statement. This was a good match and I'm looking forward to seeing what Sasha Banks can add to the feud.
Winner: Charlotte (2 for 5)

The main event was the Royal Rumble match for the World Heavyweight Championship. Number 1 was the Champion Roman Reigns and number 2 was Rusev. Here are the highlights of the match:

• Number 3 was the debut of the Phenomenal One AJ Styles. I saw him in TNA and it was a shame that he left. Despite that, it was great to see him in a WWE ring.
• R-Truth comes in at number 11 and he proceeds to grab a ladder and climb up to grab the belt. The slight problem with that plan was that it's not a ladder match. It was stupid but it was quite funny.
• Kofi Kingston, who came in at number 10, almost gets eliminated by Kane but he lands on Big E's shoulders, who then walks round the outside of the ring with him.
• The League of Nations. under the direction of Mr McMahon, come down and drag Reigns out of  the ring (but don't eliminate him). It ends with Rusev splashing Reings through the Spanish announce table.
• We see the return of Sami Zayn at number 20 who went after Kevin Owens, who came in at number 18 and eliminated him.
• Brock Lesnar came in at number 23 and destroyed people before getting eliminated by the Wyatts
• Remember Mark Henry and Jack Swagger who won their places in the Rumble match earlier? Yeah, they were in the match for a total of 1 minute and 16 seconds.
• Sheamus came in at number 29 and gets hit by a Superman punch by a returning Reigns and number 30 was Triple H.
• The final four ended up being Reigns, Triple H, Ambrose and Sheamus. Reigns eliminates Sheamus but is immediately eliminated by Triple H. Triple H then eliminates Ambrose to become a 14-time World Champion.
 

I thought that, up until the end, it was a good Rumble match. The main issue I had was with the ending. WWE seem determined to portray Reigns as an underdog and I thought that Reigns being the runner up would be a better story. Anyway, it looks like it will be Reings vs Triple H at Wrestlemania.
Winner: Triple H (2 for 6)

Except for some minor issues, I thought that the Rumble was a good event. It looks like it will be Reigns vs The Authority being the main story going into Wrestlemania. I'm not sure how I feel about that but it will interesting to see where they go with it.