What More Can I Say
AJ Styles’ WWE career is over. For now. We know how these things go. Or maybe that’s just the small part of me that’s cynical when it comes to this particular business of show. What I know for sure is that he’s not finished wrestling. After an awesome bout with GUNTHER, AJ refused to leave his gloves in the ring. Instead, he defiantly kept them on and posed to the crowd one more time.
Prior to that, this was perhaps as fine a finish for AJ.
He and GUNTHER waged a war in that ring. This was a story of attrition as both men promised to make the other submit. Therein lied the problem for GUNTHER as the match played out; AJ doesn’t really do the whole submit thing.
In the end, a match that involved a lot of technical mat wrestling came down to Calf Crushers and Sleepers. The Ring General avoided tapping by using his height to get to the ropes, and his cleverness to force AJ to break the hold. When it came to the Sleeper though, AJ eventually ran out of luck.
The last sequence was beautifully crafted. The camera aimed directly at AJ fighting his way out of GUNTHER’s submission, and captured the ref asking AJ if he gives. Styles fought towards the ropes and got within inches of touching them before GUNTHER yanked him away by beating the life out of him. Eventually, AJ passed out.
Now, not to get back into the whole John Cena thing, AJ passing out made sense because he didn’t think this was the end. He had no desire for this to be the end. In his mind, he had a whole year left of his WWE career. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be.
This was wrestling as art and capped an amazing handful of matches AJ gave us in his final days. Now, he’ll go do his phenomenal thing elsewhere.
Born 2 Live
I’m not going to front: The women’s Rumble didn’t start on the best of foots for me. For the majority of its runtime, it felt rushed and out of sync. Almost as if someone recorded it and hit the fast forward button. It wasn’t all wonky though. Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair set it off but rather than duke it out, they waited for the third entrant. But not before teasing a confrontation with a few moves but never actually executing any real pain to one another.
Before I go further, my annual caveat that Rumbles are a landmine to recap. There’s so much action, so much chaos, that it becomes hard focusing on one or two things. That plus the fact there are times when some Rumbles don’t come into focus until the final minutes. This was one of those Rumbles.
We got teases of some potential drama along the way. Charlotte eliminated Nia Jax and Alexa Bliss. Was it an accident? Of course. But will Alexa see it that way? We got our official reveal “Nattie” reveal, complete with a new theme. We got a taste of her and Maxxine Dupri as the former Intercontinental Champion couldn’t wait for her former friend to make her way to the ring.
The NXT members took their beefs worldwide. Jacy Jayne eliminated Kelani Jordan only to see Sol Ruca oust her.
Lash Legend got another spotlight and man, I love this woman. Geno and I banged the drum loudly for her a couple years ago in NXT and she’s only gotten better since then. She also ditched the Project Pat-inspired theme song, which isn’t a bad look considering it sounded a lot like “Chickenhead.“
BRIE MODE! Brie Bella made her return and lasted lasted for quite a while until the aforementioned Ms. Legend eliminated both Bella Twins. Lash also notably eliminated Charlotte Flair and IYO SKY.
Tiffany Stratton made her big return at number 30, which put her in prime position to be in the final four. But we’ll get to that.
And it wouldn’t be professional sports entertaining wrestling without Judgment Day drama, which segues into our winner and when business picked up for me.
It all started with Liv Morgan eliminating Raquel Rodriguez. Prior to that, the Judgment Day women stuck together with no questions asked. As the numbers whittled and the stakes increased, things changed. Liv tossed her friend, the same friend with a championship shot on the next Monday Night Raw. That may not mean anything IF Raquel defeats Stephanie Vaquer. But if she doesn’t, I smell a problem.
Tiffany, Sol, and Liv stood as the final three and they put on a hell of a quick triple threat match. Sol snatched two souls at once and tried (smartly) to throw both women over the top rope. Great plan until she went for a top rope maneuver with all three women on the apron. That’s a rookie mistake and perfectly fine for a “rookie” to make. That left Tiffany to Liv and Dom’s lady handled her business.
Liv is the right choice. Besides this being a huge comeback moment for her, there’s so much inherent Judgment Day drama baked into her getting the W, which affects the whole division.
Like I said, this started really flat and shaky but thankfully became notable in the final minutes.
Do It Again
Roman Reigns is going to WrestleMania. Even as a Roman fan, it’s ironic that a guy who is a staple of WrestleMania main events is now going to yet another after telling the world WWE’s creative is a bit stale.
Before Roman tossed an ailing GUNTHER over the top rope, we got a ton of action in the men’s Rumble:
- OBA FEMI DOMINATED. Early and often, this was the Oba show. He drew number one and lasted well into the late minutes. Who tossed him overboard? Well…
- Brock Lesnar vs. Oba Femi is absolutely a thing that WWE teased will happen. The Beast showed up and cleared the ring as he usually does. And with mad bodies around them, it always came back to Brock and Oba. They didn’t fully go at it with Brock telling the kid “not yet” in so many words, but their small physical interaction led to Brock eliminating Oba.
- LA Knight made his return! He got a little vengeance on The Vision but there’s a lot more story there.
- Oh speaking of The Vision, a masked assailant attacked Bron Breakker as he made his way to the ring as entrant number two. It sure did look and move like Seth Rollins. Paul E. Dangerously believed it was Seth Rollins. Was it Seth Rollins? I mean, it better be.
Powerhouse HobbsRoyce Keys made his debut. It was weird for the tron to say Powerhouse Hobbs first. Right? I don’t know who that benefitted. I doubt the Saudi crowd knew him as Hobbs, AEW fans would know him when they see him and more than likely knew the name change. And WWE fans who don’t watch AEW wouldn’t know who he was anyway. Shrug.- Drew Mac is a menace. He derailed Cody Rhodes’ dreams of winning his third Royal Rumble. I love how petty and vindictive Drew is. These two will hate each other forever.
- Roman entered the Rumble and asked his cousin to run it back. Jey, stupidly, went to do so only for Roman to slap him in the face like he owed him $100 plus Uber fare. It was a dope moment between family that harkened back to Roman telling his cousin to get serious about winning championships.
- Je’Von Evans lasted a very long time, as he should. He, Trick Williams, and Oba even got a moment together to reheat their NXT beef. Je’Von also got the chance to redo a spot he and Randy Orton couldn’t quite connect on a year ago when they wrestled in NXT. Hell of a note to go out on for the Young OG.
I’ll have more to say about Roman hopefully as the weeks go on. I really don’t want him to pick someone and then disappear for a month. If he’s facing CM Punk at Mania, let’s really build to that rather than just coasting on their names and Roman’s part-time schedule.
- This is here because it was disappointing: Drew vs. Sami Zayn was a glorified squash. It’s a wild juxtaposition to Sami’s championship match with Roman where he took that man to the limit. Here, he looked outclassed and outmatched in almost every way. At a certain point, it seemed like Drew was toying with him rathe than just putting him away. I have no clue what’s next for Sami but I don’t think the big championship is ever in his future.
Royal Rumble 2026 was uneven. Four matches with only two of them really satisfying me. And even though I liked the men’s Rumble, I’m less enthused about Roman coming out on top because of his schedule and the short amount of time between now and April. I hope I’m wrong though.
What say you, Cagesiders? Where does AJ go next? Are you interested in Roman vs. Punk? Holla at us in the comments.
