So the road to Wrestlemania starts with the 2022 Royal Rumble for St. Louis, Missouri. It is one of the best times of the year for wrestling fans. Who will make a surprise appearance? Some rumored names have been medically cleared in the past couple of weeks so would they return tonight? Rumors of WWE opening the forbidden door with other companies. This would be the starting point to see where that goes.

The show starts with the Universal Championship match between Seth “Freakin” Rollins against the Champion Roman Reigns. The Uso’s were banned from ringside for the match. Roman Reigns was the first to enter the ring and did his usual Tribal Chief entrance. Seth Rollins went with a few head games for the build of the match and it continued with Rollins using the Shield theme, Shield gear, and Shield entrance through the crowd. Pat McAfee on commentary mentions John Moxley during the entrance of Rollins and brings up the history of the faction. As the match starts Seth Rollins was reverting back to some of the moves that he used while a member of the Shield. This seems to catch Roman off guard because the first two minutes of the match were all Rollins. At 2:58 of the match, Rollins hits Reigns with a powerbomb through the announce table like the Shield used to do. Around 3:40 of the match, Rollins hits a frog splash for a near count. Roman Reigns goes for a spear but it was countered by a kick to the face by Rollins. Rollins hits Reigns with a stomp for another near fall. At 5:15 there was the first “This is awesome” chant of the night. Around the 6:20 mark Roman starts with a ground and pound offensive. Roman hits a powerbomb on Rollins for a near fall at 6:53. Rollins puts Reigns into a triangle choke around the 7:30 mark and Roman hits a powerbomb to get out of it about 30 seconds later. Roman hits a Superman Punch for another near fall at 9:26. Roman hits a spear on Rollins outside the ring at 10:28 and goes for a spear 30 seconds later but Seth Rollins counters it into a pedigree. At 11:28 there was another “This is awesome” chant. Reigns hit Rollins with a spear at 12:22 and take his time soaking it in so Rollins starts laughing at Roman and starts doing the Shield fist bump pose waiting for Roman to do it back. Roman then puts a guillotine choke on Rollins at 13:27. Seth Rollins eventually gets to the ropes at 14:07. Roman does not remove the hold and the ref finally gives him the five count and Disqualifies Roman Reigns at 14:24. Seth “Freakin” Rollins wins the match by DQ but Roman Reigns remains the Universal Champion. The crowd starts chanting “Roman Sucks” and that causes Roman to go off and hit Seth Rollins with a steel chair repeatedly until the chair finally breaks and Roman Returns to the back while talking to himself along the way.

