The 2015 Royal Rumble Match

The big, elaborate video package airs to hype the 30-man, over-the-top-rope Royal Rumble match. From there, we shoot back live inside the Wells Fargo Center, where Lilian Garcia quickly runs down the rules of the match.

The Miz’s theme music hits and out comes The Miz, who is the first entrant in the 2015 Royal Rumble match. Coming in as the second entrance, starting the match off with The Miz, is R-Truth. He raps his way to the ring.

The bell rings and here we go with the 2015 Royal Rumble match! Both guys battle back-and-forth, with Miz trying a few times to throw Truth out, but doesn’t manage to get the job done. The clock hits and after the Philly fans count from ten to one, the Dudley Boyz music hits and out comes Bubba Ray Dudley. The fans go absolutely ballistic and break out into “E-C-W!” chants.

Bully Ray uses R-Truth as his own personal D-Von, as Truth does the “What’s Up” top-rope spot for him. Bully pushes Truth and tells him to get the tables. Miz breaks that up, but walks into a 3-D from Truth and Bully. Bully throws Miz out and then he throws Truth out.

Luke Harper’s music hits after the ten second countdown. Harper is number four in the Royal Rumble. He and Bully Ray go nose-to-nose and start trading punches. Finally, Dudley gets the better of him. The countdown clocks hits again and when it reaches zero, Bray Wyatt’s music hits. Out he comes with his latern.

Dudley and Wyatt go nose-to-nose, but Harper nails him from behind. Wyatt and Harper double-team Dudley as the fans chant, “we want D-Von.” Unfortunately for them, Wyatt eliminates Dudley. Wyatt and Harper now go nose-to-nose as the countdown clock hits again. Wyatt and Harper simply wait for the next entrant.

Curtis Axel’s music hits and out he comes, only to be jumped from behind by Erick Rowan in the sheep mask. Rowan heads to the ring. The announcers remind us that he didn’t qualify for the match, so he’s not an official entrant. Wyatt and Harper fight off Rowan, but Wyatt ends up eliminating both of them.

The countdown clock hits and at number seven in this year’s Royal Rumble, out comes The Boogeyman. The Boogeyman hits the ring and Wyatt and he go face to face, trying to out-weird each other. Wyatt does his upside down crawling thing. Boogeyman does his drooling whatever the hell thing. Wyatt clotheslines Boogeyman down and then throws him out of the ring.

Out comes entry number eight, Sin Cara. He’s flying all over the place straight from the word go, but ultimately, Wyatt gets the better of him and nails him with his Sister Abigail finisher. Wyatt throws Sin Cara out and eliminates him. Wyatt has now eliminated four Superstars. Wyatt gets on the mic and says this is Bray Wyatt’s year. He sings “he’s got the whole world in his hands” as he awaits the next entrant.

The countdown clock hits again. When the buzzer sounds, out comes Zack Ryder at number nine. Ryder hits a big missile dropkick off the top rope, but seconds later, Wyatt throws him out and eliminates him for his fifth straight elimination.

Coming out at number ten is Daniel Bryan. The fans erupt and start chanting “Yes! Yes! Yes!” as he comes down to the ring to face his former rival. Bryan hits the ring and is all over Wyatt like insanity. “The Chinese calendar says 2015 is the year of the goat.” said JBL. Whatever.

Anyways, Bryan is flying all over the place with kicks and punches on Wyatt, with the fans chanting “Yes!” as each strike lands. He hits a big top-rope huricanrana on Wyatt and then leads the fans in a “Yes!” chant. The countdown clock hits and coming out at number eleven, accompanied by Rosa Mendes, is Fandango.

Fandango hits the ring and immediately goes to work on Bryan. Bryan slows him down with a big kick and then picks him up for an airplane spin. Bryan tries to eliminate Fandango, but Fandango avoids it. The countdown clock hits again and coming out at number twelve is Tyson Kidd. Meanwhile, I’m wondering why no one has addressed the Curtis Axel situation. He came out, got beat up by Erick Rowan, who is not in the match, never entered the ring, thus was never eliminated, but has yet to be even mentioned by the announcers since.

Regardless, the action continues with Kidd and Bryan trading punches, forearms and kicks as Wyatt and Fandango lay down and sell in opposing corners of the ring. The countdown clock hits again and in at number 13 is Stardust. Tyson Kidd is eliminated. Wyatt and Bryan go through the middle ropes to fight each other, so neither of them are eliminated.

In at number 14 is Diamond Dallas Page. DDP comes out to a huge pop from the Philly fans. Stardust stomps away at DDP as soon as he hits the ring, but DDP turns Stardust’s offense into a big Diamond Cutter out of nowhere. Fandango jumps DDP from behind and goes to work on him as the fans boo. DDP hits a big Diamond Cutter on Fandango off the top rope.

