WWE Royal Rumble 2020 highlights, takeaways and projections

Highlights, takeaways and what’s next for the superstars of WWE following Sunday night’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view event from Minute Maid Park in Houston.

We’re officially on the road to WrestleMania 36 as the 33rd annual WWE Royal Rumble pay-per-view is now in the books. And what a night it was. There’s a lot to cover so let’s get right into it.

There were two matches on the Kickoff Show, the first featuring the in-ring return of Sheamus, who took down Shorty G in a decent matchup. Shorty G got a little more offense in than I expected but the outcome was never in doubt as there was no way Sheamus was losing his first match back.

The second match was a very solid bout for the United States Championship as Andrade successfully defended his title against Humberto Carrillo. A match that easily should have been featured on the main card, this was a fun matchup with two of the best in-ring performers in WWE today. Carrillo put up a good fight, as he has in the past in trying to win this title, but he just didn’t have enough as Andrade picked up a nice win. Good stuff here.

Let’s get to the main card.

Roman Reigns def. King Corbin (Falls Count Anywhere Match)

Well, I didn’t get my wish of Roman Reigns or King Corbin using trash cans in the Houston Astros dugout (what a wasted opportunity), but this was still a pretty fun opening match. This Energizer bunny of rivalries has hopefully come to a close as Reigns finally picked up the win against King Corbin.

This match went about as I expected it to go, minus the outcome anyway (I predicted Corbin would win with Reigns getting his revenge in the Rumble match itself), with both men hitting some big spots and battling through the Houston crowd on numerous occasions…and, of course, the interference of Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode on Corbin’s behalf, which was evened out as The Usos came to Roman’s aid. I lost count of how many tables got destroyed but it was quite a few. And I certainly can’t forget about the port-a-potty spot. Gross but hilarious. The end of the match saw the two make their way to the top of the dugout, which still had the 2019 World Series logo on it, and Reigns hit a Superman Punch and a spear for the 1-2-3.

What’s next: I thought these two might cross paths again in the Royal Rumble but Corbin had already been eliminated by the time Roman got to the ring so I’m hoping that means that this really is the end of this. This feud has gone on long enough and it’s time for each of them to start finding their path to WrestleMania. Corbin has become one of the top heels in the company and should find himself in a good match in Tampa. More on Reigns in a bit.