WWE Royal Rumble 2018 results: Shinsuke Nakamura eliminates Roman Reigns to head to WrestleMania

In a bit of a shocker the Men’s Royal Rumble match was not only not the main event of Royal Rumble tonight (Sun., Jan. 28, 2018) at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. The battle to win a WrestleMania 34 title shot started after one hour of the pay-per-view (PPV) broadcast on WWE Network.

With Jerry Lawler joining the commentary team, the action got under way. Here was the order of entry:

1. Rusev
2. Finn Bálor
3. Rhyno
4. Baron Corbin
5. Heath Slater
6. Elias
7. Andrade “Cien” Almas
8. Bray Wyatt
9. Big E
10. Tye Dillinger Sami Zayn
11. Sheamus
12. Xavier Woods
13. Apollo Crews
14. Shinsuke Nakamura
15. Cesaro
16. Kofi Kingston
17. Jinder Mahal
18. Seth Rollins
19. Woken Matt Hardy
20. John Cena
21. Shane “Hurricane” Helms
22. Aiden English
23. Adam Cole
24. Randy Orton
25. Titus O’Neill
26. The Miz
27. Rey Mysterio
28. Roman Reigns
29. Goldust
30. Dolph Ziggler

The order of elimination (and who they were eliminated by):

1. Rhyno (Corbin)
2. Corbin (Bálor)
3. Sheamus (Slater)
4. Slater (Wyatt)
5. Zayn (Nakamura)
6. Crews (Cesaro)
7. Woods (Mahal)
8. Big E (Mahal)
9. Cesaro (Rollins)
10. Mahal (Kingston)
11. Kingston (Almas)
12. Rusev (Hardy and Wyatt)
13. (tie) Hardy (Wyatt)
13. (tie) Wyatt (Hardy)
15. Elias (Cena)
16. Hurricane (Cena)
17. English (Bálor)
18. Almas (Orton)
19. Cole (Mysterio)
20. O’Neill (Reigns)
21. Miz (Reigns)
22. Rollins (Reigns)
23. Goldust (Ziggler)
24. Ziggler (Bálor)
25. Orton (Reigns)
26. Mysterio (Bálor)
27. Bálor (Cena)
28. Cena (Nakamura)
29. Reigns (Nakamura)

Notable events:

• Aiden English signing his tag partner in at #1. Happy Rusev Day!
• The Lone Wolf snapped after being eliminated, attacking Finn and Rusev and really targeting The Demon’s surgically reconstructed shoulder. He also clotheslined Slater on his way out, just as The One-Man Band was staring his entrance.
• That opened the ring up for Elias, who strummed his way down the ramp (booting Heath on his way) and trashed Philly in song.
• Slater’s journey to the match was an ongoing bit. He was mostly attacked, but did get some singlet flapjacks from Big E. Sheamus threw him in, and was immediately tossed by him!
• Kami beat up Tye backstage so Zayn could enter at 10.
• When Mahal almost eliminated him, Kingston’s save involved landing with one foot on Xavier, then a plate of pancakes brought out by E. His fellow New Day members then served a pogo stick for his re-entry.
• Everybody jumped Cena when he came in.
• The NXT champion was in for almost 30 minutes, but made the mistake of springboarding toward The Viper. A RKO later and he was gone.
• Axel and Dallas saved Miz from elimination right before The Shield bros teamed up on him.
• The final four was set-up as the old guard vs. the guys with a chance to change the main event scene. Finn and Nak took out Cena and Reigns and then battled for a while. Roman and John woke up, flattened them, and did the same thing.
• From Cena’s elimination of Bálor the stage was set for Shinsuke (who the crowd started supporting over Finn even before he was out).
• Great near-eliminations at the end, with Reigns countering the first Kinshasa attempt with a Spear and Shin trying for a rope hung triangle while dangling over the floor. He finally hit his knee strike finisher as the crowd went nuts.
• Renee Young interviewed the winner in the ring, and he told her he wants “AJ Styles” at WrestleMania.

Fantastic stuff.

Get complete Royal Rumble results and coverage of every match on the card by clicking here.