History was made at the inaugural Greatest Royal Rumble. I am happy that The Deleters of Worlds (Matt Hardy & Bray Wyatt) became the brand new Raw Tag Team Champions; however, I am not happy with the way Brock Lesnar retained the Universal Championship. He defended it against Roman Reigns in a Steel Cage Match. The ways of winning a Steel Cage Match is either by pinfall, submission or escaping the cage with both feet hitting the floor. In the end, Reigns ended up Spearing Lesnar through the cage. Despite the fact that Reigns’ feet hit the floor first while Lesnar’s were still on the broken part of the cage, the referee declared Lesnar the winner. It was a very bad call by the referee; Roman Reigns should definitely be the Universal Champion right now. In the final main event of the evening, it was the first-ever 50-Man Royal Rumble Match in history. Superstars from the past, present and future participated in the match. New records were set when Daniel Bryan broke the record for longest amount of time spent in a Royal Rumble Match by entering at #1 and lasting one hour and 16 minutes. Also, Braun Strowman broke the record for most eliminations in a Royal Rumble Match by eliminating 13 men. In addition, Strowman won the Royal Rumble Match and was awarded a trophy cup and a title belt. The following list of Superstars competed in their first-ever Royal Rumble Match:
- Mike Kanellis
- Former Sumo Wrestler Hiroki Sumi
- Viktor
- Tony Nese
- Dash Wilder
- Scott Dawson
- Konnor
- Luke Gallows
- Drew Gulak
- NXT Superstar Tucker Knight
- Bobby Roode
- Chad Gable
- Karl Anderson
- Roderick Strong
- NXT Superstar Babatunde
- NXT Superstar Dan Matha
- Curt Hawkins
- Shane McMahon
Since none of the NXT Superstars won the match, they will have to wait to be moved up to WWE’s main roster. As for Hiroki Sumi, it is unknown whether he made his WWE debut or if this was just a one-time appearance. Overall, I thought that the inaugural Greatest Royal Rumble was a great experience and I hope there will be more to come in the future.
