WWE Royal Rumble 2019 Review (Part 1)

WWE Royal Rumble 2019
January 27, 2019
Phoenix, Arizona

The official road to WrestleMania begins in the desert where two Royal Rumbles dictate the landscape of WrestleMania. Meanwhile, four big world championship matches fill in the rest of the show including Finn Balor having the challenge of the lifetime... a Universal Championship match against Brock Lesnar.

Match 1: WWE SmackDown Women's Championship - Asuka (c) vs. Becky Lynch
The top women on SmackDown open up the night as Becky Lynch looks to really start off 2019 the same way she ended her 2018... on a huge note. Absolutely love the setup for the show here with the wrestlers entering from the dugout with fans being very close to the stage. Great choice to have these two jerk the curtain with so many title matches on the card, this one was arguably the one that got the least amount of hype so opening the show with it was a great call to not let it get lost in the scuffle. Fun opening match here with the two ladies going at it and giving each other some sick shots and nice submission spots that had the crowd having no clue who would come out on top. Loved the creativeness here between the two like seeing Asuka put an Asuka Lock on Lynch on the ropes or Lynch putting Asuka in an Asuka Lock. The last few minutes of the match had some sweet exchanges before Asuka was able to finally get Lynch to tap out.
Winner: Asuka
Rating: ****

Match 2: WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship - The Bar (c) vs. The Miz & Shane McMahon
The second title match of the night is once again from the SmackDown side of things as the unusual pairing of The Miz and Shane McMahon look to take down both Sheamus and Cesaro of The Bar for the gold... or silver if we're being technical. Slow start to the match here for the first half until the teams ramped things up a bit for the second half. Sheamus and Cesaro are great in setting up big spots throughout the match including a near callback to driving McMahon through one of the announcers tables and catching McMahon from hitting his patented Coast-to-Coast. Finally, an inadvertent Brogue Kick from Sheamus to Cesaro set up an opening for Miz to hit a Skull Crushing Finale before McMahon hit a Shooting Star Press to seal the win. Good match for what it was but would have probably preferred to see it be a little shorter than what it was. The win for Miz and McMahon was a bit predictable but still fun to see the finish and an interesting way for them to go into WrestleMania.
Winners: The Miz & Shane McMahon
Rating: **3/4

Match 3: WWE Raw Women's Championship - Ronda Rousey (c) vs. Sasha Banks
Arguably the biggest match for Ronda Rousey as the Raw Women's Champion here against Sasha Banks. Early on, the two are able to establish something to work around the match with Rousey inadvertently driving her elbow into one of the ring posts. Banks did a great job of working her moves and more so her submissions around that exact arm that had been bothering Rousey. Banks looked ferocious here and tried submitting Rousey by biting her fingers and even using a piece of her own attire against Rousey during one of her submissions. While much of the match was dominated by Banks, Rousey did a good job of getting in some of her offense in and really showing the audience that she has some seriously nice moves in the ring. However, much of the match just did feel like it was Banks in control of things while we were all just waiting for Rousey to basically overcome the odds at the very end. That is exactly what happened here with Rousey being able to hit another Piper's Pit to score the win after taking an offensive onslaught from Banks. Solid match that probably could have been scored a little higher if they continued the pace they had at the end of the match for a few more minutes or so.
Winner: Ronda Rousey
Rating: ***1/2

Match 4: 2019 Women's Royal Rumble Match
Smart call to have the Women's Royal Rumble Match in the middle of the night, keeps the ball rolling and prevent things from dragging on too much. Unfortunately, this Rumble match just wasn't clicking too well from the start. While the bigger names in Natalya and Charlotte Flair came out in the first half of the match, the match just wasn't anything out of the ordinary and the crowd had a pretty hard time keeping their interest early on. While the Rumble is a great way to introduce some NXT names to the larger WWE crowd, it certainly felt like there were way too many of them and the crowd stayed wondering who they were actually watching. Things finally got a little more interesting when Becky Lynch came out to take the place of an injured Lana where the match came down to herself, Charlotte and Nia Jax. The perfect three women to end the match here. Lynch was able to eliminate Jax from the outside before Jax later on shoved Lynch off the top of the stairs. This caused Lynch to injure her knee and before the referee was about to call Charlotte the winner, Lynch willed her way back in the ring. The two exchanged for a few minutes before Lynch was able to eliminate Charlotte to secure the win and a spot at WrestleMania. Solid ending to a rather bland Rumble. The right person won and they did a fantastic job of setting up her triumphant victory.
Winner: Becky Lynch
Rating: ***