2019 WWE Royal Rumble results, recap, notes: Becky Lynch, Seth Rollins reign as winners

The Road to WrestleMania 35 officially debuted Sunday night in Phoenix, while the 2019 WWE Royal Rumble recounted a number of important stories in anticipation of the company's biggest pay-per-view payment this year. While Rumble's two games themselves may have been unsuccessful as a surprise, WWE chose the right winners to challenge for the upcoming major titles in WrestleMania.

Royal Rumble's main board started hot with three fantastic matches, but cooled after the Women's Royal Rumble was both long and slow. A bleak WWE championship match did little to improve things, but the universal championship match restored the energy needed. WWE closed the show with the Men's Rumble, which was well prepared but ended a little less than midnight ET. Including the two-hour starter program, the entire Royal Rumble program approached seven.

There is still much to learn, including which champions the Rumble winners will face. We may have these answers as early as Monday night at Raw, as we should expect both winners to call the current red mark champions. It remains to be seen. For now, check out our detailed results with badysis, notes and highlights of the Royal Rumble.

Subscribe to the State of Combat podcast with Brian Campbell for an audio badysis of the 2019 edition of Royal Rumble published early Monday morning.

Summary of the WWE Royal Rumble 2019, grades

Bobby Roode and Chad Gable def. Rezar & Scott Dawson falling into an untitled draw (Kickoff Show): This unannounced match would have created a future team team title opportunity for AOP and The Revival if Raw's team champions had been defeated. They were not. With Akam injured, Rezar and Dawson became unlikely partners and made sure to embarrbad each other during a series of communication problems. The champions took the opportunity and were able to count Dawson three times when Gable landed at a moonlit just as Roode connected with a neckband. It was really a throwaway match, thrown together without a big shot. Grade: C-

United States Championship – Shinsuke Nakamura def. Rusev (c) via pinfall to win the title (Kickoff Show): Lana's participation again accidentally cost Rusev, while Nakamura secured his second reign of the US title. This physical match saw its conclusion come when the Nakamura heel started unpacking the top cover of the turnbuckle. Lana jumped on the apron to attract the attention of the referee. But just as Nakamura shouted in his face to "get busy with his belongings," he avoided an attack by Rusev, who met Lana and sent her to crash on the ground. A Kinshasa on the back of Nakamura's head followed for 1-2-3. A decent match is concluded by a somewhat surprising booking. Grade: C +

Cruiserweight Championship – Buddy Murphy (c) def. Hideo Itami (via scramble) vs. Akira Tozawa vs. Kalisto to retain the title (Kickoff Show): This panoply of controlled chaos contained many air theater types such as Tozawa and Kalsto that were expected. Yet, it's an badortment of incredibly stiff strikes that has helped add an extra dimension. Murphy probably hit the best spot of the match when his wild tope with the ball cleared the top rope and nearly missed a trio of opponents on the ground. But it was Murphy who maintained his title by applying Murphy's law on Itami to dispel any idea that a checklist would be in the near future. Grade: B +

SmackDown Women's Championship – Asuka (c) def. Becky Lynch via submission to retain the title: As long as it lasted a little over 18 minutes, this one was as physical as it was spectacular. It also produced a clean and surprising finish considering Lynch's recent highly anticipated booking, which could serve as a table setter for his involvement in the Royal Rumble match later that evening. Whatever the case may be, both superstars were willing to sacrifice their bodies multiple times to raise the stakes in a main card game that could very well have closed the series. Lynch knocked a Becksploder from the barrier wall and Asuka replied with a foolish inverted suplex pulled from the ring apron that saw them almost falling off the front face to the outside of the ring. Lynch added a Super Becksploder from the top rope but could only have two. The finish was good since each wrestler alternately applied the submission finishing attempt. Asuka eventually got away from Asuka 's lock and produced a fairly quick pat through a creative inverted choke with a bridge. Grade: A-

SmackDown Tag Team Championship – The Miz & Shane McMahon def. The Bar (c) via pinfall to win the titles: It just would not be a big PPV without "Shane-O-Mac" risking his life for a crazy place. At 49, McMahon and Miz continued to play a plot much more fun than she has the right to do. McMahon threw an early dive on the top table and at the announcement boards, but held back when Cesaro rescued Sheamus. Later, he attempted a side-by-side pbad on both heels, but was caught by Cesaro in a momentum (which McMahon later turned into a triangular throttle). The finishing sequence began when Sheamus accidentally hit his partner with a Brogue kick. Miz followed with an overwhelming finale to chase Sheamus out of the ring, and McMahon knocked out the crowd with a perfect shooting star press drawn from the top rope of the pin. Category B

Raw Women's Championship – Ronda Rousey (c) def. Sasha Banks via pinfall to retain the title: The chemistry in the ring between the two players left those who saw it as a potential dream match once Rousey signed with WWE a year ago feeling validated. The only shame in this case is that they only had 14 minutes to work. The intensity between the two was palpable and the action crisp in a match that included constant inversions and counters. The banks managed the match with a manual superplex that could only have two. Later, Rousey intercepted a suicide diving attempt and placed Banks under his arm. Banks, who used a variety of his armbands to use Rousey, applied his Banks Statement finisher late (using his wristband as a means of deception to strangle Rousey) and then turned the bid attempt into a fujiwara armband. But Rousey channeled his inner center, Hulk Hogan and John Cena, overturning and getting up before hitting a Piper's Pit with a bridge for the pin.

