Royal Rumble 2016 Review

Trying something new here by reviewing the PPVs of the year while the year is still happening. I usually will wait til the year is over and do a retrospective review, but I'm going to see how reviewing them as they're happening goes and doing my Year in Review for 2016 with the mindset that a year has passed.

With that in mind, let's look at this year's Royal Rumble. The Rumble is my second favorite night of the year as a wrestling fan, next to WrestleMania of course. But the last couple of years have been utterly disastrous for the Rumble PPV. The WWE has not been giving the fans what they want, have pretty much gone the other way to keep the people we've wanted to win the Rumble down and have created hour-long snooze fests. So heading into this year's show, I was fairly impressed that there were a ton of matches I was looking forward to on the show. Add to the fact that for the first time since 1992, the WWE World Heavyweight Championship was on the line in the Royal Rumble match. That to me signified that this was going to be a show to remember. And I'm thankful to say that I was not disappointed with the results.


Winners Qualify for the Royal Rumble Match: The Dudley Boyz vs. The Ascension vs. Jack Swagger and Mark Henry vs. Darren Young and Damien Sandow

An interesting idea for the Kickoff Show, the winning team would both advance to the Royal Rumble match. I think the heightened stakes of the Rumble match being for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship helped make this match feel more important. Although, I'm not so sure about the teams we had. The Ascension have been a joke for a while now, and I had no idea that Jack Swagger and Mark Henry or Darren Young and Damien Sandow were teaming. It seemed pretty obvious, on those accounts, that The Dudley Boyz should win. Yet, they didn't. Swagger and Henry won in a somewhat botched ending. If I'm going off booking logistics, it SHOULD have been The Dudley Boyz. Heck, based on work rate in the match, the argument could have also been made for Sandow and Young (who should definitely go with the "millions of scholars" gimmick). Oh well, Swagger and Henry were probably the bigger names to add due to some established main event credibility.

Last Man Standing Match for the Intercontinental Championship: Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens

Heading into the PPV, THIS was the match I was looking forward to the most. By the time we had got to the match, you could see how much Owens and Ambrose hated each other. This rivalry felt bitter and personal. They've put each other through announcer's table, beaten each other senselessly, and attempted to drive the other crazy. And that was all before the Last Man Standing match. This match felt like watching art unfold. They used steel chairs, kendo sticks, and tables (lots and lots of tables).

This match did wonders for both competitors and the Intercontinental Championship. I actually think this is one of the best IC title matches that we've had in years, possibly in over a decade. Ambrose and Owens are two of my favorite singles competitors in the WWE, and they simply brought it. They opened the show, but they darn near stole it.

WWE Tag Team Championship Match: The New Day vs. The Usos

With how much these two have been feuding over the past number of months, it was a no brainer that this match would deliver. However, I was also sure that the match wouldn't be able to convince me that The Usos actually stood a chance of winning. The New Day is the biggest thing in the WWE right now, there's no way they're dropping the belts before WrestleMania. But then they started wrestling and the teamwork and chemistry exhibited was off the charts. I was on the edge of my seat throughout. These are four of the best athletes the WWE has to offer and the two teams that are keeping the tag team division popular. Plus, it's pretty hard for The New Day to not keep me entertained at this point.

United States Championship Match: Alberto Del Rio vs. Kalisto

It's something to say that the weakest match on the show is still fun to watch. These two have had quite the little rivalry over the last couple of weeks, and this match was another entertaining chapter in their feud. A couple of noticeable botches here and there, this match still did wonders for Kalisto's single run. I gotta be honest, I didn't think he would be walking away with his second United State's Championship win. The company is seeing a lot of value in Kalisto as a single competitor and are pushing him through the stratosphere. But what will this mean when Sin Cara returns? What will they have him do next with the United States Championship when his feud with Del Rio is over? I don't know, but I'm excited to check it out now that we have a new midcard star on the rise.

