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

Photo Source: WWE.com

Follow along with our live review of WWE Royal Rumble 2018.

After months of build (seriously, Raw hasn’t had a pay per view since Survivor Series in November), it’s finally time for WWE Royal Rumble 2018. Providing no one pulls double duty on the night, there will be nearly 90 superstars participating in a match on the night – that sounds like it could be a record. Is there an Elias Sports Bureau for WWE to check on that?

The highlight of the Royal Rumble every year is the namesake match. The concept is so simple, yet it always produces incredibly memorable moments. It’s 30 superstars, entering at regular intervals, and battle royal rules apply. And in 2018, for the first time there will be two Royal Rumble matches.

The most attention has been paid to the Women’s Royal Rumble Match. And with good reason – it’s never been done before in WWE. After early speculation about a different rule set, it was confirmed that the Women’s Rumble would follow the same rules as the Men’s Rumble. So 30 superstars have a chance to earn a championship match at WrestleMania. Superstars like Asuka, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, and Naomi are among the favorites. But with potential surprise entrants lurking, who will be in the driver’s seat on the Road to WrestleMania?

Then there’s the Men’s Royal Rumble Match. There’s no real clear cut favorite to win this one. Names like John Cena, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Dolph Ziggler have been thrown around. At one point, people were convinced Daniel Bryan would not only enter, but win, the Rumble. (Please don’t be like those people. It’s not happening.) Late Friday, Roman Reigns officially declared his entry into the Rumble. Again, there’s unannounced superstars entering the match. Who walks out of Philly with a trip to WrestleMania in their possession? And what will Kofi Kingston do this year to avoid elimination?

Check out the full Royal Rumble card below.

• Men’s Royal Rumble Match
• Women’s Royal Rumble Match
• Universal Championship Match – Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Braun Strowman vs. Kane
• WWE Championship Handicap Match – AJ Styles (c) vs. Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens
• Raw Tag Team Championship Match – Seth Rollins & Jason Jordan (c) vs. Cesaro & Sheamus
• SmackDown Tag Team Championship 2 out of 3 Falls Match – The Usos (c) vs. Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin
• Bobby Roode’s United States Championship Open Challenge (Kickoff Show)
• The Revival vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson (Kickoff Show)
• Kalisto, Lince Dorado & Gran Metalik vs. TJP, Jack Gallagher, & Drew Gulak (Kickoff Show)

Must Read: Daily DDT Staff Makes Its Royal Rumble Predictions

Follow along with our live coverage of WWE Royal Rumble 2018, starting with the Kickoff Show at 5 p.m. ET. The main show begins at 7 p.m. ET.

Photo Source: WWE.com

Kalisto, Lince Dorado, & Gran Metalik vs. TJP, Jack Gallagher, & Drew Gulak

Result: Kalisto, Lince Dorado, & Gran Metalik defeated TJP, Jack Gallagher, & Drew Gulak via pinfall

Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars

How nice of WWE to wait until the doors were open for twenty minutes before putting on the first match? There’s probably tens of people ready to watch Philadelphia’s favorite son Drew Gulak compete. Those fans were quite loud at the onset, before being scolded by Gulak – after all, “NO CHANTING!”

This trios match initially made it look like the “new 205 Live” may not be a myth. Last week on 205 Live, Cedric Alexander and Mustafa Ali tore the house down. Now, all six competitors were on their A game from bell to bell, providing the 25 people in the crowd with a ton of great action. Fast paced, real lucha action (or as close to “real” lucha action as you’ll get on a WWE event).

The triple moonsault spot was bananas. It’s one of those things that doesn’t seem like much of a big deal in 2018, but it’s still neat to see. Kalisto going off the ring post is a little frightening, but I think that’s just me. I’ve seen too many indie shows with bad rings that my Spider Sense always tingles at something like that.

After the break, things slowed down a bit as the maskless squad worked over Lince Dorado. Gulak is the better of the technical wrestlers on his team, but TJP and Gallagher are no slouches either.

Once Gallagher climbs to the ropes – much to the chagrin of Gulak – the match went back to what it was. The camera work at that point was brilliant, too – watching Gulak get more and more frustrated with Gallagher’s insistence on flying, followed by his look of “I knew it” when Dorado moved.

Metalik picked up the pace when he tagged in, and Dorado made a nice comeback from the beat down to hit a pretty springboard stunner. But Kalisto reversed TJP’s attempt at a Detonation Kick with a Salida del Sol for the victory. TJP’s recent woes since returning from injury continue, and the luchadors continue to wow the crowd. Good opener for the handful of people in the building.

