Entry Number in Order
Match Notes:
Some thought that WWE might have been trying to use the Royal Rumble to make Big Cass much like they did with Diesel in 1994. They used the Rumble in ’94 to see if Diesel had legs to make it as a singles star, Big Cass has a future ahead of him so who knows if they might be contemplating a singles run from him already. It’s hard to imagine that they’ll split up the Realest Guys in the Room though, because they still come out with a new t-shirt every other week. It’s just too bad that Strowman had to take him out so early in the match.
Jericho as the second entry certainly put him in a predominant spot on the pay-per-view. By the way, it was great to have Jerry Lawler on commentary during this match even though Michael Cole and Cory Graves talked around him for most of it.
Kalisto’s entry was a real groaner for a lot of people who would have much rather seen a more interesting ingredient added to the Rumble recipe. Mojo Rawley was the last officially named entrant for the Rumble when he won that battle royal last week on Smackdown. He’s got to do something to separate himself from the Hype Bros. seeing that he’s down a bro. His refreshed ring attire is a nice touch, let’s just see if they can do something with him to make fans care now.
Jack Gallagher is certainly the most over cruiserweight at this point and his entry in the Rumble complete with his umbrella, William III was a very pleasant surprise. The spot where he crotched Y2J and then opened the umbrella up was a great comedic bonus. Mark Henry makes sense as an entry in this match seeing that this was in Texas, but as he’s nearing the end of his career, his addition to this match was more of respectful choice. Throwing Gallagher out of the ring twice was a pretty neat touch.
Braun Strowman was the odds-on favorite to win the match for a minute, and even though the odds changed, you couldn’t convince him that. He came in and people got sent out all over the place. If you were paying attention you already knew that Sami Zayn was #8, because after all, 8 upside-down is still 8. The fact that Braun and Sami ended up alone in the ring together was also a really good booking move. Having Big Show come out in the next spot was an even smarter move to recreate the showdown between Show and Strowman.
Jericho isn’t officially eliminated as he keeps exiting the ring to take naps outside. Meltzer was correct, Tye Dillinger comes in at #10. Amazing choice, I just hope that any fan that thinks he’s all about being a “10” because of his entry number gets this explained to them quickly.
James Ellsworth apparently got enough people to vote him into the Royal Rumble? I’m not so sure that there shouldn’t be some vote recounting somewhere.
Dean Ambrose came in at #12 because, why not? He had a good little piece of business as he fed Ellsworth to Strowman. Ellsworth looked like he landed hard when Strowman tossed him outside too, ouch. Carmella might have to kiss those boo-boos for him later.
Baron Corbin came in at #13. It makes one wonder whether or not Corbin requested to be the lucky 13th entry just because he’s so metal. When Dillinger was eliminated, the crowd didn’t like it one bit. Corbin did, however, live up to his reputation of winning the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal last year when he took Strowman out like that.
When Kofi was coming to the ring Michael Cole brought up all the times he’s saved himself in the past. Something told me that he won’t be that lucky this year. Miz being at the halfway point of the match was suitable.
Sheamus didn’t look happy as he bolted to the ring, he came out on fire. When Cole said that only Sheamus and Randy Orton had been in 4 final 4 situations in the Rumble match I wondered if they might be possibly foreshadowing something.
Big E got to join his New Day partner in Kofi, but there aren’t supposed to be any friends in the Rumble, there is apparently going to be some spanking as he went right for the Miz’s backside. The Bulgarian Brute (or if you watch Total Divas he’s known as the best husband in the world) came in complete with a full protective mask on while the announcers explained that he broke his nose last week when he took a kick from Kofi.
The ring was starting to look very crowded, they were undoubtedly preparing for someone to come down and clear the ring sooner or later. Cesaro came down and looked like he was ready for business, and got right to swinging. With Woods joining the Rumble match that meant that The New Day certainly had the numbers game in their favor and they did some nice tandem offense as proof of this.
The Eater of Worlds, Bray Wyatt entered the match to a massive display of his fireflies in the Alamodome. He took his time getting to the ring, but as soon as he was in the match he started making big moves. Apollo Crews got an audible groan from the crowd, which is a shame. Crews is so talented and capable of so much more if WWE just knew how to use him.
The Goldberg chants started heavily at this point just in time for Sheamus and Cesaro to eliminate all three members of The New Day. They didn’t have much time to celebrate though as Jericho eliminated Cesaro and Sheamus right afterward.
Randy Orton came to the ring to a pretty big pop. Lawler said that Orton is his pick and Graves commented that “it’s hard to bet against Randy Orton”, they must have been cruising the betting odds websites as he was heavily the odds-on favorite to win. As Ziggler came to the ring, Lawler didn’t sound too happy about seeing the Show-Off.
There were a lot of close eliminations with people hanging on, the crowd started another Goldberg chant but they got Luke Harper instead. Harper did surprise some by turning on Bray like he did, the crumbling of the Wyatt Family continued.
As soon as Lesnar’s music hit the Alamodome exploded, everybody was waiting for someone to clear out the ring and he’s just as good of a candidate as any. Even Orton tried to sneak up on the Beast Incarnate to pull off an RKO, but he got an F5 for his troubles.
Although Enzo wasn’t advertised, he still got his Royal Rumble debut… for as long as it lasted before Lesnar knocked him out and tossed him over the top rope.
Goldberg finally made his way to the ring and he wasn’t even bleeding. The crowd echoed his name over and over again in anticipation for the collision between him and Lesnar. Brock looked ready to go and surprisingly, this encounter didn’t last much longer than their Survivor Series match. Good lord.
The Undertaker didn’t even bother walking to the ring, he just appeared behind Goldberg. The fans wanted to see these two go at it, but Baron Corbin and Rusev broke that up momentarily. Although Goldberg did pull off a spear on Taker, The Dead Man got his revenge by eliminating Goldberg in quick fashion.
Roman came down to a sea of boos, maybe because everyone wanted to see Samoa Joe, or maybe because they had already seen him for 20 minutes. Nevertheless, fans got a stand-off between Roman and Taker, two men that are apparently slated to dance with each other at WrestleMania this year.
So, fans got no “surprise” entries other than Tye Dillinger at the #10 spot and he was dismissed relatively early. It sounded like the fans in the Alamodome were chanting “this is bull****”, but Kevin Dunn was probably on the mute button so it wasn’t all that clear.
Roman eliminated The Undertaker in an obvious move to spark the feud which will culminate in Orlando. The fact that the camera panned to show the WrestleMania logo above Taker’s head as he mouthed off to Roman was an even clearer indication of their future plans.
Chris Jericho really is the best in the world at what he does, even if Roman took him out with a superman punch. It is kind of surprising that Rollins didn’t show up in some respect during the Royal Rumble match, just to throw someone out or agitate Triple H further.
The Wyatt Family has been booked so strongly since Orton joined their ranks, and that powerful booking will apparently last until the end of the stable. Roman eliminated Bray leaving only himself and Orton, but an RKO stopped Reigns in his tracks and it looks like Vegas odds were correct after all.
NXT Deadline kicked off with a big match as the men's Iron Survivor Challenge opened…
The NXT Deadline premium live event took place on Saturday night and the men's Iron…
Over the last few years there have been a number of stars to watch in…
The world of professional wrestling is full of larger than life personalities and sometimes those…
When Nexus first debuted in 2010 the group quickly became the most dominant faction on…
This week's episode of SmackDown was full of twists and turns to say the least.…