Top 10 Best Moments From Royal Rumble 2017 Weekend

10. Luke Harper Betrays The Family

For weeks we’ve seen tension build up between Luke Harper and Randy Orton. It started when Randy Orton became Brays right hand man instead of Luke Harper. This led to Harper getting jealous and finally, on the January 16th edition of Smackdown Live, Luke turned on Randy, aiming to kick him, but instead kicking Bray. The following week Luke Harper faced off against Randy Orton in a losing effort which meant that Harper was the weak link of the Wyatt Family. After the match Bray Wyatt pledged his allegiance to Randy Orton as his ally by delivering a Sister Abigail to Luke Harper. The week after the Wyatt Family explosion, there was still some questioning whether or not Luke Harper was still part of the Wyatt Family. When Luke Harper’s music hit for the Royal Rumble, Bray and Randy were already in the ring dominating the match. About a couple minutes into Harpers stint in the match, Harper and Wyatt faced off. Harper positioned Bray into place for the Sister Abigail but was caught off guard by an RKO before he could execute the move. Luke Harpers attempt to deliver Brays finishing maneuver to the man himself definitely symbolized his departure from the family.

9. Charlotte Goes 16-0 In PPV Title Matches

Ever since Charlotte was called up to the main roster in 2015, she has wowed the WWE universe with her insane athletic ability. Her PPV title match streak started way back at Night Of Champions when she broke Nikki Bella’s record setting 301 day title reign, defeating her with the figure eight submission. After becoming Divas Champion, Charlotte ran through the likes of Paige, Becky Lynch, Natalya, and Brie Bella at upcoming PPVs. She retired the Divas Championship and won the Women’s Championship at Wrestlemania 32 defeating Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch in a main event worthy triple threat match. From then on, she defeated Natalya at Payback and Extreme Rules with help from her protege Dana Brooke. She would go on to defeat Sasha Banks at SummerSlam, winning her second Women’s title. She beat Sasha Banks and Bayley at the revived Clash of Champions PPV and beat Sasha yet again in their historic Hell In A Cell match. She finished off her rivalry with Sasha Banks at the Roadblock PPV in a 30 minute ironman match, defeating Sasha with her figure eight submission in overtime. Recently, she beat Bayley at the Royal Rumble PPV, putting her name in the record books as the only person ever to be undefeated in PPV championship matches.

8. Team Kevin and Chris Remain The Kings Of Raw

Although they are heels, it’s very hard to dislike the team of Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho. They have been best friends for quite a while and their friendship has paid dividends. When Kevin Owens captured the Universal Title  in August, Chris Jericho helped him retain the title against the likes of Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns. In recent weeks, Kevin helped Chris win the United States championship, making Chris an official Grand Slam Champion. A lot of people do not like Roman Reigns and did not want to see him win the Universal title going into Wrestlemania season, so when Owens retained the title, it was a joyous occasion for a lot of members of the WWE Universe. Not that there’s anything wrong with Roman, it’s just that Vince has shoved Roman down everyone’s throats for so long, no one wants to cheer him. And plus, a lot of people wanted Kevin Owens to walk into Wrestlemania holding a World Championship.

7. Asuka vs Nikki Cross vs Peyton Royce vs Billie Kay

So many things about this match really impressed me and a lot of people who watched NXT Takeover: San Antonio. Billie and Peyton really showed what they can do in the ring and many believe they were the MVPs of that match. Nikki Cross really put up a strong fight against Asuka which is something we haven’t seen yet in NXT. And of course Asuka showing us why she should be NXT women’s champion. There were a lot of really cool spots in this match including Nikki Cross’s twisting Neckbreaker to Asuka outside the ring, Peyton and Billies suplex to Nikki Cross from the announce table, and Peyton Royce’s Widows Peak which made a lot of people think she was gonna win that match. Many people expected either Billie or Peyton (or both) to win, but even though that didn’t happen, it’s still a match to remember.

6. Tye Dillinger, Perfect 10 entrance in the Royal Rumble

Going into the Royal Rumble match, many fans wanted Tye Dillinger to enter at number ten. While the clock was counting down from ten to see who was going to come out at number ten, you can hear the fans chanting “Ten! Ten! Ten!” to rally for him. When the clock struck zero and Tye Dillinger’s theme song hit, the entire arena went crazy.  So many people were shocked that it actually happened. What made it even more special was the fact that Tye’s entrance was the only surprise entrance in the Royal Rumble this year. Here’s to hoping Tye Dillinger makes it in the Royal Rumble next year, and for many more years to come.

