By Charlie Scott
Embed from Getty ImagesThe Royal Rumble comes around just once a year and is widely regarded as fans favourite match of the year, every year. It has become synonymous with huge returns, dream face offs and memorable spots that people discuss for years to come.
But in recent years these moments have seemed to fall flat with fans across the globe. Previous winners include WWE homegrown stars such as Roman Reigns and Randy Orton, but they were met with quiet cheers from the audiences in attendance and severe backlash from fans online. This has led to a lot of fans being very pessimistic heading into the 2020 Rumble event, but fans certainly were not let down by what WWE gave us this year.
Heading into the event we knew that WWE Champion Brock Lesnar would be entering at Number One, making himself the first ever WWE Champion to do so. Despite entering in at the hardest number, Lesnar was still one of the favourites to win and he proved why in one of the most dominant Rumble displays ever.
One by one Lesnar demolished any superstar to enter the ring, whether it be Elias, John Morrison or Erick Rowan, Lesnar tore them apart and made light work of doing so. Until former WWE Champion Kofi Kingston came out at Number 6 to get his revenge for Lesnar taking his title away from him, and this time Kingston survived the onslaught and got reinforcements in the form of Big E and Rey Mysterio.
The three men all managed to hit their finishers on Lesnar in quick fashion, but they barely touched the sides as Lesnar eliminated them all like rag dolls.
We then got to witness one of the biggest dream face offs in modern WWE, when Lesnar stood toe to toe in the ring with Braun Strowman and NXT superstar Keith Lee. The three giants went back and forth but Lesnar was still able to overpower them both to take his total eliminations to 13, the joint record for a 30-man Rumble match.
Then entered Number 16, Drew McIntyre, the man who left WWE in 2014 after a string of bad storylines and went on to tear apart the independent scene across the globe. After returning to WWE in 2017 he has been on a steady rise, and this was his moment. Taking out WWE Champion Lesnar with a boot to the face, McIntyre stood staring down the Beast for minutes after his elimination, sending a strong message.
The ring then started to fill up, with former World Champions The Miz, Dolph Ziggler and AJ Styles all entering the fray. But then as the ten second countdown begun for Number 21 no one could’ve expected to hear the words “you think you know me”.
The 11-time World Champion Edge returned after nine years of retirement due to a severe neck injury, shocking the world by entering the Royal Rumble and spearing all the men inside the ring one by one.
Number 25 saw Edge’s former tag team partner Randy Orton head down to the ring and reunite with his former friend. The two teamed up to try and clear the ring, but this was short lived as Number 26 was many peoples favourite to win, Roman Reigns. The Big Dog evened the odds, but the numbers came was against everyone when Number 30, Seth Rollins, brought out his muscle with Buddy Murphey, Akam and Rezar all escorting him to the ring and assisting him in eliminating most of the field.
The remaining competitors eventually fought off the Monday Night Messiahs crew and eliminated Rollins, with the final four coming down to Orton, Edge, Reigns and McIntyre. The four men went back and forth with Edge shocking Orton by tossing him over the top rope to eliminate him.
Edge and Reigns then battled each other with the encounter ending up on the apron, but Reigns would ultimately overcome to Rated R Superstar to leave it down to just two men, a rematch of their Wrestlemania 35 match last year.
McIntyre and Reigns put it all on the line as the final two, with both men coming close to eliminating each other as they went back and forth. But it was McIntyre who outlasted all 30 men and eliminated Reigns to win the 2020 Royal Rumble.
The 2020 Rumble showed to fans that WWE can do things right when they put their mind to it, everyone was sceptical when they found out that Lesnar would be entering at Number 1. But they proved that with good booking it can be something special. Lesnar put on the most dominant display in Rumble history, equalling the record number of eliminations for a 30-Man Rumble. However, it has never been done in the fashion that The Beast did it in.
Edge made one of the best comeback appearances in history as well, proving he still has it even though he’s been out of the came for nearly 10 years. The roof was nearly lifted off the building when he returned, showing his star power hasn’t decreased whilst he’s been away.
WWE made McIntyre a superstar overnight having him eliminate Lesnar and winning the Rumble. Many fans from across the world have known his potential for years, after his work on the Indies whilst he was away from WWE, but he hasn’t quite lived up to that potential since his return to the company. Until he won the Rumble and secured the main event of Wrestlemania.
The storytelling within this years Rumble match was like none ever seen before, there was multiple different stories going on throughout the match that made it so interesting. Rather than making it all about one individual favourite throughout the entire match as they have in previous matches, they chose to make the entire pack feel like there could be multiple credible threats to winning it.
Which made McIntyre’s eventual victory even more meaningful, outlasting all 30 men which included 11 previous WWE Champions. WWE have really reignited the flame after this year’s Royal Rumble event that many fans thought had gone out, which comes at a perfect time as sit less than two months away from the biggest event of the year, Wrestlemania.
It’s been an incredible Road to #WrestleMania for @DMcIntyreWWE.
The winner of the 2020 Men’s #RoyalRumble Match has a lot to say on #RAW. pic.twitter.com/9wllYpeATq
— WWE (@WWE) February 25, 2020
Fans across the world are now eagerly anticipating where all these storylines created in the Rumble match could go heading towards Mania. Such as Rollins and his crew causing havoc, Edge and Orton stood toe to toe in a ring again and of course Brock Lesnar and Drew McIntyre charging towards the main event of Wrestlemania.
This year has certainly proved WWE can pull off big matches perfectly when they put their mind to it and in many fans eyes this was the best Royal Rumble of all time, including mine.
Sub Edited by Sam Carroll
Feature Image by Chamber of Fear – Licensed under Creative Commons 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en
