Welcome to our live coverage of WWE 2015 Royal Rumble! We’ll be updating this post all night with new, results and happenings from the event.
Plus, our very own Matt Harrak is live at the show and tweeting updates on Twitter @PulseWrestling
Before we start, check out the Rasslin Roundtable for a full preview of tonight’s show!
Pre-Show
Renee Young hosts with Byron Saxton, Corey Graves and Booker T. Renee talks extensively about The Rock being in South Philly and promoting a possible storyline with Rusev, referencing this tweet by Lana:
.@TheRock doesn't scare me or @RusevBUL! He is just another pathetic American too busy stuffing his face with cheesesteaks in Philadelphia!
— CJ Perry (@TheCJPerry) January 25, 2015
Tons of video packages.
New Age Outlaws did a promo backstage with Tom Phillips.
Elimination Kick-Off Show Match
Tyson Kidd & Cesaro vs. The New Day (Kofi Kingston, Big E)
The Rosebuds come down with Adam Rose but he is apparently not in the match, and it’s just a tag match. The Philly crowd made itself known right from the start, supporting Kidd and Cesaro and booing the New Day. Nice action for a pre-show match. The announcers talked about the Stone Cold Steve Austin podcast returning to WWE Network tomorrow after Raw. The guest will be HHH! The Rosebuds and Adam Rose distraction led to the finish. European uppercut by Cesaro from the outside led into Kidd hitting his finisher for the pin.
Winners: Cesaro & Tyson Kidd
Lots of video packages. Nothing too notable in the 1 hour pre-show.
Show begins proper.
Great video package to start with single shots of WWE wrestlers talking about the Rumble.
The New Age Outlaws vs. The Ascension
Outlaws come down first and are apparently babyfaces tonight. They wore “Philly Fanatic” hats to pander to the crowd. Road Dogg does the whole intro. If you’re not down with that? Billy: Suck it! The Ascension enter second. Crowd is definitely siding with the Outlaws here. Match seems to drag on. They do the Total Elimination style finish on Billy for the pin. Crowd booed.
Winners: The Ascension
WWE Tag Team Title Match
The Usos (Jimmy & Jey) (c) vs. The Miz & Damien Mizdow
Mizdow is over huge with the crowd. Story of the match is that Miz is not tagging in Mizdow. Match breaks down at the end, and Mizdow is left on the floor. Miz then takes a superkick in the corner, then a powerbomb, then a flying splash for the pin.
Winners: The Usos
Backstage, J&J Security are playing WWE Immortals on an iPad. Jamie Noble is confused. Seth Rollins enters and yells at them. He’s tired of hearing about the future, he wants to be the right now.
The Bella Twins vs. Paige and Natalya
Almost a squash for the Bellas. The finish saw Brie pull Paige off the apron as Natalya went for a tag. Nikki punched Natalya for the pin.
Winners: Bella Twins
Backstage Rumble promos – Gold & Star Dust, Rusev w/Lana, Big Show, Miz/Mizdow, Fandango/Rosa Mendes, Daniel Bryan.
Video packages.
WWE World Heavyweight Title Match
Brock Lesnar (c) w/Paul Heyman vs. John Cena vs. Seth Rollins w/J&J Security
Cena gets enormous boos, including the crowd singing “John Cena Sucks” in tune with his song. Seth gets a mixed reaction. Lesnar gets a huge pop and cheers throughout. Early on everyone was hitting moves on everyone for a bit. Cena hit an AA, Seth cleared him out and covered and Lesnar kicked out in 1. Lesnar dominates for a while with suplexes. Does some rolling Germans. Lesnar clears off the announce table and smashes one of the TVs. Cena hits three AAs, but Rollins pulls out Cena to prevent the pin. Then Rollins hits a curb stomp but Cena breaks up the pin. Lesnar to the floor. Lesnar stumbles around and Cena spears him through the barricade. Match breaks down a bit. Cena uses the STEEEEEEEEEEEEEL steps. Seth does a flying elbow from the top rope through Lesnar on the Spanish Announce Table. That gets a “This is Awesome” chant. Cena gets Rollins into the ring and rolls him up for 2.