Divas Championship Match: Charlotte vs. Becky Lynch

Now this is the right direction the Divas Revolution should be going in. I've not been a fan of shoehorning Ric Flair into his daughter's gimmick and I probably never will, but her feud with Becky Lynch has been enjoyable as sort of a slow burn building toward the match. In my opinion, they probably could've squeezed another month into it and have their payoff match at Fastlane, maybe even WrestleMania. But this match worked really well. I'm not too keen on Flair kissing a woman young enough to be his granddaughter, but that's the one minor gripe with the match. Probably the best main roster Divas match we've seen on a PPV in quite some time. And the post-match moment with Sasha Banks returning and attacking both Becky and Charlotte was pure magic. The crowd popped so loud for her, you'd think she'd won the title. It painted her as a great anti-hero character for the divas division, and I'm hoping a triple threat at WrestleMania is in the cards for these ladies. Only then, would this messy, convoluted, and underwhelming Divas Revolution be worth it.

Royal Rumble Match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship

For the first time in a while, the Royal Rumble match felt like it was booked to help a majority of the main roster. It's been easy in recent years to fill about 5 spots with legends returning for one night only. That works, somewhat, when you're planning for the winner to challenge the WWE World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania. But this match was different, because the winner would walk into WrestleMania as the WWE World Heavyweight Champion. All but 3 spots in the match were for active roster competitors. There were barely any surprise entrants. But of course, the first person we should talk about in the Rumble match was the debut of AJ Styles. When I first became a fan of wrestling in 2007, I watched both WWE and TNA. In TNA, AJ Styles was like the Shawn Michaels of that company. He went out every night and gave it his all to deliver the best match possible. I never thought I would see him in WWE and when he showed up, I marked out harder than I have in a very long time. He lasted about 28 minutes, a strong debut, but I knew he wasn't going to win it. But I am interested to see how they book him. Will they build him up? Or will they regulate him to a midcarder lost in the shuffle? Time will tell, but I'm hoping we see some kind of gold around AJ's waist by the end of 2016.

Some other good stuff in the match included the booking of Kevin Owens. The man was able to continue his feud with Dean Ambrose, received immense heat for eliminating AJ Styles, and got a surprise of his own when Sami Zayn entered the Rumble match and eliminated Owens. This was all in the span of about 4 1/2 minutes but it told all that you needed to know about Owens. The booking of Brock Lesnar and the Wyatt Family was also great. They dominated everything in their path and really set the stage for a Lesnar/Wyatt match at Mania. I wasn't really feeling that confrontation at first. But with how they handled themselves in the Rumble match, I was able to get more on board with it. There were also some stand out moments for the returning Chris Jericho and Dean Ambrose, who both held their own for a lengthy amount of time in the match.

But the end of the match boiled down to what we all knew was going to happen. Entering at number 1, the WWE World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns really had his back against the wall. Essentially having to tackle 29 opponents gunning after his title, I knew he would make it close to the end, but there had to be something that was going to screw him out of the belt only for him to win it back at WrestleMania. That's how it works, right? At entrant number 30, Triple H made his return and got his revenge on Reigns by eliminating him, promising a new WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Here's where things got interesting, the Orlando crowd booed Roman Reigns throughout the match. Normally, that's not surprising given last year's Rumble, but he had actually started to get some traction as the main event babyface if you've been watching RAW since TLC. Triple H is supposed to be the heel, but he's being cheered for eliminating Roman Reigns. His motivation is simple: Reigns attacked Triple H and his family, the McMahons. It's obvious that he should want revenge, but should WE want him to get his revenge? The booking staff might need to do some cleanup heading into this obvious WrestleMania main event being set up. It was pretty interesting though to see that Reigns was the second to last person eliminated in the match. The end came down to Triple H and Dean Ambrose. I was honestly surprised that they had faith in Ambrose to get the fans on board with the possibility of him winning the Rumble and beating Triple H. Still, I popped like everyone else did when Triple H did, I popped when Reigns was eliminated, and I popped seeing The Game wearing gold again. Congratulations to the Authority, you won me over again. Maybe you do know what you're doing.


Final Thoughts: An amazing opening match, a stellar midcard, and one of the best Royal Rumble matches I've seen in many years. Finally, the Rumble feels prestigious once again. This is a very easy event to give a Highly Recommended to. Check it out, you won't be disappointed.


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