WWE Royal Rumble 2017: Results and observations from the show
For wrestling fans young and old, the Royal Rumble is traditionally seen as the annual starting point on the road to WrestleMania.
A lot of the stories that are played out on professional wrestling's biggest stage see their beginning at the Royal Rumble, which makes it a highly anticipated event year in and year out.
However, in recent years, the Royal Rumble has been known for a different tradition. The Royal Rumble is now as the event where fans of all ages voice their frustrations about what did and did not happen during the event.
The tradition continued this year, as the Royal Rumble garnered a good amount of vitriol from the fans yet again.
Some of the vitriol was warranted, a lot of it wasn't, but the fact remains the Royal Rumble has morphed into one of the more polarizing events on the WWE calendar.
One of the points of contention was the Royal Rumble, as it is every year. Fans generally expect the unexpected when it comes to the Royal Rumble, but there were a lot of familiar sights and sounds that left many fans yearning for something different.
Because of that, the Royal Rumble fell short of the impossibly high expectations Sunday night.
In my opinion, this year's Royal Rumble, which was witnessed by 52,020 fans at the Alamodome in San Antonio, accomplished a lot more than ones of recent years. It set the stage for a lot of stories that will play out during the proverbial road to WrestleMania, which automatically made the show a success from that standpoint.
On top of that, the show featured a pair of fantastic championship matches, which definitely upped the quality of it.
However, some of the stories WWE may or may not tell on its way to WrestleMania don't seem all that compelling at the moment, and feel very familiar.
Because of that I believe the 2017 Royal Rumble was good, but fell short of being great, which was what I believe a lot of people expected.
It was certainly better than the most recent Royal Rumbles, but it didn't leave me frothing at the mouth to see what is about to come next as we inch closer to WrestleMania.
With that said, here are the full match results:
- Kickoff match – Becky Lynch, Nikki Bella & Naomi def. Alexa Bliss, Natalya & Mickie James
- Kickoff match – WWE Raw Tag Team championship – Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows def. Cesaro & Sheamus
- Kickoff match – Nia Jax def. Sasha Banks
- WWE Raw Women's championship – Charlotte Flair def. Bayley
- WWE Universal championship – Kevin Owens def. Roman Reigns
- WWE Cruiserweight championship – Neville def. Rich Swann
- WWE championship – John Cena def. AJ Styles
- Randy Orton won the 2017 Royal Rumble
The order of entrants (Names of people each superstar eliminated)
No. 1 Big Cass
No. 2 Chris Jericho (Sheamus, Cesaro)
No. 3 Kalisto
No. 4 Mojo Rawley
No. 5 Jack Gallagher
No. 6 Mark Henry (Gallagher)
No. 7 Braun Strowman (Big Cass, Kalisto, Rawley, Henry, Big Show, Tye Dillinger, James Ellsworth)
No. 8 Sami Zayn
No. 9 Big Show
No. 10 Tye Dillinger
No. 11 James Ellsworth
No. 12 Dean Ambrose
No. 13 Baron Corbin (Strowman)
No. 14 Kofi Kingston
No. 15 The Miz
No. 16 Sheamus (New Day)
No. 17 Big E
No. 18 Rusev
No. 19 Cesaro (New Day)
No. 20 Xavier Woods
No. 21 Bray Wyatt
No. 22 Apollo Crews
No. 23 Randy Orton (Roman Reigns)
No. 24 Dolph Ziggler
No. 25 Luke Harper (Crews)
No. 26 Brock Lesnar (Ambrose, Ziggler, Enzo Amore)
No. 27 Enzo Amore
No. 28 Goldberg (Lesnar, Rusev, Harper)
No. 29 The Undertaker (Corbin, Goldberg, The Miz, Zayn)
No. 30 Roman Reigns (The Undertaker, Jericho, Wyatt)
The Viper is headed to WrestleMania
A lot happened during the Royal Rumble, but obviously the biggest story was that Orton won the match for the second time. His first victory came back in 2009.
Initially, Orton winning made the fans in San Antonio very happy, as it meant that Reigns didn't win.
In case you didn't watch, Reigns somehow entered the match at No. 30 after losing Universal title match to Owens earlier in the show.
