WWE Royal Rumble Notes And Match Ratings

In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Dave Meltzer had several interesting notes about the Royal Rumble pay-per-view and there were some good and some bad.

The Royal Rumble match itself was very Raw brand heavy, although a Smackdown superstar came down with the win. Out of the 30 superstars in the match 18 came from Raw and they racked up 26 of the eliminations. Randy Orton would come down with the win, and as we have previously reported he was placed against Roman Reigns in the closing moments to ensure that he would get a face pop at the end.

He noted that there were problems for several fans attempting to stream the pay-per-view online and fans in attendance even had issues when they bought tickets for sections that ended up being tarped off for the event.

Nia Jax vs. Sasha Banks was the lowest rated match of the night by Meltzer receiving just a 1-star rating while (as expected) the AJ Styles vs John Cena contest got 4 3/4 stars (1 1/4th stars lower than the Okada/Omega match at WrestleKingdom 11). The Kevin Owens/Roman Reigns match complete with Chris Jericho received 4 1/2 stars. The Royal Rumble match itself got a 3 3/4 star rating from Meltzer.