Nakamura wins the US Title

In case you missed it, one of the Rumble kickoff show matches was Rusev versus Shinsuke Nakamura for the United States championship. The King of Strong Style and the Bulgarian Brute had a physical match that resulted in Nakamura regaining the title after losing it to Rusev last month.

The Women’s Royal Rumble

Female wrestlers from RAW, Smackdown, NXT, and the world entered the ring for the second women’s Royal Rumble. Liv Morgan was immediately eliminated by Lacey Evans in eight seconds, setting the record for the shortest time spent in the women’s Rumble. Natalya set the record for the longest time with fifty-six minutes and one second. On a hilarious note, Zelina Vega met a familiar face under the ring when she encountered  Hornswoggle. Lana was replaced in the match due to injury and her replacement was none other than The Man. Becky Lynch went on to win the Rumble and is on her way to WrestleMania 35.

“The New” Family?

Erick Rowan stood ringside near the end of the WWE Championship match between AJ Styles and “The New” Daniel Bryan.  Once the referee was down, he came chokeslammed The Phenomenal One to help Bryan retain the belt. The former Bludgeon Brother and the champ have prior history as they were both members of the Wyatt family. It will be interesting to see if this results in Bryan’s own “family”.

Legends in the Rumble

The second and fourth entries for the men’s Rumble were WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett and Kurt Angle. This marked Jarrett’s first Rumble appearance in twenty years.

Nia Jax in the Men’s Rumble

After losing the women’s Rumble earlier in the evening, Nia Jax took the 30th spot from R-Truth to become the fourth woman to ever be in the men’s Rumble and the first since the men and women have had separate Rumbles.