Photo Source: WWE.com

Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson vs. The Revival (Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder)

Result: The Revival defeated Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson via pinfall

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Nothing makes more sense looking at WWE booking than seeing two superstars or teams face each other on regular TV, then have a rematch on a pay per view kickoff show less than a week later. Stay tuned tomorrow on Raw for the rubber match!

That’s the thing about 50/50 booking. In a desperate attempt to make sure no one seems like a sure win or loss (with the exception of Curt Hawkins), booking almost guarantees that whoever won the last contest will lose the next one. Since The Balor Club won on Raw, everyone and their mother had The Revival winning this one. And what happened?

It wasn’t a bad match, it was just more predictable than a Tom Brady playoff game. The Club looked to be in control early on, until a blind tag by The Revival turned the tide. Anderson suffered a leg injury on a chop block, and that weak limb came back to factor into the finish. Gallows cleaned house after a hot tag, but The Club couldn’t hit the Magic Killer because of Anderson’s legski.

So The Revival get their win back, surely the rubber match happens tomorrow, and maybe we can finally have these two teams move in another direction.

Photo Source: WWE.com

United States Championship Open Challenge

Bobby Roode (c) vs. Mojo Rawley

Result: Bobby Roode defeats Mojo Rawley via pinfall

Rating: 2.75 out of 5 stars

Talk about a letdown. It’s the same old story – pay per view, open challenge, rumors of new signees, someone interesting is going to answer the challenge, haha nope it’s someone lame. Not Lashley, not Ziggler, not EC3 – Mojo Rawley. It could have been worse, though – at least it wasn’t Jinder Mahal.

Mojo is a pretty uninspired choice, but it is what it is. I wonder if the hope was that he’d get some of that Super Bowl heat, being friends with Rob Gronkowski and all. But the deafening silence Mojo came down to suggests otherwise.

Like with The Revival vs. The Balor Club, this wasn’t a bad match, just too predictable. It was better than their match in the second round of the US Title Tournament – the same one I had predicted would be a good match (whoops!). There’s no way Booby Roode is losing the title so soon. There’s no chance of Mojo winning the title so quickly. So once Mojo hit the ring, everyone is basically just waiting for the finish.

With Dolph Ziggler not showing up to answer this challenge, it just makes us wait a bit for the real, final, official, ultimate blow-off for the Ziggler/Roode rivalry. Plus, it frees Dolph up to enter the Rumble later in the night, maybe even win the whole thing.

Meanwhile, Roode has a successful first title defense, and Mojo gets to show confidence in accepting the challenge. Predictability aside, it’s a win for everyone involved. Well, except for maybe the WWE Universe.

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.

Photo Source: WWE.com

SmackDown Tag Team Championship 2 out of 3 Falls Match

The Usos (Jimmy & Jey) (c) vs. Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin

Result: The Usos defeated Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin 2-0 to retain the SmackDown Tag Team Championship

Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars

Personally, I like it better when a 2 out of 3 falls match has the first fall happen really early on. Making it so one team has to play from behind the whole time – to me, at least – makes it much more intriguing. But I learned tonight that the counter to that is having one team just obliterate a limb on one of their opponents, because the early part of this match, even with no falls, was terrific.

The leg work on Jimmy at the beginning of the match was picture perfect. 90% of the dude’s offense is superkicks and high flying moves – why not take out his leg? It puts the champs in a tough spot, and it also led directly to Jey Uso cleaning house in one of the best one man sequences in a tag match in a while.

But it didn’t even lead to a finish. In fact, it took a while before the first fall happened at all. Paydirt didn’t get a victory, much to Benjamin’s chagrin. A wild reversal sequence eventual brought us to the Usos picking up the first fall, and it looked like we were heading for another all time great match between these two teams.

Then the rug got pulled out from under everything, and the match hit a screeching halt. Benjamin and Gable took out Jimmy on the outside, leaving Jey by his lonesome in the middle of the ring. Gable went to the top rope, but Jey rolled Shelton up for a pin – Gable was too slow to break it up. So the champs sweep, retain, and killed the momentum of a great match.

I think I get what they were going for with this finish, but I don’t like it. It sounds like it may have been a good idea, but it translated poorly. I don’t know where this feud is going, but that’s two pretty bad finishes in a row. Yeesh.

Photo Source: WWE.com

Men’s Royal Rumble Match

Result: Shinsuke Nakamura eliminates Roman Reigns to win 2018 Men’s Royal Rumble

Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars

90 seconds between entrants this year? Back in my day, it was two minutes! (*dust flies out of my ears*) But this is RUSEV DAY!

