Last night's WWE Royal Rumble pay-per-view has been hit with mixed criticism, some enjoying what the show had to offer and others calling it one of the worst Royal Rumble events in history.

Kicking things off were heels Cesaro and Tyson Kidd, competing against Kofi Kingston and Big E in a match which would see them finally turn their luck on its head and walk away with the victory. It's good to see such great heel wrestlers get a bit of a push, but with Cesaro and Kidd's ability, they really need to be further up on the match-card.

Credit: WWE
Credit: WWE
Credit: WWE
Credit: WWE

New Age Outlaws went up against The Ascension and the NXT-risers took out Gunn with the Fall Of Man, shooting this tag team right up the ranks and in possible contention for the titles sooner rather than later.

Those titles were up for grabs in a match that saw The Usos hopefully bring their feud with The Miz and Damien Mizdow to an end, with Jimmy taking to the air, landing a splash on Miz which ended things and saw the champs walk away with the belts still tight around their waists.

Credit: WWE
Credit: WWE
Credit: WWE
Credit: WWE

Our Divas match came in the form of The Bella Twins - now reunited - up against England's finest Paige and the incredible Natalya. Repelling a double assault by the twins it looked likely that Natalya was going to end things and pin the Divas Champ, but when Paige was yanked off the apron by a sneaky Brie, Nikki hit a forearm to Nattie and picked up the three-count.

One match that could be an early contender for match of the year is that of the triple thread WWE World Heavyweight Championship battle, which saw Brock Lesnar retain - but not after having his rib broken by an amazingly-entertaining Seth Rollins.

Showing "shades of Wrestlemania", John Cena looked to be on to a winner after hitting Lesnar with an Attitude Adjustment, but the beast kicked out after just one, proving that the title wasn't going to be changing hands easily.

Attempting to end his rampage, Rollins and Cena couldn't put their differences aside to two-on-one Lesnar and continued to beat each other down, fighting to the point of exhaustion.

Credit: WWE
Credit: WWE

Three rapid-fire Attidue Adjustments were stopped and when Rollins went for the Curb Stomp, Cena made sure he wasn't going to pick up the win and took the fight to the outside, using steel chairs to pummel the champion and allowing Rollins to drive his elbow into Lesnar and through the Spanish announce table.

Getting back into the ring, Cena and Rollins had seemingly turned the match into a one-on-one with Lesnar not moving, but as Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury entered the ring, Cena defied the odds and hit both of them and Rollins with an Attitude Adjustment, not noticing that the beast outside was ready to return to the action.

Rollins managed to take Cena out of the equation with a Curb Stomp and huge aerial attack before Lesnar stormed the ring, German-suplexing both opponents.

Evading a second suplex, Rollins smashed Lesnar with his Money in the Bank briefcase twice before attempting to Curb Stomp the champion onto the foreign object, but it wasn't to be.

Catching Rollins mid-stomp, Lesnar hoisted The Architect onto his shoulders, hitting him with an F-5 and picking up the victory.

Then came the 30-man main event Royal Rumble match.

Surprise entrants came in the form of The Boogeyman, Diamond Dallas Page and Bubba Ray Dudley, with fans miffed that Randy Orton hasn't quite made it back to compete just yet.

Credit: WWE
Credit: WWE

R-Truth filled in for Dudley's partner D-Von, executing the 3D on The Miz and making him the first elimination of the night.

Favourite Daniel Bryan was disposed of in what seemed like the night's worst crime - a throwaway unexciting elimination - whilst Bray Wyatt proved to dominate much of the goings on from that point.

Rusev also did some damage when entering at number 16, throwing former WCW Champion Page right out of the ring as well as Fandango upon his entry.

Roman Reigns entered at number 19 and after just seconds of being included in the match, both Gold and Stardust were sent out by the former Shield member.

Heavy hitters Big Show, Cesaro and Kane began battling it out in a heavily-populated ring, with eliminations slowing down before all 30 men had been introduced - Dolph Ziggler in at number 30 and sending Bad News Barrett to the floor with a superkick.

Big Show managed to knock out the show off and dumped the former Intercontinental Champion out of the ring with the help of Kane, and with that Shawn Michaels' record of the superstar with the most eliminations in Royal Rumble Match history was broken by the hellraiser, going on to score a total of 42.

Credit: WWE
Credit: WWE

With Reigns alongside his friend Dean Ambrose squaring up against Kane and Big Show, the former were clearly exhausted and Ambrose was swiftly eliminated after suffering a beat-down.

Fortunately for our face Reigns, the giants turned against one another meaning he could run up from behind and flip them both over the top rope, taking home the win, earning his top spot in the main event of WrestleMania - something the crowd weren't too pleased with.

A surprise appearance from The Rock who saved Reigns from a post-match pummeling from the Authority members saw him come to congratulate Reigns - but it then turned out the match wasn't actually over, and Rusev had never actually been eliminated.

Able to avoid the sneak attack, the Russian was taken down with a spear before officially being thrown over the top rope, making Reigns our official 2015 winner. The crowd weren't happy, and neither were Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, who walked out to the top of the entrance ramp to show their disapproval.

Full results for the match-ups in WWE's Royal Rumble 2015 are as follows:

Roman Reigns wins the 2015 Royal Rumble 30-man match

Brock Lesnar retains the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, defeating Seth Rollins and John Cena

The Bella Twins defeat Paige and Natalya

The Usos retain the WWE Tag Team Championship, defeating The Miz and Damien Mizdow

The Ascension defeat The New Age Outlaws

Cesaro and Tyson Kidd defeat Kofi Kingston and Big E


by for www.femalefirst.co.uk
find me on and follow me on