The Royal Rumble is many fans' favorite WWE event (outside of WrestleMania) every year, kicking off the road to the "Showcase of the Immortals" with a unique match concept, as 30 men battle to throw one another over the top rope to be the last man standing. That man (or woman, as of 2018) moves on to challenge for a top title of his choosing at WrestleMania any normal year, but the 29th edition of the match was quite different.
The theme of the 2016 Royal Rumble, which emanated from the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida, was "One versus All." Roman Reigns was locked in a feud with The Authority, which, at that point, consisted of Triple H, Stephane McMahon, andVince McMahon. At one point in the feud, Reigns hit Vince and Triple H with Superman Punches, laying them out. That led The Authority to make the decision that Reigns would defend his WWE World Heavyweight Championship against 29 other men in the Rumble match, and it was revealed ahead of the Rumble that he'd also be entering first. It was an exciting move, up until the end, at least, that had never been done before and has yet to be done again.
In addition to the Rumble match, there were four other bouts on the premium live event card. From the Last Man Standing match for the Intercontinental Championship, to the defenses of the WWE Tag Team Championships, the Divas Championship and the United States title, to"The Phenomenal One's" shocking debut in WWE, toTriple H's eventual win of the Rumble match and the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, there is plenty to both love and hate about the 2016 Royal Rumble.
Kevin Owens and Dean Ambrose had fantastic showings across the entire event, and that started with their Last Man Standing match for the Intercontinental Championship to open the show.Ambrose may have survived the match with gold around his waist, but Owens put in his best effort and both men came out of the match looking incredible before they entered the Rumble later in the night.
The men utilized the weapons throughout the match, from kendo sticks to chairs, and Ambrose just narrowly avoided a package piledriver onto some of those chairs and countered with a back body drop, sending Owens crashing through the metal. The match was also filled with three different, yet all fantastic, table spots. Owens stacked two tables on top of each other outside the ring at one point, that you just knew were going to come into play later on.
Ambrose sent him through another table at ringside with an elbow drop, and Owens got the champion back when he was able to drop him through another set up in the ring. Ambrose was somehow able to beat that 10 count, much to Owens' exasperation. The end came when a frustrated Owens set up more chairs in the ring and laid Ambrose's body across them before going to the top rope, but he was sent tumbling from the turnbuckle through the stacked tables. He couldn't beat the 10 count, and Ambrose retained the gold.
The Intercontinental Championship may be the mid-card title, but Owens and Ambrose gave the match a big fight feel, and Ambrose as "The Lunatic Fringe" was the perfect opponent for Owens. There aren't many matches where I want to see the opponents "fight forever!" but this is certainly one of them.
Any other match following the excellent Last ManStanding bout would have been in a dead spot, with the crowd worn out from the early excitement, so WWE made an excellent call booking the Tag Team Championship match next. The New Day's Kofi Kingston and Big E, alongside Xavier Woods, successfully defended their gold against The Usos, who were already well on their way to becoming New Day's top rival.
While the match itself was pretty good, it wasn't exactly a memorable one in the grand scheme of the storied Usos and New Day feud, but the trio of goofy guys boasting about "the power of positivity" keep things fun and extremely upbeat rather than suffer in the spot they were given. It all started when Woods came out with a trombone, after his first beloved instrument, known as "Francesca" was destroyed by Chris Jericho on "WWE Raw." He kicked off their match with a new trombone, christening it "Francesca 2" and the New Day goofiness was off to the races. And, after successfully defending the gold, the team celebrated with plenty of twerking and ridiculous hipgyrations.
The WWE Tag Team Championships are so rarely defended on PLEs these days, and of course, it's always fun to go back and watch Big E's matches now that he's seemingly retired. As someone who was always on the "New Day Rocks!" side of the chants, this was a fun, but exciting palate cleanser following the Last Man Standing brutality. Without much to say aboutKalisto and Alberto del Rio's United States Championship match, despite the former's victory, the New Day end up in the "loved" column.
As previously mentioned, WWE didn't start running the Women's Royal Rumble until 2018, a few years after Stephanie McMahon declared the Women's Revolution a go after the call-ups of Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, and Sasha Banks from "WWE NXT" in 2015. Those three women were involved in, or after, the Divas Championship match at the 2016 Rumble. While the lack of women's Rumble match is an obvious "hated," I'll give WWE a break there as Banks, Flair, Lynch, were still gaining steam and WWE was further strengthening its women's roster.
Lynch and Flair thankfully got plenty of time, but the stars just couldn't have a clean match. The involvement of Ric Flair ruined this one for me, and the way he got involved at the end was pretty ridiculous.