I felt like Balor entering at #2 was just Vince’s way of saying, “Yes, we know you love him, but he’s never going back to the main event.” But the Baron Corbin rampage made me rethink it. Yeah, Finn got beat up good, but he also got a nice little rest.

Speaking of Corbin, his appearance was exactly what he needed at this stage of his career. It was a short appearance, but he scored the first elimination AND destroyed everyone in the ring up to that point. Plus it started the parade of guys beating up poor Heath Slater before he even got into the ring.

First big surprise of the night – Andrade Almas entering at #7. He’s the first current NXT Champion to enter the Royal Rumble. He got a huge pop from the crowd – likely fueled by winning the greatest match in NXT history the night before.

When #10 rolled around, it was Tye Dillinger once again – until Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens jumped him backstage. Sami took Dillinger’s spot for himself, obviously trying to right the wrong of tonight’s opening contest.

Sami wasn’t the only one to pull double duty, as Sheamus entered ahead of his Tag Team Championship match later in the night. He didn’t last long, as his good deed of tossing Slater into the ring backfired – Slater immediately tossed The Celtic Warrior. On his birthday, no less.

As should be surprising to no one, one of the Rumble highlights involved Cesaro. What may be surprising is that the other half of that highlight was Apollo Crews. From a gorilla press by Crews to a tussle on the apron, it was a great exploitation of what the Rumble allows.

The annual Kofi Kingston Avoids Elimination spot was pretty good this year. Xavier Woods – already eliminated – slid himself under one of Kofi’s feet, then Big E brought out a plate of panckaes for him to stand on. Hey, his foot never touched the floor. When Jinder Mahal refused to allow room for Kofi to get back in, Woods and E launched Kofi like a pogo stick – right over Jinder and back into the ring. It’s not “pogo stick on JBL’s chair,” but it’s still up there. The Royal Rumble should be named after Kofi in the future.

When John Cena entered the Rumble at #20, I loved that literally everyone in the ring stopped what they were doing to gang up on him. Of course, Cena goes full on superhero to fight back – which brought out another superhero in the form of The Hurricane to go toe to toe with him. It was a short lived appearance for The Hurricane, who has been my vote for 205 Live GM since a vacancy was announced.

Next big surprise – Adam Cole (bay bay) at #23. The taped up ribs were from his winning the Dynamite Kid Golden Wheelchair Award for Stupidest Career-Shortening Spot at TakeOver last night. Don’t get me wrong, I love Cole, but that spot was ill-advised and incredibly dangerous. I can’t believe Cole is even walking, let alone able to compete in the Royal Rumble.

Biggest surprise of the night by far – Rey Mysterio entering at #27. He’s in phenomenal shape compared to the end of his first WWE run – and it was nowhere on my radar. Huge shock, and it definitely softened the boos of Reigns at #28 a bit. Not much, but a bit.

Roman’s “moment” came when he eliminated Seth Rollins mere seconds after working with him to eliminate The Miz. Commentary made a big deal about it, but Seth just kind of smirked because he actually knows the rules of the match. So it was really WWE trying to make a mountain of a molehill.

Dolph Ziggler made the “surprise” entrance at #30, but was eliminated shortly thereafter. Okay, then. The final four superstars remaining were Reigns, Cena, Balor, and Nakamura. Honestly, any of the four could have won, but the crowd would have been abysmal for the remainder of the show if Reigns or Cena won.

Balor getting tossed by Cena was pretty awful, especially right as he was rolling. But a SmackDown superstar needed to win the Royal Rumble – Elimination Chamber is a Raw pay per view, so their WrestleMania main event feud can take shape there. So out of the final four, you had Nakamura and “free agent” John Cena as possible winners. Plus, would Reigns really win another Royal Rumble in Philadelphia?

Overall, this was a terrific Rumble. Most Rumbles are, but this was awesome. You can’t please everyone, but this really had something for everyone. Best Rumble in YEARS. Plus we’re getting AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura at WrestleMania? IS this real life?

(please remind me of this when Stephanie McMahon wins the Women’s Royal Rumble later tonight)

Photo Source: WWE.com

Raw Tag Team Championship Match

Seth Rollins & Jason Jordan (c) vs. Cesaro & Sheamus

Result: Cesaro & Sheamus defeated Seth Rollins & Jason Jordan via pinfall to become the new Raw Tag Team Champions

Rating: 2.75 out of 5 stars

Oh, good, another fake concussion storyline in WWE. That plays well with the very real concussion lawsuit that conspiracy theorist point to as what’s keeping Daniel Bryan on the sidelines.

