The Road To Wrestlemania officially began with the 2018 Royal Rumble event on Sunday, January 28 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 30 WWE Superstars had the opportunity to make a name for themselves and punch their ticket to the grandest stage of them all, but only one could prevail. What may have been shocking to some fans, but indeed delightful for most fans to see, was the man who won the Men's Royal Rumble Match.
Strong Style reigning supreme
Known as the "King of Strong Style", Shinsuke Nakamura was the one who outlasted 29 other Superstars to win the Royal Rumble, and he started the engine for the SmackDown Live show after the Royal Rumble event.
Nakamura cut a basic promo stating that he gave knees to the faces of some of his Royal Rumble opponents. It was actually catchy to listen to when he was naming opponents like John Cena, for example, and then saying "Knee to face!" Nakamura also made it clear that he expects to face the current WWE World Heavyweight Champion AJ Styles at WrestleMania.
This promo motivated Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn to come out and interrupt Nakamura. The team of best friends were none too pleased about what happened to them in their championship match against Styles at the Royal Rumble, though they were at a 2-to-1 advantage since it was a Handicap Match. Owens and Zayn complained all the way down to the ring how they were robbed of their championship opportunity because of the referee's incompetence.
Nakamura simply replied to the duo that they are losers.
Styles himself then came out to help Nakamura and he challenged Owens and Zayn to a tag team match between the four of them later on in the night. Owens and Zayn initially walked away, but then came back on to the apron of the ring and said 'no.' They both got punched off the apron for their troubles.
All the rest of the blue brand's action
A very entertaining Fatal 4-Way Match to determine the number one contender for the WWE United States Championship occurred in front of Philadelphia fans at the Wells Fargo Arena. Zack Ryder of the Hype Bros, Kofi Kingston of the New Day, Rusev and Jinder Mahal were the 4 Superstars fighting for that number one contender's spot.
Ryder picked his spots well as he got in some big hits, though there was one dangerous spot where it looked like he landed hard to the outside of the ring after hitting a Slingshot Dropkick. Kofi continued to show just how agile and mobile he is. Mahal was the one who used vicious strikes in this match. Rusev appeared to be the one who was the most over with the Philadelphia crowd as chants of "Rusev Day" could be heard throughout the match.
A humorous spot in the match was when Rusev was attempting to dive to the outside. He was pulled back by one of the Singh Brothers, a lackey of Mahal's. Aiden English then confronted the Singh Brother and shoved him back into Xavier Woods and Big E of the New Day, causing Big E to drop his tray of pancakes.
The referee eventually threw everyone at ringside out. Rusev picked up the victory by making Kofi tap out to his "Accolade" submission hold, which is a variant of the Camel Clutch. Rusev will now face WWE United States Champion Bobby Roode for the title on next week's SmackDown Live!
WWE SmackDown Tag Team Champions Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso cut a promo stating how they have put every other tag team in the WWE on notice. The Usos noticeably had a confident swagger when they were delivering this promo as they stated how they have had the SmackDown Tag Team Division on "lock down" for a long time.
Fandago and Tyler Breeze cut another comedy segment with the assist of The Ascendance, but one tag team didn't find this segment so amusing.
Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin called Breezango and The Ascendance clowns and that they were making the Tag Team Division on SmackDown a disgrace. Gable and Benjamin proceeded to flip over a table that had laptop computers the other two tag teams were working on.
Breezango took on Gable and Benjamin in a tag team match, but it wouldn't take long for the latter to establish themselves as superior on this night. Gable and Benjamin hit a Powerbomb and Top Rope Diving Clothesline combo to get the victory via pin.
In other news, the Bludgeon Brothers, Luke Harper, and Eric Rowan, beat up a team of jobbers. Let's just say this wasn't pretty for the jobbers.
SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan announced the debut of a process called the "SmackDown Top Ten." The rules of the SmackDown Top Ten are simple as all of the Superstars on the blue brand are allowed to vote for who they think are the ten best at the moment.
The only catch here is no SmackDown Superstar can vote for himself. Bryan noted that neither he nor SmackDown Commissioner Shane McMahon will have a vote in this process.
Speaking of Shane he was caught in the middle of an argument between Baron Corbin and Tye Dillinger backstage, both of which were unhappy with how their experience at the 2018 Royal Rumble went. Shane booked a match between Corbin and Dillinger on the spot. This match featured rough strikes like it was a brawl on the streets, but in the end the power of the "Lone Wolf" Baron Corbin proved to be too much for the "Perfect Ten" Tye Dillinger. Corbin secured the winning pin after hitting his "End of Days" Flat Liner.
WWE SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair came out to the ring to cut a promo.
She was intending to talk about what had gone down at the Royal Rumble where 30 women made history by having their very own Royal Rumble match for the first time. She was hinting at talking about Asuka, the first winner of the Women's Royal Rumble Match, and Ronda Rousey, who made her shocking WWE debut at the very end of the event. However, the Riott Squad had other ideas. Ruby Riott, Sarah Logan and Liv Morgan interrupted Flair and called her out on her huge ego that is the size of her father's. Ruby stated that while Charlotte was indeed talented, she was also "impossibly arrogant" and felt "impossibly entitled" and that Charlotte was only a cheap imitation of Ric Flair.
Moments later the Riott Squad attacked Charlotte and attempted to make an example out of her.
While Flair fought back as hard as she could, the Riott Squad had the strength in numbers and laid her out. This motivated Carmella, who is still carrying the women's money in the bank briefcase, to run down to the ring and attempt to cash the briefcase in.
Believing that she had Charlotte right where she wanted her Carmella gave her briefcase to the referee. However, things went terribly wrong for Carmella as she accidentally dropkicked the referee from behind, causing him to tumble out of the ring. Seeing the referee knocked out, Carmella panicked as she saw Charlotte beginning to recover from her previous attack. Carmella eventually backtracked, took back her briefcase and ran off.
Finally, the main event of the evening took place as AJ Styles and took on Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn.
This match was anything but graceful for the likes of Owens and Zayn as they would constantly argue over who should be tagged in and when they should be helping each other. After exchanging words with Owens, Zayn threatened to walk out on his tag team partner, but then he came back to the ring to help.
Miscommunication between the best friends continued, and then Zayn officially walked out on Owens. Styles and Nakamura were their usual selves, hitting big moves like the Pele Kick and forearm strikes in Styles, and various knee strikes and MMA strikes in Nakamura. Thanks to the "Kinshasa" knee strike to Owens, Nakamura got the winning pin for his team.
SmackDown has only begun its road to WrestleMania as there is more action sure to come from now until April 8.
