Retro 3 Things We Hated And three Things We Loved

The Royal Rumble is many fans’ favorite WWE event (outside of WrestleMania) yearly, kicking off the road to the “Showcase of the Immortals” with a novel match concept, as 30 men battle to throw each other excessive rope to be the last man standing. That man (or woman, as of 2018) moves on to challenge for a top title of his selecting at WrestleMania any normal 12 months, however the twenty ninth 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 time, consisted of Triple H, Stephane McMahon, and Vince McMahon. At one point within the feud, Reigns hit Vince and Triple H with Superman Punches, laying them out. That led The Authority to make the choice that Reigns would defend his WWE World Heavyweight Championship against 29 other men within the Rumble match, and it was revealed ahead of the Rumble that he’d even be entering first. It was an exciting move, up until the top, at the very least, that had never been done before and has yet to be done again.

Along with the Rumble match, there have been 4 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 US title, to “The Phenomenal One’s” shocking debut in WWE, to Triple H’s eventual win of the Rumble match and the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, there’s plenty to each love and hate concerning the 2016 Royal Rumble.

Kevin Owens and Dean Ambrose had unbelievable showings across your entire event, and that began with their Last Man Standing match for the Intercontinental Championship to open the show. Ambrose could have survived the match with gold around his waist, but Owens put in his best effort and each men got here out of the match looking incredible before they entered the Rumble later within the night.

The boys utilized the weapons throughout the match, from kendo sticks to chairs, and Ambrose just narrowly avoided a package piledriver onto a few of those chairs and countered with a back body drop, sending Owens crashing through the metal. The match was also stuffed with three different, yet all unbelievable, table spots. Owens stacked two tables on top of one another outside the ring at one point, that you just just knew were going to return into play afterward. 

Ambrose sent him through one other table at ringside with an elbow drop, and Owens got the champion back when he was capable of drop him through one other arrange within the ring. Ambrose was one way or the other capable of beat that 10 count, much to Owens’ exasperation. The top got here when a frustrated Owens arrange more chairs within the ring and laid Ambrose’s body across them before going to the highest rope, but he was sent tumbling from the turnbuckle through the stacked tables. He couldn’t beat the ten count, and Ambrose retained the gold.

The Intercontinental Championship would be the mid-card title, but Owens and Ambrose gave the match a giant fight feel, and Ambrose as “The Lunatic Fringe” was the proper opponent for Owens. There aren’t many matches where I would like to see the opponents “fight perpetually!” but that is definitely one in every of them.

Some other match following the superb Last Man Standing bout would have been in a dead spot, with the gang worn out from the early excitement, so WWE made a superb call booking the Tag Team Championship match next. The Recent Day’s Kofi Kingston and Big E, alongside Xavier Woods, successfully defended their gold against The Usos, who were already well on their technique to becoming Recent Day’s top rival. 

While the match itself was pretty good, it wasn’t exactly a memorable one within the grand scheme of the storied Usos and Recent Day feud, however the trio of goofy guys boasting about “the ability of positivity” keep things fun and intensely upbeat somewhat than suffer within the spot they got. It began when Woods got here out with a trombone, after his first beloved instrument, referred to as “Francesca” was destroyed by Chris Jericho on “WWE Raw.” He kicked off their match with a brand new trombone, christening it “Francesca 2” and the Recent Day goofiness was off to the races. And, after successfully defending the gold, the team celebrated with loads of twerking and ridiculous hip gyrations.

The WWE Tag Team Championships are so rarely defended on PLEs nowadays, and naturally, it is often fun to return and watch Big E’s matches now that he’s seemingly retired. As someone who was all the time on the “Recent Day Rocks!” side of the chants, this was a fun, but exciting palate cleanser following the Last Man Standing brutality. Without much to say about Kalisto and Alberto del Rio’s United States Championship match, despite the previous’s victory, the Recent Day find yourself within the “loved” column.

As previously mentioned, WWE didn’t start running the Women’s Royal Rumble until 2018, a number of 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 on the 2016 Rumble. While the dearth of ladies’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 loads of time, but the celebrities just couldn’t have a clean match. The involvement of Ric Flair ruined this one for me, and the way in which he got involved at the top was pretty ridiculous.