Match # 2 was the Women’s Royal Rumble match. I believe this is far too early in the card to have this match. Sasha Banks was the first entrant into the Royal Rumble and Melina drew #2 and she was the first surprise entrant of the match. After the bell rings Melina is visible fighting back tears while facing off with Sasha. They then start to do a 43-second pose off to start the match. Melina is then eliminated before the one-minute mark of the match. Tamina was entrant #3 and her and Sasha started to fight outside the ring for a bit. Kelly Kelly is #4 . Kelly Kelly is really showing a lot of ring rust in her limited amount of time in the ring and seemed to struggle while running the ropes. Kelly Kelly attempts to do a hurricanrana on Sasha Banks but gets eliminated in the process by Banks. The pride of Toronto, Ontario Aliyah is #5. Liv Morgan enters #6. Sasha Banks does the Three Amigos tribute to Eddie Guerrero on Aliyah. Queen Zelina enters at #7. Sasha Banks gets eliminated by Queen Zelina after Tamina puts Sasha on the apron. Last year’s winner Bianca Belair enters at # 8. Dana Brooke is #9. Michelle McCool enters at #10. Reggie keeps Dana Brooke in the Rumble match by catching her while Michelle tries to eliminate her. Sonya Deville enters at #11. Sonya walks down to the ring but keeps her Managerial jacket on and joins the Commentary team instead of going into the ring. Natalya enters the match next at #12. Natalya eliminated Tamina while Tamina is trying to eliminate Bianca Belair but Biance holds on and stays in the match. Cameron from the Funkadactlys is the next entrant at lucky #13 (Surprise entrant #2). Sonya is told about Cameron being a person who Naomi started in WWE with and Sonya enters the ring and eliminated Cameron. Naomi is #14 and checks on Cameron before entering the ring and going after Sonya. Naomi then eliminates Sonya from the Royal Rumble. Carmella is the next entrant into the match and instead of entering the ring she takes her time and goes over to talk with Corey Graves (what a surprise) at the commentary desk and then goes to her stylist crew at ringside. Rhea Ripley is #16 into the Royal Rumble. Instead of entering the ring, Rhea goes over and grabs Carmella and throws her into the ring. Rhea then eliminates both members of the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Queen Zelina and Carmella together. Charlotte Flair is #17. Aliyah gets eliminated by Flair very awkwardly. Aliyah had an impressive time in the match by being in there for over 23 minutes. Flair then puts Naomi over the top rope but Naomi positions herself in a way that her hands are on the ground but her feet are still in the ring under the bottom rope. Sonya Deville then comes up and pulls Naomi to the ground to officially eliminate Naomi form the match. Next up Ivory enters the Royal Rumble at #18 (Surprise #3). Ivory is doing her Rights to Censor gimmick and cuts a promo the entire time on the entire Women’s roster, even while Rhea Ripley picks her up and then eliminated Ivory very quickly. Brie Bella is #19. The crowd immediately starts the “Yes!” chant for Brie. At #20 is the Impact Knockouts Women’s Champion Mickie James who came down to her Impact theme “Hardcore Country” and wearing the Impact Title. Mickie then eliminated Michelle McCool from the Royal Rumble. Alicia Fox enters at # 21 (Surprise entrant #4). At one point it looks like something happens while Charlotte tries to eliminate Natalya from the match and she starts grabbing at her head. Both Charlotte and Brie Bella notice this and look like they go over and make it look like they are working but give Nattie a bit of a rest to assess what happened. Even one of the refs comes over to check on Natalya. Nikki A.S.H. is next at #22 and has a run-in with Rhea Ripley for a bit. Summer Rae is #23 into the Match. At this point, I notice that Liv Morgan is still in the match from entering at #6. Natalya seems to get over whatever issue was going on and eliminates Summer Rae. Nikki Bella is next at #24. Alicia Fox was on the apron and then starts a Team Bella pose with the Bella Twins, before getting eliminated by Nikki Bella. Sarah Logan enters the match next at # 25 (surprise #5). They quickly tease a Riott Squad reunion with Sarah and Liv but it gets interrupted by the Bella Twins eliminating Sarah Logan and then Liv Morgan who was in the match for over 37 minutes. Lita enters the Royal Rumble next at #26. Lita then eliminates Mickie James. MIghty Molly is the next entrant at #27 (Surprise #6). Nikki A.S.H. attacks MIghty Molly before she enters the ring. Nikki A.S.H. then eliminates Mighty Molly. The returning Ronda Rousey enters at #28 (surprise #7) to a huge pop from the crowd. Brie Bella eliminates Nikki Bella. Shotzi enters the Royal Rumble at #29. Ronda eliminates Brie. The final entrant into the match at #30 is Ronda’s Four Horsewoman teammate Shayna Baszler. Ronda eliminates Shotzi. Bianca eliminated Natalya in a possible botch because Natalya reenters the ring then gets eliminated just as fast by Ronda. Charlotte then eliminates Lita. Charlotte eliminates Rhea Ripley. That leaves us with Charlotte Flair, Bianca Belair, Shayna Baszler, and Ronda Rousey as the final 4. Charlotte then eliminated both Bianca and Shayna. Charlotte and Ronda are the final 2 women left in the match. Bianca Belair was well over 40 minutes in the match as well. Ronda eliminates Charlotte Flair to win the 2022 Women’s Royal Rumble match and possibly set up a potential match between the two of them at Wrestlemania in April. The match length was around 59:50. Ronda ends it by doing the patented stand on the second rope and pointing at the Wrestlemania sign with the pyro.