Reigns was among the final three men standing along with Orton and Wyatt. The scenario seemed like the perfect set up for Reigns to overcome the odds and win the Rumble for the second time in three years.
But that would not be the case, as Orton managed to toss out Reigns to win and earn a title match at WrestleMania.
While it was good to not have to see Reigns booed out of the building again, Orton winning means that an established star has won the match yet again.
In fact, with the exception of Reigns in 2015, every Rumble winner since 2013 was someone that had won it at least once before.
The Royal Rumble could be used to catapult someone new into the main event picture, but for whatever reason WWE has strayed away from that strategy.
It would be different if Orton was the hottest babyface in WWE or at least Smackdown Live, but he isn't. Orton is technically a heel due to his affiliation with Wyatt. He is cheered, but it is not to the level that warrants him winning the Rumble for a second time.
On top of that, if everything holds, we may get another Orton versus Cena championship, except this time it's at WrestleMania.
That isn't a knock against Orton. He has been almost refreshed since joining the Wyatt Family last fall, which is why I am intrigued by what is going to happen next with him.
The Wyatt Family had some interesting moments together in the Rumble and I would believe it would carry over into the Elimination Chamber and beyond.
Reigns has some interesting encounters
Before he was the last man eliminated from the Royal Rumble match, Reigns eliminated three people, including The Undertaker.
This wasn't any ordinary elimination. There was more to this. It almost looked like Reigns and The Undertaker were destined for a future match of some kind — maybe at WrestleMania?
Who knows at this point, but the way Reigns and The Undertaker stared at each other once the elimination went down looked like a lot more than just one-time encounter.
The only thing that prevents me from fully believing that this could happen is what happened at the end of Reigns' match against Owens, which was Strowman attacking Reigns to cost him the Universal title.
I suppose Reigns could seek his revenge against Strowman at Fastlane and save The Undertaker for WrestleMania, but I would be lying if I said I felt totally confident about that.
I am confident in one thing: If Reigns goes against The Undertaker, WWE should do Reigns the favor of turning him heel for that match. He's going to get booed anyway. WWE might as well roll with the flow.
Otherwise, Reigns would look silly trying to be a good guy against a man that is universally respected amongst fans like The Undertaker.
Goldberg owns Lesnar again
In a repeat of Survivor Series, Goldberg got the better of Lesnar in dominant fashion at the Royal Rumble.
Lesnar entered the Royal Rumble at No. 26 and immediately became the dominant entity in the match.
Two spots later, his arch enemy Goldberg entered the fray and wasted little time hitting Lesnar with a spear and tossing him out of the ring.
There was nothing really surprising about any of this besides Goldberg flat-out dominating Lesnar yet again. Other than that, it went essentially how everyone expected and will left the door open for more to happen down the road.
No Samoa Joe, Shinsuke Nakamura or Finn Balor
I saw a lot of people on social media getting worked up about people that weren't in the Royal Rumble.
The main three names I saw people complain about the most were Joe, Nakamura and Balor.
Yes, I understand people's yearning for surprises in the Rumble match. It is part of what makes the match so exciting to watch every single year.
However, you cannot be upset over WWE not giving you what it never told it would. Yes, we all thought that Joe would be a surprise entrant in the Royal Rumble. I was guilty of this myself.
But you cannot get too upset because WWE didn't deliver on something it never promised.
This plays into what I talked about earlier of WWE's task of meeting the fans' expectations for the Royal Rumble nearly impossible. The Rumble was still good, but inevitably, fans have worked themselves into hysterics over what they did not get, as oppose to critiquing what they actually got.
Also, how much can anyone complain about someone like Joe not being in the Rumble when Orton won anyway? Joe being in the Rumble and being eliminated is worse than not being in it at all.
And don't come at with anything about Daniel Bryan in 2014. Bryan was already on the main roster and was the most popular guy on it. Joe isn't technically even on the roster yet. The same goes for Nakamura.
As for Balor, he probably isn't healthy enough to return yet. Anyone ever consider that? Also, WrestleMania is still more than two months away. A lot can happen between now and the first weekend of April.
Strowman eliminated the most people
As expected, Strowman had a strong showing in the Royal Rumble by eliminating seven men.