Remember back in 2013 when Triple H had a feud with Brock Lesnar? Triple H won a No Holds Barred match at WrestleMania, and Lesnar beat the stuffing out of him at Extreme Rules. The night after Extreme Rules, Triple H challenged Curtis Axel to a match (I swear I’m not making this up) and suffered a “concussion” because of the beating from Lesnar. It was a stupid, ill-advised story – and it looks like that’s kind of what’s happening with Jason Jordan here five years later.

Early in the match, the doctors got involved, Jordan fought them off, tagged himself in, got dizzy, and tagged back out. Yes, let’s make light of head injuries with a guy on commentary who was forced to retire prematurely because of them. Or with the former superstars who couldn’t tell you what day it is because too many chair bounced off their skulls.

This was a de facto handicap match. Jordan literally spent about ten seconds in the match as the legal man, executed precisely zero moves, and served as nothing more than a distraction. Meanwhile, Rollins – who competed in the Royal Rumble about twenty minutes prior – went up against a terrific tag team solo, falling because of the numbers game.

This was just bad from a storytelling perspective. The actual match itself was clean, some good spots mixed in. But with a garbage storyline I can’t get too excited over it. Just fast forward to Rollins vs. Jordan and move them both on.

Photo Source: WWE.com

Universal Championship Triple Threat Match

Brock Lesnar (c) (w/ Paul Heyman) vs. Braun Strowman vs. Kane

Result: Brock Lesnar pinned Kane to retain the Universal Championship

Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars

If I didn’t have a word count to hit on each section of these reviews, I would have just posted GIFs of car crashes and people cheering for this match. Because this was three mega hosses just running into each other at full speed, and everyone loved most of it.

Sure, it wasn’t the cleanest of matches. None of the three guys in the match have spectacular cardio. They slowed down pretty quickly. But the short bursts of activity more than made up for the slow parts of this one. And once the weapons and other accessories started coming out, it somehow got slower and better.

https://twitter.com/WWE/status/957808448988528640

Look, we all knew that this one was going to be a train wreck, but in the good way. Somewhere mixed in with the sweat, splinters, blood, and broken electronics, there were three guys busting their butts to entertain. Strowman was the clear star of this one – getting trapped under the table in the same manner Lesnar was pinned at SummerSlam, only to escape, was a nice touch.

Lesnar is just a monster. There’s really not much more to say about him. He’s barely human, and he’s just an impressive figure. Brock Lesnar is a singular figure in the sports world – there has never been anyone quite like him, and there likely won’t be again. Kinda wish he hadn’t of just blatantly punched Strowman in the head early on, though.

Kane was, uh, there too.

The finish played out pretty much exactly as everyone expected. Kane took the pin, LEsnar retained, Strowman still looked impressive and monstrous. The fact that Strowman took the kind of punishment he did and was still standing at the end of everything is pretty incredible.

This one wasn’t going to set anyone’e world on fire, but it was a perfectly fine hoss fight. Now let’s get Strowman some gold soon, huh?

Photo Source: WWE.com

Women’s Royal Rumble Match

Result: Asuka eliminates Nikki Bella to win the 2018 Women’s Royal Rumble Match

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

First off, great call to put this in the main event slot. I saw a bunch of salty takes on the social media timelines about this, but go cry me a river. History, even WWE’s manufactured history – deserves the spotlight. And what major story other than “winner goes to WrestleMania” existed in the men’s match that would have made it more important than the women’s match?

Even before the match got started, I loved Maria Menounos doing the intros, because the WrestleMania veteran is very clearly a smark. She knew the crowd would turn on certain parts of her appearance, and just went with it and acknowledged it all. Absolutely perfect.

Kind of surprised that Sasha and Becky were the first two entrants. I figured they would come in later on, and less favored to win superstars would have kicked things off. But having two of the Four Horsewomen kick things off was a good choice.

Two quick surprise entrants in this one: Lita at #4 and Kairi Sane at #6. And the first eliminations were scored by Lita, as she tossed Mandy Rose and Tamina before being eliminated by Becky Lynch. Sane got a nice pop, but Cole referring to her as having a “yacht character” was infuriating. She’s literally called the Pirate Princess, ya goofball. She got some good stuff in before being unceremoniously dumped out by Dana Brooke, of all people.

The relative smaller size of the women’s roster compared to the men meant a lot more surprise entrants were popping up in this match. At #9, Torrie Wilson made her return. Molly Holly (!) popped up at #12. Michelle McCool entered at #14, and promptly eliminated four superstars.

