Seth Rollins wins the Royal Rumble

WWE headlined tonight’s (Sun., Jan. 27, 2019) Royal Rumble pay-per-view (PPV) from Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona with the men’s Royal Rumble match, a 30-man over-the-top-rope battle royal with rumors of a big surprise floating all around.

It started with one, as Jeff Jarrett showed up as the number two entrant, attempting to sing a duet with Elias. He was, of course, quickly eliminated. Then we got the usual NXT folks showing up, like Johnny Gargano and Aleister Black, not to mention NXT UK Champion Pete Dunne. There were returns, like Kurt Angle and Dolph Ziggler.

To that end, it was a fairly standard Royal Rumble all through the match, with all the usual tropes.

That included the end, where the smaller guy, Seth Rollins, managed to outmaneuver the much bigger guy, Braun Strowman, to win the match and book his ticket to a title shot at WrestleMania 35.

Here was the order of entry:

1. Elias
2. Jeff Jarrett
3. Shinsuke Nakamura
4. Kurt Angle
5. Big E
6. Johnny Gargano
7. Jinder Mahal
8. Samoa Joe
9. Curt Hawkins
10. Seth Rollins
11. Titus O’Neil
12. Kofi Kingston
13. Mustafa Ali
14. Dean Ambrose
15. No Way Jose
16. Drew McIntyre
17. Xavier Woods
18. Pete Dunne
19. Andrade
20. Apollo Crews
21. Aleister Black
22. Shelton Benjamin
23. Baron Corbin
24. Jeff Hardy
25. Rey Mysterio
26. Bobby Lashley
27. Braun Strowman
28. Dolph Ziggler
29. Randy Orton
30. R-Truth*

*Attacked and replaced by Nia Jax

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

1. Jeff Jarrett (Elias)
2. Kurt Angle (Shinsuke Nakamura)
3. Jinder Mahal (Johnny Gargano)
4. Big E (Samoa Joe)
5. Elias (Seth Rollins)
6. Titus O’Neil (Curt Hawkins)
7. Curt Hawkins (Samoa Joe)
8. Shinsuke Nakamura (Mustafa Ali)
9. Johnny Gargano (Dean Ambrose)
10. No Way Jose (Samoa Joe)
11. Xavier Woods (Drew McIntyre)
12. Kofi Kingston (Drew McIntyre)
13. Dean Ambrose (Aleister Black)
14. Samoa Joe (Mustafa Ali)
15. Apollo Crews (Baron Corbin)
16. Aleister Black (Baron Corbin)
17. Pete Dunne (Drew McIntyre)
18. Bobby Lashley (Seth Rollins)
19. Baron Corbin (Braun Strowman)
20. Shelton Benjamin (Braun Strowman)
21. Jeff Hardy (Braun Strowman)
22. Drew McIntyre (Dolph Ziggler)
23. Mustafa Ali (Nia Jax)
24. Nia Jax (Rey Mysterio)
25. Rey Mysterio (Randy Orton)
26. Randy Orton (Andrade)
27. Andrade (Braun Strowman)
28. Dolph Ziggler (Braun Strowman)
29. Braun Strowman (Seth Rollins)

Get complete Royal Rumble results and coverage of the entire card right here.