WWE Royal Rumble 2018: Results, Highlights, Analysis, and Grades

Photo Source: WWE.com

WWE Championship Handicap Match

AJ Styles (c) vs. Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens

Result: AJ Styles pins Kevin Owens to retain WWE Championship

Rating: 3.25 out of 5 stars

Interesting choice to start the main show. Honestly, even though I don’t agree, I thought WWE would bookend the show with Royal Rumble matches – open with the women and close with the men. Thankfully, I was wrong, and as of now it looks like the Rumbles will go on as the co-main events.

Interestingly, this was the only match on the main card which the Daily DDT staff agreed on in our predictions – no one predicted Styles to lose. Maybe Sami and KO read that and wanted to prove us all wrong, because their strategy at the onset was to hit and run. Quick tags kept a fresh man in the ring with the champ, though Styles brushed off the majority of the onslaught.

Eventually, the numbers game caught up with Styles. KO and then Sami managed to bring the hurt for a good while. Styles made brief flashes of comebacks with regularity – avoiding the cannonball from KO, hitting Sami with a super rana, and so on. But Owens tweaked his already injured knee, leaving him susceptible to the Calf Crusher. His reactions while trying to keep himself from tapping out were top notch.

Some continuity from Tuesday night’s SmackDown Live came into play – remember, Zayn had pinned Styles after a Blue Thunder Bomb. Tonight, after a KO superkick, Sami hit a gorgeous Blue Thunder Bomb, but Styles kicked out at 2.99999.

But Styles worked magic from bell to bell, with the above mentioned super rana, a moonsault into a reverse DDT, and a picture perfect Phenomenal Forearm. But when it finally came to the finish, there were pluses and minuses.

Plus: Styles wins! There was no ridiculous interference from Shane McMahon, Daniel Bryan, or anyone else (just a silly backstage segment with Shane). All excellent. Minus: Why did the finish have to be so absurd and convoluted? The tag that wasn’t, Zayn getting tossed to the outside as the legal man, KO getting pinned with Styles having his shoulders down – it’s like the grab bag of Dusty Finish reasons emptied out into the open.

At some point, Styles will finally get to actually finish this ridiculous feud and move on. But right now, it’s more of what we’ve come to expect from SmackDown Live.