Every 2017 WWE PPV main event ranked by in-ring value

9. WWE Royal Rumble

30-Man Royal Rumble Match

The first WWE pay-per-view main event was obviously the 30-man Royal Rumble match in January. It wasn’t the greatest Rumble match I’ve ever seen but it certainly wasn’t the worst either. A lot of people were disappointed with there being no big surprise returns this year but I was okay with how things played out. Sure, it’s fun to see those old-school guys from time to time but I didn’t think this one needed it.

The first half of the Royal Rumble match has to be difficult to book. Unless one the first entries is going to pick up the win and needs to be protected, the storytelling has to keep the crowd engaged and I think they did a good job with that. Of all people, Jack Gallagher was the one to bring the comedy with the umbrella spots early on and I got a big kick out of that. Braun Strowman came in right as Gallagher was heading out and that got the crowd excited as well. They set up a quick showdown between he and Big Show and that was pretty cool. Tye Dillinger coming in at number 10 had the crowd hot and Dean Ambrose got a nice pop as well. As expected, Strowman was throwing out people left and right but he was surprisingly taken out by Baron Corbin, which was a big moment for him.

Kofi Kingston did his usual spot to avoid elimination, although not his best, and the second half of the match was filled with huge names. Bray Wyatt was in at 21, Orton was in at 23 and Luke Harper at 25 to keep the Wyatt Family story going and the final five entries were huge, outside of one anyway. Lesnar was in at 26 and destroyed the entire ring upon his arrival, which was a lot of fun. Enzo Amore came in at 27 and it was really entertaining to watch him try to take down Brock. Goldberg was out at 28, and with everyone else in the ring still down, this set up a confrontation between he and Lesnar.

The Undertaker was out at 29 and Roman Reigns was the final entry, and all the storylines were in play. Goldberg had eliminated Lesnar and the staredown between he and ‘Taker was actually pretty cool before The Deadman eventually tossed him. ‘Taker ended up being taken out by Reigns, setting up that match for WrestleMania. In the end, Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt teamed up on Reigns before Roman fought back to eliminate Bray. He went for a spear on Orton, who turned it into an RKO and tossed Reigns to pick up the win. There’s always a lot going on with the Royal Rumble but this was fun to watch.