The future "Man" dominated a big portion of the beginning of the match until she had Flair on the outside. Ric distracted her, and Lynch hit him with a slap, and the younger Flair gained the upper hand. Lynch did her best to recover and the women went back-and-forth, until Flair hit an accidental baseball slide to her dad. You'd think that would turn the tide in Lynch's favor, but it only angered Ric to the point he got further involved, throwing his jacket onto Lynch when she had Flair in the Dis-Arm-Her with the match almost won, and it was just all too silly for me.Flair hit the spear to retain her title.
Following the match, Banks came out and established herself as Flair's next challenger, which I didn't dislike. It just seemed like it was strange timing after Banks would have obviously seen the Flairs cheating their way to victory, but I guess at least she knew what she was up against.
There were plenty of fun spots in the Rumble, including Kofi Kingston being saved by making it onto Big E's shoulders at ringside, as well as R-Truth thinking he was in the Money in the Bank match, but there were two stable interference spots that were a bit redundant, and the first took away from the second, which should have been a bigger deal.
The first was the League of Nations coming out following the 13th entrant to the match alongside Vince McMahon to take out Reigns at ringside. Sheamus, Del Rio, and Rusev beat down Reigns. Rusev sent "The Big Dog" through one of the three commentary desks after running across the others. Though he refused the stretcher, Reigns was taken to the back, which seemed a little unrealistic. He was a champion fighting for his title, I don't think he should have allowed himself to be taken away from that ring for anything. Sure, it led to a return pop, since Reigns wasn't eliminated, but it didn't work for me.
When the eliminated Wyatt Family then returned to the ring to beat down Brock Lesnar to help Bray Wyatt, it didn't feel as effective. Which was a shame, as Bray cut an excellent promo about winning the match alongside his family in a video that aired earlier in the night. Cole even mentioned that Bray should be considered a favorite.
Luke Harper, Braun Strowman, and Erick Rowan were all eliminated before Bray even got into the match, wiped out by Lesnar. They then got back in the ring to help Bray against "The Beast Incarnate," but he threw the rest of the family out a second time. On the third try, the Wyatts finally eliminated Lesnar, and it all just felt a little long with very little payoff.
Everyone remembers that AJ Styles debuted at the 2016 Rumble, but I know I, at least, sometimes forget just how impressive a showing he had in the match. He did a, pun intended, "Phenomenal" job and lasted just under 29 minutes in the match before he was eliminated by Kevin Owens.
Styles made his WWE debut as entrant number three in the Rumble, though the show on Netflix (at least in the US) still focuses on Roman Reigns' face as Styles' music and tron hit. Though you do see him walk out from the back, it's still pretty comical. Commentary immediately put the former TNA star over for those who may not have been familiar with him at home. Michael Cole called him "the hottest free agent in sports entertainment" and JBL mentioned he was a former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, though he did say "just like Brock Lesnar," rather than mention anything about NJPW.
Styles got a few moments to shine just by himself with Reigns in the ring, which was cool in that he was put immediately up against WWE's top guy. It was also given a little time to breathe before Tyler Breeze entered at number four. The crowd was chanting for Styles throughout the match, and obviously knew who the former TNA World Heavyweight Champion was, despite quite possibly being a crowd full of more casual viewers.
"The Phenomenal One" spent plenty of time in the match for his WWE debut, and wasn't thrown out by any ol' mid-card star. Watching this back, it felt like everything about Styles' debut was perfect, and it was an awesome moment in WWE history.
Of all the people to win the Royal Rumble who were involved in or with the Authority, it was Triple H who took the win and claimed the gold. "The Game" entered the match in the final spot and went on to win the World Heavyweight Championship, as Reigns, who returned to the match when Sheamus entered at #29, looked on in dismay from the floor, having been also eliminated by Triple H.
Triple H was already not a full-time wrestler at this point, and his most recent match before the Rumble had been at WrestleMania 31 against Sting. Commentary was all about him, too, and nobody questioned the fact that the COO had entered the bout in the final spot.
WWE just couldn't put over a younger star, like maybe one of the League of Nations members who had already helped take Reigns out.Del Rio, Rusev, and Sheamus were all the in match in addition to taking out Reigns, and any one of them could have had the rocket strapped to them and elevated alongside The Authority as a new member of the stable. I can't say I'm the biggest fan of Del Rio, but he lost the United States Championship earlier in the night and could have won his second Rumble to win the title.
There was barely a response to Triple H's win at all from the live crowd. Not negative, not too terribly positive, though there were some fans on their feet. Overall, this didn't seem like it got over. This was at the time where no one was really invested in Reigns anyway, so the decision for Triple H to win here just kind of seemed like one big ol' "whatever."
