WWE kicked off its Royal Rumble pay-per-view (PPV) tonight (Sun., Jan. 27, 2019) at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona with The Man, the one and only Becky Lynch, challenging Asuka for the SmackDown women’s championship. That’s the title she lost at TLC when Ronda Rousey interfered in a triple threat ladder match, meaning she wasn’t pinned or submitted to lose it.
Lynch came out intense, and tried to keep that intensity throughout. That included doing great stuff like this:
Bexploder from @BeckyLynchWWE!
— TDE Wrestling (@totaldivaseps) January 28, 2019
➡️ https://t.co/ePt5TzD6sU pic.twitter.com/FIKJ29tey3
Oh but Asuka got hers in as well:
Don't turn your back on @WWEAsuka!
— TDE Wrestling (@totaldivaseps) January 28, 2019
➡️ https://t.co/ePt5TzD6sU pic.twitter.com/b4QUizrAVI
Oh and also:
.@WWEAsuka going all out!
— TDE Wrestling (@totaldivaseps) January 28, 2019
➡️ https://t.co/ePt5TzD6sU pic.twitter.com/EBGjxoe9x2
They worked a fairly physical match, with both going hard after it, before exchanging a series of submission attempts that ended when Asuka threw on the Asuka Lock and then bridged to Cattle Mutilation to force Lynch to tap.
Becky walked off disappointed.
Get complete Royal Rumble results and coverage of the entire card right here.