After the match, Rousey held Banks' hand as both players put on makeup before Rousey let go of the ropes for her. But Banks continued to pause and seemed more and more angry as she moved away from the ring. Finally, Banks turned around and squeezed Rousey's hand before lifting the hand gesture of four Horsewomen, teasing a quarrel between members of Banks' original NXT cohort (Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Bailey) and Rousey's former MMA training partners (Shayna Baszler, Marina Shafir, Jessamyn Duc) who are now members of NXT. Grade: B +

Becky Lynch wins the Royal Rumble Women: WWE was delivering what the booking fans had hoped to see thanks to Lynch's late addition to the match while Lana was very lame and unable to get into the ring. The problem was how long it took to arrive at the finish in an extremely long match (more than 71 minutes) that did not have the revelations or the action needed to occupy even a third of that time. The extended arrival sequence – including the last five of Lynch, Flair, Carmella, Bayley and Nia Jax – may have been the most glaring in terms of wasted time until Lynch dodged a big boot Flair in the final seconds and gave him a background to the apron before throwing it to the ground for victory.

The second women's match of its kind in the history of WWE failed to produce a single real surprise, with the exception of the predictable appearance of Lynch, who lost a match for the title earlier in the evening against Asuka. Former WWE superstar Hornswoggle may have been the closest thing when he appeared in the ring to chase Zelina Vega, who entered number 20 and tried to hide. Io Shirai hit the match spot with an asai moonsault from the top rope on the Riott Squad on the outside. Meanwhile, Naomi and NXT superstar Kacy Catanzaro – a former US Ninja Warrior champion – practically carried out the same Kofi Kingston rescue by strolling outside to avoid being eliminated (though Catanzaro climbed creatively outside the ring size).

Lana, who finished 28th, sold the same injury that she suffered during the kick-off ceremony when her husband, Rusev, was defeated in the title, without ever having overtaken the track. Lynch pleaded with WWE agent and compatriot Fit Finlay, who eventually gave in to his demands. Lynch then suffered a knee injury outside the ring thanks to Nia Jax, whom she had just eliminated. Flair attacked the knee with cutting blocks, but could not tidy up Lynch. Grade: C

WWE Championship – Daniel Bryan (c) def. AJ Styles via pinfall to keep the title: Raise your hand if you saw it coming? Erick Rowan, who was wearing a flannel similar to Bryan and who was standing dangerously close to the edge of the ring, was surprised by a return to the already methodical title. After Styles dodged and Bryan accidentally got out of the referee, Bryan was hit by the Clash Styles. But Rowan came to break the pin and sent a chokeslam on Styles to give 1-2-3 to Bryan. After the match, Rowan held Styles again as Bryan knelt down. All in all, this 24-minute affair was a little disappointing in terms of entertainment – aside from a creative think-time on the barrier wall by Styles in an inverted DDT – though the Bryan-Rowan came together after their Short stay in the Wyatt family looks promising. Grade: C

Universal Championship – Brock Lesnar (c) def. Finn Balor via submission to retain the title: What a fantastic little business. This story of "David vs. Goliath" was brilliantly told in this physical case, while Balor's athleticism perfectly matched Lesnar's ability to sell to smaller opponents when he was motivated. For things to get even better, WWE decided to focus on the real battle of the Lesnar battle against diverticulitis, which came into play when Balor put the stomach at the forefront in the corner of the ads table. Balor, who pitted a F5 against a magnificent DDT for a dramatic fall as autumn approaches, continued to work midway before landing a trio of Tope Con Hilo. The finish was as convincing as Balor picked up his Grace Stroke to see Lesnar sneak in and tip over in a Kimura Lock to force the tap. After the match, Lesnar, angry, held his team injured and landed a trio of German suplex and an F5. In just over eight minutes, it was the kind of violent theater that nobody does better than Lesnar when he wants it. Grade: A-

Seth Rollins wins the Royal Rumble Men: When all was said and done, the good guy won. Rollins, who enjoys the same success as one of the most deserving and deserving WWE superstars, won the title for WrestleMania 35 in April. This is the kind of booking that everyone is happy with, as WWE has no doubt rewarded its most consistent and formidable male superstar after a game that was barely 58 minutes in the game with a steady pace and a slight loss. late when Rollins and Strowman, injured in the scenario Outside the ring but never eliminated, he returned dramatically to join Dolph Ziggler and Andrade in the final minutes.

The match provided a number of expected tropes from Elias, breaking a guitar on the back of Hall of Fame member Jeff Jarrett, to open the match at Kofi Kingston twice, stepping on his hands to avoid elimination outside the ring. The future of the WWE was particularly well represented by his appearances with Johnny Gargano and Aleister Black of NXT, as well as by the champion of the United Kingdom Pete Dunne. The biggest surprise, however, came at number 30 when Nia Jax beat R-Truth before he could get into the ring and stole his seat in a moment that will probably define the match for years to come. Jax, the fourth woman in WWE history to take part in a men's match in the Royal Rumble, had a good physical run before succumbing to an RKO from Randy Orton, a Rey Mysterio 619 and a superkick from Ziggler. Although it aroused a lot of interest, it was fair to wonder if Jax's appearance was in bad taste and overall a bit ridiculous.

Although Strowman was late in replacing injured John Cena, the finish became predictable once he joined Rollins to join the ring. This was not a disadvantage in this case as it was the right choice (not to mention Ziggler and Andrade received the reservations they deserved). Rollins had been injured by Bobby Lashley, who had been eliminated shortly after entering the 26th rank and was being carried away by his anger by pbading Rollins to an announcing table. The finish comes after an endless battle on the apron in which Rollins throws Strowman to the corner post before hitting Stomp to eliminate him. Category B

2019 WWE Royal Rumble Results, Highlights

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