Ranking every WWE Royal Rumble PPV in history

6. WWE Royal Rumble 2016

Match card & results

• Last Man Standing Match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship: Dean Ambrose (c) def. Kevin Owens
• WWE Tag Team Championship Match: The New Day (c) def. The Usos
• WWE United States Championship Match: Kalisto def. Alberto Del Rio (c)
• WWE Divas Championship Match: Charlotte (c) def. Becky Lynch
• Triple H wins 30-Man Royal Rumble Match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship

There are plenty of people that don’t like how this night ended but the 2016 Royal Rumble pay-per-view was phenomenal in more ways than one. Yes, that was a play on the debut of AJ Styles and that alone was worth the price of admission. This was the night that Roman Reigns, who was forced into the number one spot, had to defend the WWE Championship in the Rumble match and after tossing Rusev after 90 seconds, he waited on his next challenger. Unfamiliar music hit and there was Styles in a place we never thought we’d see him. It was a fantastic moment that we’ll not soon forget.

Styles had a great debut, lasting almost half an hour before being thrown out by Kevin Owens, who taunted him with a “WELCOME TO WWE” yell afterward. Owens’ feud with Sami Zayn was also on display here, which is always fun. The booking was a little off with Reigns being taken out of the match for so long after a beating by The League of Nations but he naturally came back out and dominated. Triple H was the surprise entrant at number 30, even if it wasn’t really that much of a surprise. Nevertheless, I still think Trips winning the title worked and made the program with Reigns that much more dramatic.

Outside of the Royal Rumble, the rest of the card had plenty to offer and delivered. The Last Man Standing Match with Owens and Dean Ambrose was excellent in its own right and the story made its way into the Rumble as well, which actually made it even better looking back on it. The New Day and The Usos kept the momentum going with one of their great matches that they’ve had over the past two years.

The United States Championship Match featuring Kalisto and Alberto Del Rio wasn’t as good as the two matches that came before it but it was still done well. The crowd was a little drained from all of the action they’d just seen and it did hurt the match a bit. The Divas Championship made one of its final appearances on pay-per-view as Charlotte defended the title against Becky Lynch. I thought the screwy finish took away from a very solid match but it played up to Charlotte being a great heel and worked out fine. This was one of the better pay-per-view for WWE over the past few years.