The third match on this card was the Raw Wome’s Championship match between the Challenger Doudrop (Very horrible name) and the champion Becky Lynch. I feel bad for both competitors in this match because the crowd, and myself too, were not fully into the match after the whole Women’s Royal Rumble Match. The match started and was typical having the bigger competitor overpowering the smaller one. Doudrop at one point hit her knee on the steel steps and that caused Becky to have a bit of an offensive attack on Doudrop. Around this point in the match, the crowd seemed to be distracted by something and chanted something that was hard to make out over the TV. I must admit I was wondering what was happening so I spent most of the rest of the match on Twitter looking to see what happened. Apparently, the pyro from the previous match caused the Wrestlemania sign to catch a small fire and started to melt some of the sign as well. The rest of the match there near falls for both competitors. Becky Lynch retained her Raw Women’s Championship at 12:58 by hitting a Manhandle Slam (aka a Rock Bottom) off of the second rope. The WWE desperately needs to change Doudrop’s name back to Piper Niven like yesterday. The name is ridiculous and it’s gone on for far too long now.

After this match, they announced the attendance of 44,390 people.

The 4th match was the WWE Championship match between the Challenger Bobby Lashley and the champion Brock Lesnar. The match starts with both competitors’ dualing suplexes to each other. Lesnar then hits two suplexes on Ashley. Lashley returns the favour by hitting 2 spears after escaping an F5. Lashley then went through the barricade into the timekeeper’s area attempting to hit Brock who moved out of the way. Lesnar then took Lashley to Suplex City 5 times. Lashley then reverses another F5 into the Hurt Lock. Brock reversed that by running Lashley into the corner hitting the ref. Lesnar then hits an F5 on Lashley, but Lashley had hit the ref with his legs knocking the ref out. Roman Reigns then entered the ring and hit a spear on Brock Lesnar. Roman goes over to Paul Heyman and gets handed the Championship belt. Roman then Takes Brock out by hitting him with the belt. Lashley covers Lesnar and gets the pinfall victory at 10:13 to become the new WWE Champion. Paul Heyman then leaves the ring area with Roman reigns.

The 5th match of the night was the mixed tag team match between the IT couple of Maryse and The Miz and the GRIT Couple of Beth Phoenix and Edge. Beth and Maryse start the match by having Beth chase Maryse around the ring before Maryse tags Miz and then the men have to enter the match. Lots of the classic mixed tag team match stuff goes on with the typical Heel female, Maryse, attacking the face male, Edge, while the ref was distracted. The Miz keeps preventing Edge from tagging Beth into the match. Eventually, Maryse and Beth get into the match and The Miz breaks up a fall and positions Maryse into the corner with the intent of tagging the Miz into the match. Beth starts beating on The Miz until Maryse comes in to hit Beth with the loaded-up purse that has a brick in it. There were a few near falls that followed and a double clothesline led to the hot tag to bring Edge and The Miz into the match. Edge goes on the offensive and gets a near fall. Maryse distracts Edge and that causes Beth to take out Maryse. Beth hits a powerbomb onto The Miz. Edge then hits a top rope elbow drop for another near fall. Maryse then takes out Beth so that Edge could not tag her in. Edge goes for a spear on The Miz but he hits the turnbuckle after another distraction by Maryse. Maryse hits a hurricanrana on Edge. Maryse hits a DDT on Beth to take her out. The Miz then hits a skull-crushing finale on Edge to get another near fall. Edge and Beth then hit a double spear on The Miz. Edge and Beth grab The Miz and Maryse to hit a double Glamazon Slam. Edge gets the pinfall victory on The Miz at 12:28.