That was the big problem I had with most of the Women’s Royal Rumble Match. WWE’s over-reliance on the past was rearing its ugly head in this one. One of the biggest knocks on the booking of the past several years is that no new stars are created, and part-timers and legends always go over. And look at the bulk of the eliminations in the first half of the Rumble here – Lita eliminated two, McCool ended up with five, Molly and Torrie eliminated one each. That’s nine of the first twelve – why can’t the current (and even future) stars get in on the action?

More surprises filled the ranks – Vickie Guerrero at #16, Kelly Kelly at #19. Guerrero had a perfect appearance for her character – yelling EXCUSE ME at the top of her lungs, accomplishing nothing, and attacking someone while they weren’t looking. Terrific. And after all these years, Kelly Kelly still has a problem with the ring ropes.

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Becky Lynch getting eliminated was a bit deflating – she was a lot of people’s favorite to win, myself included. Jacqueline entering at #21 made up for it a bit, but Nia Jax going full Diesel helped too. And you had Naomi doing her best Kofi Kingston impression to stave off elimination. No, literally – she landed on the barricade, walked the length of it, used a chair, walked on her hands, and got back up via the ring steps. That’s everything from the Kofi playbook – including the immediate elimination after re-entering the ring.

A few more surprises at #23 and #24, with NXT Women’s Champion Ember Moon and Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix, respectively. Moon was selling her arm injury from TakeOver, but The Glamazon looked like she could still be an active superstar.

Asuka’s entrance at #25 was a turning point for the Rumble, as she continued her NXT feud with Ember Moon – and once again got the upper hand, eliminating the current champion. But the majority of the competitors seemed scared of Asuka – Carmella’s scream as she backed away from the first kick Asuka tried to throw was proof.

The money spot of #27 went to Nikki Bella, who wasted little time in eliminating Ms. Money in the Bank Carmella. #28 was Brie Bella, which sent the Philly crowd into a round of YES chants. Sure, every other woman in the match who has a famous husband had that chanted at her, so why not Brie?

Trish Stratus made her entrance at #30, disappointing the three people who thought Ronda Rousey would fly all the way from Colombia to Philly to fight jet lag in her surprise wrestling debut. Personally, I’m more upset about the lack of the Iconic Duo in the Royal Rumble. What’s going on with Billie Kay and Peyton Royce? At least Trish got to eliminate her frenemy Mickie James.

The story told with Nia Jax was brilliant – several times, Jax went out through the ropes, illustrating just how difficult it would be to get her over the top rope. And it kept taking more and more superstars to join forces and get her up and over – finally taking seven superstars to eliminate her.

Least surprising Rumble development? Sasha Banks turning on Bayley, and heeling it up for the remainder of the match. Sasha going face to face with Trish Stratus was better than I expected it would be, even if it only lasted a few seconds. But much like Iron Man Finn Balor was the MVP of the Men’s Royal Rumble, Sasha was the Iron Woman and MVP of the Women’s Match.

Now, once it came down to Asuka and the Bellas, you knew Asuka was going to win. With the drama gone, it was just a matter of how they were going to reach the end. I don’t think “wrap your leg around the neck of a woman who has serious neck issues” would have been my choice, but that’s what they went with.

So Asuka wins, and she’s got to choose between Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss – but none of that matters because the entire Women’s Revolution got overshadowed by Ronda freaking Rousey. I’ll admit I got worked about the whole “filming in Colombia” thing, but this was still possibly the stupidest thing WWE has done in a long time.

Just how colossally stupid was it? The person everyone assumed would be a surprise entrant in the match was in the building, but not participating in the match. Then while the euphoria of an overall successful first ever Women’s Royal Rumble Match hasn’t even finished setting in, out comes Rousey. She got in the face of Charlotte, offered a handshake to Asuka, then shook Stephanie McMahon’s hand after pointing to the WrestleMania sign. So is she trying to take Asuka’s match away from her? No one could grab a mic and actually say something? OF COURSE NOT, WE NEED TO WATCH RAW TO FIND OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING. All we know is THERE’S BREAKING NEWS ON SOCIAL MEDIA ABOUT THIS SITUATION – which was ESPN announcing Rousey had signed a contract with WWE.

Next: Ranking Every WWE Royal Rumble Winner

Two great Rumble matches highlighted the WWE Royal Rumble 2018, but a couple of wonky finishes and outside the ring stuff kind of brought the show down a bit. What did you think of the Rumble?