Royal Rumble 2016 Review

It's not quite WWE's crown jewel, but the Royal Rumble is a gimmick match with unrivalled lasting appeal. Since its inception in 1988, this unique timed-interval thirty-man battle royal has gripped fans by condensing virtually all the joys and values of pro wrestling into a single hour. One minute it's bizarre, the next it's funny, the next it's athletic, the next it's electrifying, and throughout it all you're kept guessing who's going to show up.

That was until the past two editions of the event, both of which will be remembered for Daniel Bryan not emerging victorious and, consequently, each winner celebrating a highlight of their career to a chorus of boos. Inevitably the shine has come off the Royal Rumble a little; those vintage shows of 1992 and 2001 and 2007 now more distant memories than ever.

The challenge this time was as high as the stakes. As well as paving the way for what might be the biggest WrestleMania yet, this year's show needed to demonstrate that WWE's writers and performers still understood what people love about the Royal Rumble. If anything was teetering on the ropes this time, it was the main event itself.

Did WWE survive the night? Not emphatically, no, but the show had its moments. Most of the biggest cheers in the Royal Rumble match itself were during the appearances of key wrestlers, and not from the in-ring action; a telling sign that the crowd in Orlando wanted to come unglued but didn't have enough to pull them up.

Many of the first ten entrants were notably long in the tooth, in particular Chris Jericho (45), Kane (48), and Golddust (46), meaning that the outset of the match didn't have the pace that it needed. (For what must have been more than three quarters of his total time in the match, Jericho was lying down.)

While crowd hostility had defined the previous two Rumbles, here long spells of the one-hour match were observed in relative quiet. It's hard to judge whether Vince McMahon would have taken silence over a vuvuzela-like drone of boos. The problem was that there were fewer competitors than ever whom you believed had even a fighting chance, nor were there enough performances or moments to ignite faith. That has always been the key drawback of the mid-card era, with even-steven booking giving the majority of WWE's competitors a flat career trajectory. A thirty-man battle royal match exposes that flaw very effectively, perhaps better than any other kind of match, and during the first half-hour the ring was populated with competitors who did not convince that they were there to win.

The biggest exception was Dean Ambrose, who despite surviving a wonderful and merciless Last Man Standing match earlier in the night, managed to fight his way to the final two and--as if like magic--fans dared to dream.

But it was Triple H (46), the odds-on favourite despite being booked as a surprise, who emerged the winner in one hour and one minute after entering at number 30. A year since he joked in an interview that his career was "hanging by a thread," this is his second Royal Rumble win, his fourteenth WWE Championship, and quite likely his seventh WrestleMania main event; a sign that WWE is making the most of his remaining star power while the likes of John Cena, Seth Rollins, Randy Orton, and Daniel Bryan recover from injury.

Again, it was Triple H's entrance music that triggered a bigger cheer than his performance, though a close second to that was his elimination of Roman Reigns, who started the match at first and was the 28th to be eliminated. Since WrestleMania 31, WWE has artfully booked Anoaʻian protégé to win him sympathy and support, but the overwhelming hostility towards him tonight cannot continue to be overlooked. His run as a babyface has, quite possibly, hit a low ceiling.

It didn't help that his performance was unremarkable and hampered by the booking. McMahon (the character) interfered in the first half of the match along with The League of Nations staple, pulling reigns outside and throwing him against various ringside furniture until he was stretchered off. Why, in kayfabe logic, was he not thrown over the top rope when effectively incapacitated was a question that lingered. The audience, of course, awaited (or should I say expected) his return after he rested for a while in the back. This is hardly the scintillating narrative of a hero. Daniel Bryan and Mick Foley spring to mind; two stars who refused to leave even when stretchered off, the latter of which had a convincing reason to continue lying down.

Possibly the highlight of the match was at entry number three, when AJ Styles made a dream-like debut at the company he has orbited for the majority of his career. The indie thoroughbred impressed during his first half hour in a WWE ring, and when eliminated by Kevin Owens (who appears to be booked to feud with everyone) Styles walked back to the locker room with the Amway Center echoing chants of his name.

By far the weakest moment was the elimination of Brock Lesnar, with the Wyatt quartet (three of which had been eliminated by that point) rushing the decorated former champion and tossing him out with no single official even attempting to prevent such an epic rule break. Brock's nonchalant walk back to the dressing room, showing no outward bitterness towards those who eliminated him, said it all. He had most definitely clocked out.

But for every head-scratching moment like this, there were epic showdowns and standoffs, in particular Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens (him again) who injected a much-needed shot of energy into the show. On balance, the main event was not a disaster. There were no Daniel Bryan or CM Punk chants, no cries of "we want refunds" or any profanity like last year, and WWE will surely take this as a step in the right direction. Perhaps most promising of all, it was the younger stars and the new arrivals whom carried the show and brought delight to fans. That may give enough hope that dark days of the Royal Rumble are now in the past.