WWE Royal Rumble: The Fiend's Red Light is Gone!

Hop on the "Road to WrestleMania,' y'all! Yup, the first Royal Rumble of the decade is officially upon us! Lock it in here all evening for up-to-date match results and raucous reactions. You can also follow my live-tweeting over on Twitter, if you're so inclined. You never know. Sometimes people are inclined. Who will win it all and head to WrestleMania 36 in Tampa Bay for a shot at a world championship? Will Daniel Bryan be able to topple The Fiend even though he'll be strapped to the maniac? Will Becky Lynch finally be able to defeat Asuka and retain her Raw Women's Championship? Will Brock Lesnar enter the Rumble at number one and last until the end or will someone dump him out right away? Let's get to it! [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=most-devastating-finishing-moves-in-wwe-history&captions=true"] On top of the men's and women's respective Rumble bouts, there's Roman Reigns vs. King Corbin in a Falls Count Anywhere match, Andrade vs. Humberto Carrillo, SmackDown Women's champion Bayley vs. Lacey Evans, and Sheamus vs. Shorty G. All in all? An "eh" card. Not great on paper. Could it exceed expectations? Sure. But as-is, storyline-wise and feud-wise, it's kind of a softcore snoozer. Slicing deeper into the card a bit: Sasha should be facing Lacey, no one thinks Bryan can beat Bray Wyatt, and Andrade's match won't be able to top the Ladder Match he had with Rey Mysterio on this past week's RAW. Hopefully the Rumbles will hold good surprises. And a lot of NXT!

Shorty G vs. Sheamus

I know the Rumble needs Kickoff Show contests but how did this get a slot on this low-match card? Over everything else happening on both shows right now? Welp... First off, the worst part about the name Shorty G, aside from it being the name Shorty G, is that Cole can’t call him “Shorty” or “G.” He has to say Shorty G, in full, EVERY TIME. That being said, this was a. decent match that definitely grabbed more and more of the crowd as it went on. At first it was in danger of being swallowed up by the size of the arena, which is currently holding about 40 thousand people. Blood, sweat, and welts - these two worked hard and G put up more of a fight than I expected him to. In the end though, he fell to the Brogue Kick. Winner: Sheamus

United States Champion Andrade vs. Humberto Carrillo

Man, having another Rumble in a baseball stadium means everyone has to enter from the dugout again. Which looks dumb. More like a DUMBout! Ha ha ha! Whewwww. Anyhow, this was pretty great. No, it wasn't the Rey match from RAW, but it was still damn good. My objection to the Ladder Match coming before this one was that it felt like that match was the stepping stone to Andrade facing Carillo - when it should have been the other way around. Regardless, these two work amazingly together and they put on a match that was thrilling enough to captivate this giant Minute Maid space. And Zelina's Owl top rocked! Carillo should probably win ONE match one of these days. Just not today. SO FAR NO SURPRISES. WILL THIS JUST BE A HO-HUM BY-THE-NUMBERS SHOW? Winner, and STILL United States Champion: Andrade

Roman Reigns vs. King Corbin (Falls Count Anywhere Match)

Sooooo...around the ring slugfests, where you just punch and stomp and ram your opponent into things, can be a chore to watch. They go over even worse in giant arenas. Roman vs. Corbin was kind of a trudge, occasionally flirting with excitement by using some big table spots (Corbin chokeslammed Roman through two, Roman Samoan Dropped Corbin through two!). So things ran pretty flat until Roode, Ziggler, and the Usos showed up. No matter how much Cole and Corey told us "the is madness!" They sure covered a lot of ground though. Into the seats, warring through the tech area, battling near the port-o-potties, putting Corbin INSIDE A PORT-O-POTTY AN DUMPING IT OVER - it was pretty exhausting. Overall, the second half of this match was stronger. It should have just started with all six men. Of course, there aren't many matches on this card so everything's getting a lot of time, presumedly. Roman won with a Spear on top of a DUMBout! Also, this has to mean the men's Rumble is closing the show, right? Winner: Roman Reigns

Women’s Royal Rumble Match

Okay, aside from the one wasted spot -- the dumb-as-hell SANTINA return at 29, which was supposed to help bring Beth Phoenix some career closure -- this was all top-shelf stuff. Great Rumble match! Smooth and exciting. It lost the clunkiness of last year's bout and nicely managed to blend main roster, NXT (Toni, Tegan, Dakota, etc), and the legends (like Molly, Beth, Kelly Kelly, etc). This was just a fun time in the ring, pure and simple, with a ton of separate stories abound - like Bianca's amazing half-Rumble run, Shayna's closing blitz (eliminating Shotzi too), Beth and Nattie's team up (until the betrayal), Beth's bloodied head (yikes!), Mandy being saved by falling on Otis, Liv and Lana (in Captain Marvel gear) eliminating each other, Zelina actually getting to wrestle, Mercedes Martinez getting a spot, and more! In the end, it seemed like Shayna was the one going over, but they gave it to Charlotte. It still worked well. Spectacular work all around. But no Sasha? Winner: Charlotte Flair

SmackDown Women's Champion Bayley vs. Lacey Evans

While definitely a cool-down match after the Rumble, this was still the first great Bayley bout on a PPV in a long while. And one of the best Bayley bouts since she won the title from Charlotte on SmackDown. It was a nice solid win, without Sasha's help (who didn't even have to lose to Lacey herself for Lacey to get a shot at Bayley), for Bayley. That being said, the crowd was still somewhat muted for this one because Sasha is the bigger star (and heel) and Lacey isn't fully getting over as a babyface (despite the egregious use of motherhood and Marine-dom). Lacey went for a springboard moonsault, Bayley got her boots up, and that's all she wrote. Winner, and STILL SmackDown Women's Champion: Bayley

Universal Champion “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt vs. Daniel Bryan

For a while, I didn't even know if this was a good match or not. I was just so excited to have The Fiend's red light gone! I think they finally realized, as we enter 'Mania season, that it's a bad look for championship matches that might wind up closing a show in a mega-arena. Like if Roman and Bray close out 'Mania 36 in front of 70 thousand people. It can't have that awful red tint the entire time. So they might as well just do away with it with no explanation. Also, with a strap match, as grim as it sounds, they want to show you the marks and welts on Bryan's body after he's hit with the strap. You can't see that under a red sun. That wasn't the only reason this was a better match than their last encounter though. Bryan was more fired up, more intense, and The Fiend was allowed to be more vulnerable. Bryan even got to kick out of the Sister Abigail. And battle out of the Mandible Claw! One of the many mistakes made during the Fiend/Seth feud was the fact that they didn't have a handle on Bray's "powers." What he could do. Whether people could find the Funhouse or not. How invincible he should be. It was a mess. This felt like the first fully formed Fiend match. Winner, and STILL Universal Champion: "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt

Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch vs. Asuka

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/01/23/star-trek-the-history-of-the-borg-timeline"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.