5. Bobby Roode captures the NXT title

Over the past few months, Bobby Roode has become one of the most popular NXT Superstars in history. It was only a matter of time until he got an NXT championship match, and when he did, he made the most of it. The match exceeded many fans’ expectations and shocked almost everybody. After Shinsuke Nakamura injured his knee, Roode took advantage and locked in a brutal submission hold on the champ. After Shinsuke forced a break, the doctors came out to check on Nakamura. When the doctors were done tending to the injured title holder, Roode swooped in and delivered his implant ddt for the win. Many fans were jumping for joy because a seasoned veteran had and fan favorite had won the NXT championship, and deservingly so. 

4. Randy Orton wins the Royal Rumble match

The expectations for this match was extremely high, but it came with a few disappointments. There were no surprise entrants besides Tye Dillinger, Braun Strowman was eliminated way too early, and Roman Reigns was entrant number 30. There were a few good moments, however. Goldberg, Brock Lesnar, and The Undertaker all had impressive showings in the match. The winner was totally unpredictable which added a lot to the ending of the match. Which makes me think, why does everyone get mad when something predictable happens, and then blow a gasket when something unpredictable happens. It’s like they can’t win with the petty members of the WWE Universe. Anyway, when The Undertaker was eliminated, we knew we were in trouble of getting a third consecutive Roman Reigns Wrestlemania main event, but at least we still had Bray Wyatt. And then Roman eliminated Bray so then we got really worried that Vince was gonna ruin another Wrestlemania. But then, Randy Orton comes and saves Wrestlemania by winning the Royal Rumble match. Randy winning this year’s rumble gives him a chance to right the wrong with his 2009 rumble win and Wrestlemania match. Although he wasn’t anybody’s first choice, it’s a nice blast from the past and will make for an intriguing Wrestlemania build up.

3. Seth Rollins and Triple H “face off” at NXT Takeover

We have been waiting to see this match for a really long time now and it will most likely happen at Wrestlemania this year. The only build up this match has had was when Hunter cost Seth Rollins the Universal Championship on the August 29th 2016 edition of Raw. We finally got to see the rivalry move forward when Seth Rollins interrupted NXT Takeover: San Antonio and called out Triple H. Triple H came out but didn’t come close to Seth at all, all he did was send security out and had them strangle Seth backstage. Although nothing really happened, it was really cool to see Seth back in NXT, and to see WWE finally moving forward with this dream rivalry.

2. Golberg Eliminates Brock Lesnar in the Royal Rumble

After getting beat by Goldberg in less than 90 seconds at Survivor Series, Brock Lesnar seeked revenge by entering the Royal Rumble match looking to headline Wrestlemania. It’s known fact that Brock wanted to get his hands on Lesnar to get retribution, but the opposite happened for Brock. Goldberg and Brock barely made any contact throughout the match, but what put the icing on the cake for Goldberg was when he eliminated Brock Lesnar with absolutely no trouble. He literally just tipped him over the top rope with no cares at all. The elimination shocked everyone but what was more shocking was that Brock Lesnar didn’t make it to the bottom 4 or bottom 2, he was eliminated twelfth to last. I know that barely makes any sense but if you go back and watch the match, you’ll see that after Brock Lesnar was eliminated, there were still 11 people in the ring which is still more than a third of the people in the match. As someone who doesn’t like Brock Lesnar very much, I found it very entertaining to see Goldberg out best the beast for a third straight time.

1. John Cena wins 16th World Title

It finally happened, John Cena finally won his 16th world championship. We all knew it was gonna happen, we just didn’t know when. We knew that he wasn’t going to win it at No Mercy because it had to happen on a bigger stage, like a big four PPV. He has had some questionable title reigns in the past but there’s no doubt that he deserves every single one of them. His recent world title win was when he won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Money In The Bank 2014. 2016 was a good/bad year for John. He missed out on Wrestlemania 32 due to injury and missed a few months afterward, but came back in July to put on a possible Match of The Year with AJ Styles at Summerslam. John left again in october to film American Grit Season 2 and returned in december with his sights set on the WWE championship. John Cena has deserved every championship he has won and i’ll be damned if someone tries to tell me different.