WWE Royal Rumble 2013 winner: John Cena, who is headed to WrestleMania 29

John Cena did what we expected him to do and won the Royal Rumble match tonight (Sun., Jan. 27, 2013) at the US Airways Center in Phoenix, Arizona. There it is, Cagesiders.

This match wasn't huge on storylines, though there were definitely a few spots for it, starting from the first surprise of the evening with Chris Jericho returning as the number two entrant to start the match with the man who sent him packing from the company when he last left this past summer, Dolph Ziggler.

Those two would go on to last longer than anyone else, with Ziggler in particular taking the honors of being the Iron Man.

There were a few other surprise pop returns, like Goldust and the Godfather. Other stars who had been injured got healthy and came back, like Santino Marella, Rey Mysterio, and Sin Cara.

Ultimately, the final four came down to Ziggler, Sheamus, John Cena, and Ryback. Ziggler was tossed by Ryback shortly after he dumped Randy Orton and left three babyfaces in the ring who were put over as titans. Sheamus and Cena initially teamed up to get after Ryback but quickly went after each other after looking up at the WreslteMania 29 banner.

Title shots and all that.

Sheamus would be eliminated by Ryback when going for the Brogue Kick to leave only Ryback and Cena. And did you think WWE would book it any other way than to have Superman Cena overcome the odds one more time?

John Cena wins the Royal Rumble, folks. He'll go to WrestleMania 29 to challenge for the WWE championship. Or the world heavyweight championship, if he so chooses, but come on. We know how this is going to go.

Thoughts?

For complete results and the live blog for the Royal Rumble click here.