WWE Royal Rumble review: YeetMania

Didn’t see that coming, did you?

Jey Uso was the winner of this year’s men’s WWE Royal Rumble, last eliminating John Cena to win. I did not expect that going in and not many people did, honestly. The most exciting thing about this year’s match was that WWE has done such a good job of building contenders in the men’s division that a lot of people could have won like Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre, Cena, or even CM Punk.

That made the last few eliminations feel pretty special. A Royal Rumble match is good when there’s an air of unpredictability and this Rumble had that, leading to an entertaining match.

The men’s Rumble also presented the first look at some possible WrestleMania 41 matches. After he was eliminated, Rollins got into it with both Roman Reigns and Punk, setting up the possibility of a three-way match. Logan Paul eliminated AJ Styles, making me feel there will be more on that situation in the next few weeks. And with Uso’s win, it looks like he’ll be going after Gunther’s World Heavyweight title after losing to him one week ago on Saturday Night’s Main Event.

Going with Uso is a…choice. I like him as he’s fun and charismatic and it’s clear that the crowd sees him as a major star. And given that his last World title match was pretty good, I think he and Gunther can deliver a WrestleMania-caliber main event. But is he the guy to go with?

Meanwhile in the women’s Royal Rumble, everyone pretty much assumed that Charlotte Flair, who has been out of action for over a year with a knee injury, would win and, shock of shocks, challenge for another title. And sure enough she did, last eliminating NXT’s Roxanne Perez. This was a fine match and people reacted to big surprises like Alexa Bliss and Jordynne Grace, but Rumble matches are built on moments and there wasn’t anything significantly memorable here. My guess is Flair will challenge Tiffany Stratton who still probably has to go through Nia Jax first.

Cody Rhodes retained the undisputed WWE title and regained the “winged eagle” title by defeating Kevin Owens in a ladder match that had a bunch of sick spots. My own back hurt when Owens landed on the side of that ladder following a Rhodes back body drop. Yikes! The final spot of the match where Rhodes gave Owens an Alabama slam through one of the ladders was also a cool, yet kinda sick, visual. Sami Zayn came out and looked after Owens as Rhodes grabbed the title, so there’s still intrigue as to where the Zayn/Owens relationship goes from here. I wouldn’t say this was a super remarkable ladder match, but the last few minutes were excellent.

DIY retained the WWE Tag Team titles after defeating the Motor City Machine Guns. I was thinking this could be one of the better matches of the show, but surprisingly it was just a match. It was well worked, but no one in Indianapolis saw these two teams as stars and as a result, they simply sat on their hands. Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley lost after interference from the Street Profits who also took out DIY. That may be a three-way match for somewhere down the road.

Next month is the Elimination Chamber from Toronto. Will John Cena overcome the odds and go to WrestleMania? Well I hope so or he, one of the biggest wrestling stars of all time, won’t have a path to WrestleMania…again!