WWE's 2017 Royal Rumble is in the books and, as per usual, the event was filled with both awesome and infuriating moments. The Undertaker, Goldberg, and Brock Lesnar all clashed inside the final moments of the Rumble match itself while John Cena captured the WWE World Championship from AJ Styles and Kevin Owens fended off Roman Reigns - Reigns, who'd later show up in the Royal Rumble itself in the #30 spot!
So what worked and what didn't? What made us cheer with delight or jeer with intense fury? Sure, you can't please everyone but, you know, you can also NOT have Roman Reigns eliminate Undertaker. It's a clearer line than you think. If you'd like to check out my Royal Rumble Live Blog and Reactions piece from Sunday night, you can read it here.
Here are the 6 best moments from the 2017 Royal Rumble - and *ahem* the 2 worst!
Making up for the fact that Jericho's Shark Cage never paid off well (we never cut away to reaction shots, Jericho provided Owens with a weapon even though it was a No DQ match, etc) was the miraculous, and very welcome, interference by Braun Strowman. Braun leveled Roman with a Chokeslam on an announce table and then scooped him up for a running powerslam through a table. It was all the unconscious Kevin Owens needed to retain the WWE Universal Championship.
Bayley may not have defeated Charlotte, but she can at least take solace in the fact that she delivered a picture perfect Flying Elbow Drop. Seriously, Flying Elbows are a lost art. There were several awesome single move spots on the card (the STEEN Cold Stunner, Swann's superkick to a flying Neville, etc) but this one was right on the money.
Yup, we're putting the entire match on here. AJ Styles vs. John Cena. No, it didn't quite match up to the majesty of their SummerSlam match (which had the added bonus of Styles winning clean), but it was still epic in its own way. Plus, if Cena was going to someday tie Ric's Flair's world title record (which we all knew had to happen at some point) - have him work for it! Give us a great match. Assuage some of our resentment with stellar performances. And that's what these two guys did here. In the end it took two begrudging AA's in a row -- after Styles had already survived an AA and an A(+)A! -- to put the champ down and give Cena his 16th world title win.
Tye Dillinger, the NXT star whose entrance attire and hair style directly contradict his "Perfect 10" gimmick, made his main roster debut in the Rumble match. We may not have gotten Finn Balor back or a Samoa Joe call up (or even an outsider like Kenny Omega), but Dillinger still managed to come out to a big pop from the Texas crowd and a healthy(ish) stint in the ring during the Rumble itself.
The fact that Goldberg owns/pwns Brock Lesnar at almost every turn is wonderful. Consider this punishment, Brock, for not eliminating everyone when you had the chance. Seriously, Brock came in and took out Ambrose and Ziggler and then... he seemed to forget about the entire elimination process. He leveled everyone in his path and then just let them sit around. Once Goldberg came in though, it was all over but the screaming. SPEAR! CLOTHESLINE! GONE!
During the final seconds of the Rumble match, it was difficult to not be desperate and frantic. SOMEONE HAD TO STOP ROMAN! He wasn't even supposed to be in the match! It made no sense!
Well, after eliminating the likes of Undertaker, Jericho (who was the Rumble's #2), and Bray Wyatt, Roman Reigns got caught in an RKO and dumped out of the ring! Hooray! Randy Orton won!
Wait... Randy Orton won? This is not... really... WHO CARES? ROMAN DIDN'T WIN! Yes, it was a grand trick indeed the WWE pulled here, making us happy about an Orton Rumble win.
The need for a Nia Tax win is understandable, though honestly we're still getting used to seeing Sasha Banks feud with someone who isn't Charlotte in a program that's not for the world title. Because that's basically all she's been doing for the past year, ever since the "Divas Revolution" came to a close. It's been her and Charlotte. And when Charlotte was facing someone else, Sasha was just kept off TV.
Sasha Banks can totally lose to Nia. That's fine. But to do so this quickly and this unceremoniously (during a forgettable Kickoff squash) felt like the biggest demotion in a long while. Going from Sasha's summer and fall program with Charlotte -- which saw them headline a PPV while also meeting in cages and Falls Count Anywhere matches and more -- to getting dropped in a few minutes here was pretty disheartening.
Skipping over the maddening fact that Roman shouldn't have even been in the Rumble match since earlier in the night he was already the number one contender for the RAW Universal title, and lost, Roman rather casually dropped the Undertaker over the top rope (about as casually as Undertaker dropped Goldberg over the top rope, btw) for a big birthday party balloon pop-of-a-moment that saw one of the Rumble's biggest stars get eliminated by a guy who was designed in a lab for the explicit person of making everyone miserable.
Of course, this moment could signal a Roman vs. Undertaker WrestleMania match, which already has us frothing and fretting. The only way it could become even close to being acceptable is if they decided, truly, to go full heel with Reigns.
Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association (TCA). Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at http://ift.tt/2aJ67FB.
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