However, there is a part of me that feels as though it could have been even stronger. I fully expected someone to go on a run akin to Kane in 2001 or Reigns in 2014.
Both Kane and Reigns eliminated at least 10 men while Strowman tossed seven. He was dominant while he was in there, but I expected him to hit double digits.
Harper attacked Wyatt
A member of the Wyatt Family won the Royal Rumble, but things were not looking good when all three members were in the match, as Harper hit Wyatt with the discuss clothesline before attempting to hit him with sister Abigail.
Orton was able to thwart Harper by hitting him with an RKO, but this only added to the tension amongst the trio.
With Orton winning it all, I fully expect that to only add to the tension in some way.
Ambrose, Miz, Ziggler have uneventful Rumbles
It was kind of disappointing to see the likes of Ambrose, The Miz and Ziggler have such uneventful Royal Rumble appearances.
These three some of the top guys on Smackdown Live, but were all unceremoniously knocked out of the ring. Ziggler had the shortest time among the three, as he entered at No. 24, but was one of Lesnar's victims when he entered only two spots later.
Ambrose is the current Intercontinental champion and is routinely in Smackdown Live's main event scene, but was dumped out like garbage by Lesnar with no real resistance.
I didn't expect any of them to win, but I thought they deserved a little bit better than that.
Tye Dillinger was No. 10
It was very nice to see Dillinger enter the Royal Rumble at No. 10 Sunday night. Yes, the fans all predicted it, but it was still cool because it made obvious sense.
Does this mean Dillinger will be a mainstay on the main roster? Hopefully. The guy deserves it after all.
I'm not even talking about the character. The character has lost a ton of big matches in NXT, but the man himself deserves the call-up. He's has been in WWE's developmental system literally since I was in high school. I will be 28 years old Feb. 9. That's quite a long time.
We have seen in the past that an appearance on the main roster does not necessarily mean that person is staying on the main roster. Just ask Bayley after Battleground last year.
However, I can't see a reason for Dillinger to be in NXT anymore. The man has been in developmental long enough. He may not thrive on the main roster, but it's just time for him to finally, finally get the call he has been waiting a decade for.
OK, enough about the Royal Rumble match. Let's move on to the rest of the show.
Cena wins No. 16
It finally happened, folks.
Cena finally defeated Styles in what was easily the evening's best match to win his 16th world championship, tying Ric Flair for the most recognized world title reigns in history.
The headlines coming out of this event will be all about Cena and the history he made Sunday night and rightfully so. The man deserves every single accolade he gets.
Anyone that is a doubter of Cena and his ability is simply delusional at this point. He's awesome, plain and simple.
However, kudos must go to Styles as well. As the cliché goes, it takes two to tango, and Cena didn't have arguably the best match of the year by himself. Styles had a huge hand in that as well.
Cena referred to Styles on national television last week as "the guy from Atlanta" and there were probably people watching Sunday night that was unfamiliar with Styles that believed what Cena said.
I think Styles changed those people's minds Sunday night and showed that he was more than that. He showed why he was worthy of being the WWE champion since September and why he is widely considered to be among the best performers in the world.
Cena is in that elite class as well, and both men put on a match for the ages at the Royal Rumble that I thought was better than their classic at SummerSlam last year.
Long Live King Neville
The king finally ascended to his throne Sunday, as Neville defeated Swann to claim the Cruiserweight champion.
With the win, Neville became the first non-Cruiserweight Classic participant to win the title.
The match was pretty good, but I think the headline coming out of this is Neville's positive impact on the cruiserweight division culminating in a championship victory.
I expect 205 Live to only get better under the rule of King Neville.
The good brothers are champs
After about 254 attempts, Anderson and Gallows can finally call themselves champions in WWE, as they defeated Sheamus and Cesaro to win the Raw Tag Team titles.
The fact that there were two officials never really played a major role in the match other than the first ref taking a brogue kick from Sheamus, which forced the second to count to three.
Other than that, it largely meant nothing.
Naomi picked up a big win
What did mean something was Naomi pinning Bliss during the six-woman tag team match that took place on the Royal Rumble kickoff show.
Naomi got to showcase her athleticism during the match before pinning the Smackdown Women's champion, which I'm sure will play a role in their storyline moving forward.