The first Pay-Per-View of 2015, the Royal Rumble, took place on Sunday 25th January at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. We will get to see who will main event Wrestlemania 31 for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Will they be able to defend Brock Lesnar? Let's review.
The Kick Off match was between Kofi Kingston and Big E Langston from The New Day versus Tyson Kidd and Cesaro. A great highlight was Cesaro doing the giant swing on Kingston, which ended with a dropkick by Kidd. In the end, Kingston gets hit with an European uppercut by Cesaro followed by a swinging fisherman's neck breaker to get the win. It was quite a good match and the crowd was really into it.
Winners: Tyson Kidd and Cesaro
Predictions: 0 for 1
The first match was between The New Age Outlaws and The Ascension. The Outlaws put up a decent fight and tried to win it by Gunn going for a fameasser on Viktor. However, he missed and Ascension hit the Fall of Man to get the win. The match wasn't anything special as it seemed to just be used to put The Ascension over.
Winners: The Ascension
Predictions: 1 for 2
We now get another tag team match as Hollywood Miz and Damien Mizdow challenge The Usos for the Tag Team Championships. As usual, the crowd was cheering on Mizdow, who spent most of the match on the apron. Miz did a great job of teasing the tag to Mizdow but refusing. Later on, Mizdow broke up a pin but looked like he wasn't suppose to do that. Mizdow then hit the skull crushing finale and positioned Miz for the pin. However, that plan only creates a 2 count. In the end, Jimmy hits a Superfly splash on Miz to get the win. The match was pretty good but it's more memorable for Mizdow's actions, which were the best parts of the match.
Winners: The Usos
Predictions: 2 for 3
Next is the Divas tag team match with The Bella Twins take on Natalya and Paige. The Bellas work over Natalya before she cuts off Nikki. Natalya tries to tag out but Brie pulls Paige off the apron. Nikki then hits Natalya in the throat to get the pin. The match was a bit too short and I feel that it didn't play to their strengths.
Winners: The Bella Twins
Predictions: 3 for 4
We now get a triple threat match with John Cena and Seth Rollins challenge Brock Lesnar for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Lesnar continues his fetish for German suplexes by hitting Rollins and Cena. Noble and Mercury try to help Rollins but they're easily dispatched. Cena hits Lensar with 3 consecutive AA's but Rollins breaks up the pin. Rollins later on, hits an elbow sending Cena and Lesnar through the Spanish announce table. The end comes when Rollins hits Lesnar twice with the MITB briefcase then tries the curb stomp. However, he misses and Lesnar hits the F5 to get the win. I really enjoyed this match and I wouldn't mind seeing a singles match between Lesnar and Rollins
Winner: Brock Lesnar
Predictions: 4 for 5
We now get the Royal Rumble match. Miz comes in at number 1 and R-Truth comes in at number 2. We get our first surprise entrant as Bubba Ray Dudley came in at number 3 followed by the Boogeyman at number 7. Our third surprise entrant was Diamond Dallas Page at number 13. During the match, the crowd were not happy with some of the eliminations. Daniel Bryan, my pick for the Rumble, came in at number 10 and got eliminated by Bray Wyatt. This generated a chorus of boos from the crowd. Kofi Kingston, who came in at number 17, had a pretty cool annual elimination avoidance spot. Rusev threw him over the rope into the Rosebuds. They carried him around the ring then put him on the apron. Rusev then eliminates him. There was a nice bit later on, when Mizdow comes in at number 21. Miz comes in and demands that he will take Mizdow's place. Miz doesn't get a chance to enter the ring so Mizdow enters but quickly gets eliminated by Rusev.
Later on, Corporate Kane came in at number 24 and Big Show at number 29. Number 30 was Dolph Ziggler. Ziggler eliminates Cesaro and Bad News Barrett. Unfortunately, this was when Kane and Show joined forces and eliminated Wyatt, Ziggler and Dean Ambrose, massively pissing off the crowd.
The final four were Corporate Kane, Big Show, Roman Reigns, who came in at number19, and Rusev, who was laid out outside the ring. Reigns eliminates Kane and Show and the bell rings. They return to attack Reigns and The Rock comes down to help Reigns. After that happened to boos from the crowd, Rusev recovered and attacked Reigns. However, Reigns dealt with it with a spear and eliminated Rusev to win the match.
I thought it was a pretty decent Rumble. The problem was that the crowd clearly were not into Reigns. I thought that maybe Bryan or Ziggler would win it as I believed into a classic David vs Goliath story. However, WWE feel that Reigns is the next guy and I'm not sure if he is ready for that.
Winner: Roman Reigns
Predictions: 4 for 6
I thought that the Rumble was a good way to start the year with some pretty good matches and it was refreshing to see a few tag team matches on the card. As for the winner of the Rumble, I'm not sure if it was the right decision. Brock Lesnar is an unstoppable juggernaut right now and I can't see Reigns being the one to topple him and become Champion. They now have two months to make the fans believe that he can be Champion. The question is, will they succeed? (Spoiler alert: they don't)
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