WWE Royal Rumble 2017 Review: Results, Analysis, and Grades

WWE.com

Royal Rumble Match

Result: Randy Orton last eliminates Roman Reigns to win the 2017 Royal Rumble match.

Rating: 3.25 out of 5 stars

The overall Royal Rumble match was fine. It didn’t provide any surprises outside of Tye Dillinger. No legends. No Samoa Joe. No Finn Balor. No Kurt Angle. So there would be little to no drama. However, there would be plenty of takeaways to dive into.

Goldberg and Brock Lesnar facing each other at WrestleMania 33 makes no sense now. This is two straight appearances that have seen the former WCW star destroy the Beast Incarnate. Why bother going to another match if the clear person ahead has been made clear?

The Undertaker and Roman Reigns are on a path to a WrestleMania match. Reigns eliminated the Dead Man, who eyed him down and mumbled something. This should be one of the top matches at the Show of Shows and make for a potentially fun ride. The only thing is did we really need to have the former Shield man enter at No. 30? His spot felt like a bit of a waste and could have been used on a legend to make this a little more fun and less serious and eye-rolling like we’ve seen with Reigns’ booking before.

Then there’s Randy Orton winning the Royal Rumble. It’s a bit of a controversial call since he’s 36, has won before, and is three years removed from the WWE main event scene. Given that John Cena won the WWE Championship, are we actually on a path to these two facing off in some capacity at WrestleMania 33? If so, it’s a storyline that we’ve seen time and time again. Hopefully, this won’t be the case and Bray Wyatt gets integrated into the mix with the Elimination Chamber approaching.

There’s still plenty of fallout to come, but that does it for this Royal Rumble PPV.