The final match is the Men’s Royal Rumble Match. AJ Styles enters #1 and Shinsuke Nakamura enters #2. It was nice to see a rehash of the Bullet Club (AJ Style) and Chaos (Shinsuke Nakamura) from New Japan Pro Wrestling. These two should be the main event of a Wrestlemania at some point, sooner rather than later if you ask me. Austin Theory enters at #3. The pride of Peterborough, Ontario Robert Roode enters the Royal Rumble at #4. AJ Styles and Roode face off at one point and that causes the crowd to have a loud TNA chant. AJ then eliminates Robert Roode. Ridge Holland is #5 (I guess that is surprise #1 as he wasn’t officially announced). AJ Styles then eliminates Shinsuke Nakamura. Montez Ford is next at #6. The mask that Ridge Holland is wearing fits better than it did on Smackdown Friday night, thankfully. Damien Preist enters at #7. Sami Zayn enters at #8. Crown starts chanting Olé! At this time Pat McAfee takes a dig at Tom Brady. Johnny Knoxville is #9 and goes right after Sami Zayn. After AJ confronts Johnny, everyone takes turns attacking Johnny before he gets eliminated by Sami Zayn. AJ Styles then eliminates Sami Zayn. Deangelo Hawkins enters at #10. Omos is #11. Omos elimintaes Deangelo Hawkins and then Montez Ford. Ricochet is #12. Chad Gable then comes in at lucky #13. Chas enters the ring and tries to get everyone to team up on Omos. Damien goes after Omos and then gets eliminated. Dominik Mysterio enters at #14. Everyone teams up and then eliminates Omos together. Happy Corbin comes out at #15. Happy Corbin eliminates Ricochet. Dolph Ziggler enters the Royal Rumble at #16. This is his 15th Royal Rumble match and makes him #2 in the rankings behind Kane who has 18 Royal Rumble matches. Happy Corbin eliminates Dominik Mysterio. AJ Styles eliminates Austin Theory. Sheamus is next at #17 but before he gets into the ring his protege Ridge Holland gets eliminated right in front of Shaemus by AJ Styles. Rick Boogs is #18. Boogs eliminates Chad Gable by doing a one-handed military press. Madcap Moss is #19. Madcap eliminates AJ Styles who was in the match for over 29 minutes. Riddle was next at #20, I’m sure someone at WWE thought it would be hilarious to have him at 20 because of the 420 reference. Happy Corbin eliminates Boogs. Drew McIntire enters at #21 (surprise #2 since he was not announced). Drew eliminated Madcap Moss and Happy Corbin. Drew then goes and attacks both of them outside the ring but Drew is still in the match as he has not been eliminated. Kevin Owens was #22. Drew and Kevin start fighting on the ramp and then eventually get into the ring together. Kevin Owens then does a spot where he stomps both of Riddle’s feet because he does not wear anything on his feet during his matches. Rey Mysterio is #23 and is appearing in his 13th Royal Rumble match. Kofi Kingston is #24. Kevin Owens eliminated Kofi in a possibly botched spot as it looks like Kofi was supposed to do one of his patented ways to keep his feet from hitting the ground but unfortunately both feet hit the floor before he could attempt something. Otis was #25. Big E was #26. Bad Bunny was #27 (Surprise #3). Bad Bunny hits a Canadian Destroyer on Riddle after Riddle was trying to team with him. Bad Bunny then eliminated Sheamus after a missed Brogue Kick by Sheamus. Bad Bunny eliminates Dolph Ziggler. Shane McMahon was # 28 (Surprise #4). Otis eliminates Rey Mysterio just as Shane’s music hits. Shane eliminates Kevin Owens (BOOO!!) The hometown boy Randy Orton enters at #29 in his 14th Royal Rumble match. RKBro elimintaes BIg E and then Otis. Brock Lesnar enters at #30 (surprise #5). Brock enters and goes Suplex City on everyone. Brock then eliminates Randy Orton. Brock hits an F5 on Bad Bunny, good on him for taking that bump. Brock then eliminates Bad Bunny. The final 4 are Brock Lesnar, Riddle, Shane McMahon, and Drew McIntyre. Brock then eliminates Riddle and Shane shortly after so we have a final two of Brock Lesnar and Drew McIntyre for the second time in 2 years. Both men counter each other’s finishers. Brock picks up Drew and gives him a modified F5 to eliminate Drew and win the Royal Rumble for the 2nd time in his career. The Royal Rumble match was 51:14 long. Brock Lesnar points to the Wrestlemania sign, pyro goes off, and then it goes off the air before we can see if the sign caught fire AGAIN.

The Royal Rumble as a whole was a good special live event, formally known as a PPV. There were some disappointments in some names not appearing in the event. Some names I wish were there tonight are Asuka, Io Sharai, Xia Li, and Paige for the women’s match. In the men’s match, I would have loved to see Moose, Gunther (I still call him Walter), LA Knight, Tommaso Ciampa, Finn Balor, Pete Dunn, and Corey Graves.

The Royal Rumble did its job in setting up the main events for both nights with what looks like Ronda Rousey vs Charlotte Flair and Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns. Looks like they might have Shane McMahon vs Kevin Owens again at Wrestlemania again but I hope I am wrong on that. This is something that I might do more often but not 100% sure as of yet. Maybe I might even do a video version of this someday. Thanks for reading. Take it easy until the next time!!