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The 2023 Royal Rumble was far from the perfect show. It did however deliver a perfect ending even if it didn’t include The Rock.
Sami Zayn finally turned on Roman Reigns in a dramatic set of events straight out of an Emmy Award-winner show and leaves The Bloodline potentially shattering from within. It was the highlight of Saturday night’s show in front of 50,00-plus at the Alamodome that saw WWE deliver the expected, but right Royal Rumble winners. But it included some potentially big misses with the stuff involving Bray Wyatt.
Here are five takeaways from the Royal Rumble as we start the road to WrestleMania 39.
The Bloodline is officially crumbling from within thanks to Sami Zayn in a masterpiece of a segment to close the show. Roman Reigns said Zayn would have to pass his “final test”, instead the Tribal Chief pushed the Honorary Uce too far – leading to his long-awaited turn on the faction.
Reigns stopped Zayn just short of getting the lay to become a full Uce. He got right in Zayn’s face, slapping him and asking him to deliver the final chair shot to friend Kevin Owens after winning beating him to retain the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. K.O. had just undergone a massive beating from the rest of the Bloodline and was laying limp while handcuffed to the ropes. They teased Zayn hitting Reigns with a chair a few times. Reigns even told him you can go back to doing “Jackass s—t” if you don’t do this. Zayn instead smashed the “Head of the Table” right in the back to a huge pop from the crowd. All of it had finally boiled over with a Shield callback moment.
The rest of The Bloodline then took the boots to the backstabbing Zayn, Reigns delivering multiple chair shots. That excluded just one member. An emotional Jey Uso, who had become Zayn’s biggest advocate refused to do so and rolling out of the ring instead. The crowd started chanting “f–k up Roman” after the Bloodline stood over Zayn and Owens. With the Rock not appearing on the show and likely not on track to be at WrestleMania, fans now potentially get the best of both worlds at the event with both Zayn and Rumble winner Cody Rhodes getting championship matches in Hollywood. Zayn will likely have to win the Elimination Chamber to do so.
Reigns and Owens had a hard-hitting match befitting of a championship main event. Owens had multiple believable opportunities to pin The Tribal Chief, who just kept kicking out. Reigns would push Owens out of a Stunner attempt and into the referee. K.O. delivered a pop-up power bomb and had Reigns down for a five-count with no-one to count the fall. Reigns asked Zayn to get a chair and his hesitation led to him eating a Stunner but kicking out at the last second. Owens kicked out of a second spear and crawled to a distraught Zayn, who told his friend to “just stay down.” Reigns then put his opponent through the barricade with a spear and slammed his head against the ring steps twice – which was tough for Zayn to watch. A third spear finally kept Owens to the mat, sparking the unforgettable closing sequence.
The men’s Rumble match won’t go down as an all-time great one because it dragged at times and lacked a meaningful surprise.