After this was a lengthy portion of the match that was just John Cena vs. Seth Rollins. At one point Seth escaped an AA by bouncing off and then hitting a superkick. Eventually J&J Security interfered, and Cena did a double AA on both of them. Rollins regained control and did a sick twisting moonsault. Then out of no where, Lesnar popped back into the ring, and German’ed Seth out of the way. Lesnar then beat up Cena and tossed him out of the ring. Rollins then hit Lesnar with the Money in the Bank briefcase. Then again. Then a third time. Finally he went for a curb stomp onto the briefcase, but Lesnar popped up and grabbed Seth for the F5. Hits it for the pin.
Winner: Brock Lesnar
Royal Rumble instructional video package.
Royal Rumble Match
#1 is The Miz. #2 is R Truth. #3 is Bubba Ray Dudley, complete with taped glasses. No stutter though. He used Truth as a surrogate Dvon and did the Wazzup spot, get the tables, and a 3D. Miz is tossed. Bubba tosses Truth. #4 is Luke Harper. #5 is Bray Wyatt. They team up and toss Bubba as the crowd chants for D-Von. #6 is Curtis Axel. However Erick Rowan then attacks him and steals his spot. Double team on Rowan, he goes to eliminate Harper, then Wyatt sneaks up and eliminates both. #7 is the Boogeyman! Some weirdness. Then Bray just tosses him. #8 is Sin Cara. Bray tosses him. #9 is Zack Ryder! He gets a big pop and a huge “woo woo woo” for the broski boot. Then Bray tosses him. #10 is Daniel Bryan. He does a bunch of offense including running kicks to the corner. No elimination though. #11 is Fandango. #12 is Tyson Kidd. #13 is Stardust. Bryan eliminates Kidd. #14 is DDP!!! He gives a diamond cutter to Stardust. One for Fandango off the top. Bray Wyatt attacks, HE gets a Diamond Cutter. Then a BANG. #15 is Rusev. He staves off a Diamond Cutter and dumps DDP. Dumps Fandango. Daniel Bryan back up for offense on Rusev and Bryan. Rusev knocks Bryan over the top, he hangs on, but then Rusev dumps him. #16 is Goldust. #17 is Kofi. Crowd is booing everything and chanting for Daniel Bryan. #18 is Adam Rose. Kofi is tossed over the top and crowd surfs on the Rosebuds and goes back to the ring. Rusev dumps Adam Rose. Rusev dumps Kofi pretty fast too. #19 is Roman Reigns to huge boos. #20 is Big E. #21 is Damien Mizdow. Huge pop! Miz runs down and prevents him from going into the ring. Miz to the apron, knocked off by Roman. Damien then goes into the ring to a huge pop. Eliminated almost right away. #22 is Jack Swagger. Crowd did do the “We The People”. #23 is Ryback. #24 is Kane. #25 is Dean Ambrose who gets a HUGE pop and Ambrose chants. #26 is Titus O’Neill. #27 is Bad News Barrett who gets a mild pop. #28 is Cesaro. #29 is Big Show. #30 is Ziggler to a huge pop. He eliminates Barrett. Big Show and Kane start teaming up and first eliminate Ziggler and then Bray. Final four is Big Show, Kane, Dean, Reigns but Rusev rolled out earlier so is left. Two on two for a while. Heels split up the faces, and then double choke slam on Dean and then they dump him over the top to huge boos. Crowd chants “bullshit” and Big Show grins. Boos the Reigns comeback. Kane and Big Show team up to throw out Roman, but Big Show also goes to toss Kane. They argue. Pushing. Crowd is booing. Reigns comes up from behind and eliminates both to win. Afterwards Kane and Big Show decide to go back in and beat up Reigns. Merciless boos. We want Rusev chant breaks out. Instead the Rock’s music plays and he comes out. Crowd does pop. He goes to work on both Big Show and Kane. Reigns joins in to massive boos. Finally they are both cleared out of the ring and Rock exits. Rusev comes back in to a huge pop. Rusev attacks but Reigns tosses him for the win to huge huge boos.
Winner: Reigns
After the match, the Rock and Roman Reigns point at the Wrestlemania sign and huge. Boos. HHH and Stephanie come out and get booed. Rock raises Roman’s hand to big boos.
