AJ Styles will put his career on the line to get another opportunity to face Gunther at the Royal Rumble. If he loses, he must retire.
CM Punk retained the World Heavyweight Title against Finn Balor on RAW from Belfast, and Becky Lynch retained the Women’s Intercontinental Title against Maxxine Dupri when Natalya turned on Maxxine.
WWE announced that their upcoming WWE 2K26 video game will not only have an Attitude Era edition but also a Monday Night Wars edition.
Sami Zayn won the Fatal Four-Way match to become the #1 contender to Drew McIntyre’s WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble in a week.
CM Punk won his World Heavyweight Title defense on RAW against AJ Styles by disqualification when Finn Balor attacked Punk. He’s upset that he’s not in the Rumble.
It was the first time Punk and Styles faced each other one-on-one in a WWE ring.
Alpha Academy won a Fatal Four-Way match to become #1 contenders to the World Tag Team Championship held by The Usos.
Stephanie Vaquer will defend the Women’s World Championship next week on RAW against Raquel Rodriguez in a Philadelphia Street Fight.
Liv Morgan wins the Royal Rumble. She was in the final three with Tiffany Stratton and the surprising Sol Ruca, who looked like she was going to win for a second there. I was rooting for her at the end. No one from NXT has ever won a Rumble.
Charlotte and Alexa did a cute thing at the beginning of the match (they came in 1 and 2) where they pretended like they were immediately going to turn on one another.
Charlotte later accidentally eliminated Alexa for realsies, though, and Kairi eliminated Asuka. KAIIIRRRRI!!
Lash Legend eliminated both Charlotte Flair and, I think, Rhea Ripley. I don’t remember exactly who the second person was, but she was also a former world champion.
Natalya came out repackaged as Nattie and eliminated both Becky and Maxxine.
Brie Bella returned at #29, and The Bella Twins eliminated Lyra and Bayley.
Very well-written match. No notes.
AJ vs. Gunther is next.
Gunther cemented his reputation as the Career Killer by making AJ pass out in the Sleeper. Both men looked like total badasses in this match.
Thank you, AJ.
Drew vs. Sami for the WWE Title is next.
Drew retains in a perfectly acceptable Zayn match. Gutsy performance as always, but Drew is on another level.
Roman Reigns wins his second Royal Rumble, getting vengeance for AJ as he last eliminated Gunther. Roman also eliminated Jey Uso.
Powerhouse Hobbs entered unexpectedly at #14. His former moniker flashed on the Titantron for reference purposes before revealing his WWE name: Royce Keys. He eliminated Damian Priest of all people. I’m glad to see him.
Oba Femi entered first and was the Iron Man, eliminating five before being thrown over by Brock Lesnar. Bron Breakker was second and was attacked during his entrance and stomped by a masked man whom I can only assume narratively speaking must be Seth Rollins.
Oba, Je’Von Evans, and Trick Williams, the former NXT trio, all had moments to shine and lasted a long time. They’re the future. Oba was very nearly the present.
Mr. Iguana and La Parka came over from AAA.
El Grande Americano’s entry was succeeded by the arrival of the Original El Grande Americano, Chad Gable. They did the Spider-Man meme, of course. They tried to unmask each other, but they were eliminated by another opponent before that could happen.
Drew McIntyre caught Cody at a vulnerable moment and eliminated him with the Claymore even though he wasn’t part of the match.
Roman will have his choice between CM Punk and Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania 42. I hope he picks Drew. Drew has never beaten Roman in a major contest.
Royal Rumble 2026
Overall: 10/10. Every match was a sparkling jewel. Perfectly written and executed. The athleticism was top-notch as always. And the right people won.
This will be a Show of the Year contender.
Tommaso Ciampa has debuted in AEW and defeated Mark Briscoe for the TNT Championship.
Joe Hendry has won the NXT Championship!
That was a damn fine ladder match and had some unexpected surprises. After Carver pulled one of the ladders apart, Shiloh Hill used them as stilts. Hill’s like their Deadpool. He makes Fourth Wall observations in his promos and takes some interesting bumps.
One thing about Hendry is that he doesn’t seem to have as much of an edge to his wrestling style as the others. I’m wondering if it’s because he’s protecting himself from possible injuries, or doesn’t want to ruin his looks?
During last night’s Dynamite, a chant of “Fuck ICE!” broke out just before the start of the match between MJF and Brody King.
Max’s facial expression in reaction to the chants is priceless.
Max: “I agree!”
With help from the MFTs, Tama Tonga defeated Shinsuke Nakamura on SmackDown in what is a major win in Tonga’s singles career.
HEADS UP! SmackDown is coming to SyFy the next two weeks because of the Olympics coverage.
WHOA! We are about to have an impromptu match on SmackDown! Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez vs. Jade Cargill and Jordynne Grace!
An impromptu tag match on Smackdown?
Did they rehire Teddy Long while I wasn’t paying attention?
Senator Ruben Gallego says that Bad Bunny needs to be All Elite.