WWE Royal Rumble 2018 Final Rating: Wild Night Builds Excitement
Photo by WWE’s Twitter
WWE Royal Rumble 2018 more than exceeded expectations with one of the most stellar shows the WWE has put on in a long time.
With two Royal Rumble matches for the first time in history, WWE Royal Rumble 2018 had a lot to live up to. And thanks to the men’s and women’s Royal Rumble matches along with a few others, this pay-per-view will be hard to top in 2018 for the WWE.
The main card opened unexpectedly with the handicap match for the WWE Championship pitting AJ Styles against Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. The match was very well-done with the two heels teaming up to ground Styles before The Phenomenal One got back into it and pulled out the win with an impressive counter on Owens. The slight confusion towards the end also keeps Owens and Zayn’s feud with Shane McMahon going.
The show continued with a 2-out-of-3 Falls Match between The Usos and Shelton Benjamin and Chad Gable for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship. The match itself was solid, but seeing The Usos win the first two falls and not even needing a third fall looks bad for Benjamin and Gable and likely ends their time in the tag team title scene.
The next match seemed like it was going on too early, the men’s Royal Rumble match. But simply put, this was one of the greatest Royal Rumble matches of all-time. Nearly everything about this match was perfect, especially the ending sequence between Shinsuke Nakamura and Roman Reigns.
Photo by WWE’s Twitter
The two battled it out to the point where you didn’t know who would come out on top. But in the end, Nakamura eliminated Reigns to win the Royal Rumble match amidst a near frenzy in the crowd. It was an amazing moment, and the moment got even better when Nakamura announced his sights are set on Styles and the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 34, all but confirming the dream match everybody wants to see.
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The Raw Tag Team Championship match had the unenviable task of following a classic, but Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan vs. The Bar did a pretty good job of doing so. The match was pretty solid despite the crowd being totally exhausted by that point. Sheamus and Cesaro regained the tag team titles and Rollins and Jordan’s beef with each other probably increased too.
The heavyweight fight between Brock Lesnar, Braun Strowman, and Kane followed with the Universal Championship on the line. For a match that didn’t have much hype, this match turned out to be a very solid encounter with a lot of cool, hard-hitting spots before Lesnar predictably retained his title. But Strowman came out looking like a million bucks and might not be done with Lesnar.
The historic, first-ever all-women’s Royal Rumble match deservedly main evented the show. The match saw a little bit of everything and was very well-done. A lot of past stars returned for the match as well as a few NXT stars. The match came down to the returning Bella Twins and Asuka before Nikki eliminated Brie to set up the final two.
Asuka and Nikki had a really good encounter on the apron of the ring before Asuka eliminated her to get the historic win. But after the match, the fireworks really got going when the Raw and SmackDown Women’s Champions came in the ring. As Asuka, Charlotte Flair, and Alexa Bliss stood in the ring, Ronda Rousey made her shocking presence felt.
Photo by WWE’s Twitter
Rousey is now a full-fledged member of the WWE and certainly has big plans for WrestleMania 34. Maybe it took away from Asuka winning to a degree, but it was well-done and in a way that didn’t require her to win the Royal Rumble match, which many people didn’t want to see.
All in all, this was an excellent pay-per-view outing by the WWE to open up its 2018 pay-per-view schedule. There wasn’t a bad match anywhere to be found and no match came even close to being considered bad. Not to mention, both Royal Rumble matches are some of the best the WWE has put on in years.
Next: WWE Royal Rumble 2018: Review
One thing’s for sure, excitement and anticipation has majorly increased for the WWE moving forward as WrestleMania season is here.