RANDY ORTON WINS 2017 ROYAL RUMBLE
The 2017 Royal Rumble is officially in the books with Randy Orton taking the 30-man, over-the-top-rope battle royal in the main event and John Cena capturing his 16th world championship after defeating AJ Styles earlier in the evening.
The first pay-per-view of the year was a thrill from start to finish with some minor surprises but no massive headlines beyond the aforementioned finishes.
Read up on the entire Royal Rumble below.
Kickoff Show results
Nia Jax def. Sasha Banks via pinfall
Tag Team Championship (Raw) -- Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson def. Cesaro & Sheamus (c) via pinfall to win the titles
Becky Lynch, Nikki Bella & Naomi def. Alexa Bliss, Mickie James, Natalya via pinfall
Royal Rumble results
Women's Championship (Raw) -- Charlotte (c) def. Bayley via pinfall to retain the title: A thrilling match to start the show. Charlotte dominated early, but Bayley got in some good offense starting with a Macho Man-inspired elbow drop that nearly resulted in a three count. Charlotte, bloodied in the mouth following the move, kicked out and put Bayley in the Figure Four Leg Lock, eventually converting it into her signature Figure Eight and using the ropes for extra leverance. Once the referee broke up the maneuver, Charlotte climbed to the top rope for a moonsault only for Bayley to bring up her knee to block it. Bayley immediately began selling an injured knee, which Charlotte attacked. Bayley exited the ring to kneel on the apron in an attempt to recover, but Charlotte took advantage by running behind her and hitting Natural Selection on the apron. She earned the easy 1-2-3 and is now 16-0 all-time in women's championship title defenses at pay-per-views.
Strowman chokeslamed Reigns through the German announce table, then brought him into the ring for a powerslam through a table angled in the corner. Owens came to just in time to cover Reigns and earn the victory to retain the championship. This, of course, sets up Reigns vs. Strowman for WrestleMania 33, a match Vince McMahon was rumored to badly want but was at least smart enough not to make it for the title.
Cruiserweight Championship -- Neville def. Rich Swann (c) via submission to win the title: The more aggressive Neville held the advantage on Swann most of the match, but a perfectly timed Swan Song superkick followed by a Phoenix Splash to the outside of the ring swung things in Swann's direction. Neville hit a superplex off the top rope and followed with a double-arm choker submission to win the title clean. It was perhaps the best cruiserweight match since the division returned to WWE programming and should result in a long title defense for Neville.
World Championship -- John Cena def. AJ Styles (c) via pinfall to win the title: When you talk about this match, you may call it the "match of the year." I will refer to it as "match of an era." Yes, that's how dialed-in it was from both a storyline and match perspective. After a slow start to the match, Styles got things going by turning an Argentine backbreaker into a torture rack into a spinning sit-down powerbomb. Cena hit his first of a handful of Attitude Adjustment finishers, Styles followed with a Phenomenal Forearm, and Cena turned an Electric Chair into a Facebuster -- all of which resulted in two counts.
Styles and Cena then began trading submission maneuvers. Up first was a Calf Crusher by Styles, which was reversed into an STF by Cena. Styles then placed Cena in his own STF, which Cena turned into a Figure Four Leg Lock. After the back-and-forth, Cena climbed the top rope, but Styles turned his leap into a powerbomb and hit the Styles Clash for a two count. Styles bounced back with a tremendous backbreaker on Cena, setting him up for another Styles Clash. Instead, Cena reversed it into a catapult and followed that with a Diamond Cutter-esque move. That's when Cena decided to try and finish the match with a top rope Attitude Adjustment, but Styles kicked out in two again to stun the crowd.