The long run “Man” dominated a giant portion of the start of the match until she had Flair on the skin. Ric distracted her, and Lynch hit him with a slap, and the younger Flair gained the upper hand. Lynch did her best to get well and the ladies went back-and-forth, until Flair hit an accidental baseball slide to her dad. You’d think that may turn the tide in Lynch’s favor, but it surely only angered Ric to the purpose he got further involved, throwing his jacket onto Lynch when she had Flair within 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 got here out and established herself as Flair’s next challenger, which I didn’t dislike. It just gave the impression of it was strange timing after Banks would have obviously seen the Flairs cheating their technique to victory, but I suppose at the very least she knew what she was up against.

There have been loads of fun spots within the Rumble, including Kofi Kingston being saved by making it onto Big E’s shoulders at ringside, in addition to R-Truth considering he was within the Money within the Bank match, but there have been two stable interference spots that were a bit redundant, and the primary took away from the second, which must have been an even bigger deal. 

The primary was the League of Nations coming out following the thirteenth 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 in every of the three commentary desks after running across the others. Though he refused the stretcher, Reigns was taken to the back, which seemed just a little unrealistic. He was a champion fighting for his title, I do not think he must 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 surely didn’t work for me.

When the eliminated Wyatt Family then returned to the ring to beat down Brock Lesnar to assist Bray Wyatt, it didn’t feel as effective. Which was a shame, as Bray cut a superb promo about winning the match alongside his family in a video that aired earlier within the night. Cole even mentioned that Bray must be considered a favourite.

Luke Harper, Braun Strowman, and Erick Rowan were all eliminated before Bray even got into the match, worn out by Lesnar. They then got back within the ring to assist Bray against “The Beast Incarnate,” but he threw the remainder of the family out a second time. On the third try, the Wyatts finally eliminated Lesnar, and all of it just felt just a little long with little or no payoff.

Everyone remembers that AJ Styles debuted on the 2016 Rumble, but I do know I, at the very least, sometimes forget just how impressive a showing he had within the match. He did a, pun intended, “Phenomenal” job and lasted just below 29 minutes within the match before he was eliminated by Kevin Owens.

Styles made his WWE debut as entrant number three within the Rumble, though the show on Netflix (at the very least within 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 previous TNA star over for individuals who may not have been accustomed to him at home. Michael Cole called him “the most well liked free agent in sports entertainment” and JBL mentioned he was a former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, though he did say “similar to Brock Lesnar,” somewhat than mention anything about NJPW.

Styles got a number of moments to shine just by himself with Reigns within the ring, which was cool in that he was put immediately up against WWE’s top guy. It was also given just a little time to breathe before Tyler Breeze entered at number 4. The gang was chanting for Styles throughout the match, and clearly knew who the previous TNA World Heavyweight Champion was, despite quite possibly being a crowd filled with more casual viewers.

“The Phenomenal One” spent loads of time within the match for his WWE debut, and wasn’t thrown out by any ol’ mid-card star. Watching this back, it felt like every thing about Styles’ debut was perfect, and it was an awesome moment in WWE history.

Of all of 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 ultimate 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 ground, having been also eliminated by Triple H. 

Triple H was already not a full-time wrestler at this point, and his most up-to-date match before the Rumble had been at WrestleMania 31 against Sting. Commentary was all about him, too, and no person questioned the proven fact that the COO had entered the bout in the ultimate spot.

WWE just couldn’t put over a younger star, like possibly one in every of the League of Nations members who had already helped take Reigns out. Del Rio, Rusev, and Sheamus were all of the in match along with taking out Reigns, and any one in every of them could have had the rocket strapped to them and elevated alongside The Authority as a brand new member of the stable. I can not say I’m the largest fan of Del Rio, but he lost the US Championship earlier within the night and will have won his second Rumble to win the title.

There was barely a response to Triple H’s win in any respect from the live crowd. Not negative, not too terribly positive, though there have been some fans on their feet. Overall, this didn’t look like it got over. This was on the time where nobody was really invested in Reigns anyway, so the choice for Triple H to win here just form of gave the impression of one big ol’ “whatever.”