Wyatt goes after DDP, but he too gets a Diamond Cutter for his efforts. The fans are loving DDP here in Philly. The countdown clock hits again. Coming in at number 15 is Rusev. The Bulgarian Brute makes his way to the ring accompanied by Lana. DDP goes for a Diamond Cutter on Rusev but Rusev blocks it and eliminates him with ease. He does the same to Fandango as well.

Rusev and Wyatt go nose to nose now, only to turn around into a flying dropkick from Daniel Bryan off the top. Both Rusev and Wyatt are on their knees now, eating kicks over and over again from Bryan. Rusev goes to eliminate Bryan, but Bryan avoids it. Wyatt, however, follows up and clotheslines Bryan out to the floor, eliminating him. The fans all boo as they see Daniel Bryan eliminated.

The countdown clock hits again and coming in at number 15 is Goldust. Uht oh, the fans are boo’ing as Goldust goes to work on Wyatt. They seem to not care about what’s happening in the ring, simply boo’ing the fact that Daniel Bryan was eliminated. Stardust tries to eliminate Goldust, but fails in his attempt. Goldust and Stardust start punching away at each other. Sorry to say, but the fans again could care less, as they start chanting “Daniel Bryan! Daniel Bryan!” at the top of their lungs. They are boo’ing insanely now as the action continues in the ring.

The countdown clock hits and number 16 is Kofi Kingston. The fans boo like crazy. Uht oh, this is turning ugly, folks. The boo’s grow louder as Kingston flies all over the place in the ring. The fans break out into another loud “Daniel Bryan” chant, which this time the announcers acknowledge.

Coming in at number 18 is Adam Rose. Seconds after he comes in, he is eliminated. Rusev eliminates Kofi Kingston seconds later.

Entry number 19 comes out, and it’s Roman Reigns. And I got bad news for WWE, the fans not only don’t care, it’s worse, they do care. They are boo’ing the hell out of Roman Reigns, assuming that the chosen one, Mr. Reigns, is going to be winning instead of Daniel Bryan. And I kid you not when I say this crowd is boo’ing like crazy. Reigns eliminates Goldust and Stardust and the boo’s grow even louder. Ouch.

Coming out at number 20, to a ton of boo’s, is Big E. This crowd is officially turning on this match — big time. The fans continue to boo non-stop as the action continues inside the ring. This is bad. This is real bad. They are not stopping.

The countdown clock hits again and out at number 21 is Damien Mizdow. The fans pop for that one, thank god. Mizdow makes his way to the ring, but Miz stops him and says it’s his spot. Miz is knocked off the apron before he can re-enter the Rumble for a second time. Mizdow looks at Miz and contemplates going in or not. Finally, he decides to go in. And seconds later, he is eliminated. The only guy the fans didn’t boo like crazy, and WWE books him to be eliminated in seconds. And I’m not exaggerating even a little bit when I say the boos are getting unbelievably loud now.

Out next in the Rumble is Jack Swagger. The fans are behind him for a few seconds and then they go right back to boo’ing any and everything.

The countdown clock hits again and out at number 23 is Ryback. The fans cheer him for a second but then go right back to boo’ing. Meanwhile, Ryback is cleaning house. He’s got the fans chanting “Feed Me More,” so that’s a sign that they may be accepting reality, but if the last several minutes are any indication, it won’t be long before they are boo’ing again.

Now the fans are loudly chanting “CM Punk! CM Punk!” Uht oh. Someone introduced that chant and this crowd is back to being rowdy and unforgiving. Coming out at number 24, in the meantime, is Kane.

The fans are once again loudly boo’ing anything that’s going on in the ring. They’re pissed, and they’re letting WWE know it. The countdown clock hits again and in at number 25 is Dean Ambrose. The fans loudly cheer for him, so maybe there’s hope that there’s someone they will cheer for.

“Let’s go Ambrose” chants echo throughout the Wells Fargo Center, so it looks like with Daniel Bryan out of the picture, Philadelphia has adopted The Lunatic Fringe. Entry number 26 is on his way out and it’s Titus O’Neil. Well, this year’s “I’m only in the Royal Rumble for two seconds” is Titus O’Neil. The announcers debate if the shortest Rumble reign has been broken. They say he was eliminated in four seconds, so the Santino Marella’s record still stands.

We’ve got the countdown clock back on the screen. Coming in at number 27, to a nice pop from the Philly fans, is the WWE Intercontinental Champion — Bad News Barrett. Barrett makes his way to the ring, which is getting pretty full now, so we’re probably about to have a bunch of consecutive eliminations coming up. The announcers are now pointing out that this is the most entrants we’ve had in the ring at one time thus far in this year’s Royal Rumble match.

Ambrose and Barrett fight in the corner as the countdown clock hits again. Coming out at number 28 is Cesaro. Due to his loud, annoying police siren theme, I can’t gauge the crowd reaction to his entrance. The music dies as he hits the ring. The fans seem to be boo’ing again, likely because there’s only two spots left, and it’s highly doubtful that Daniel Bryan is entering the match for a second time.

Rusev dropkicks Big E. off the apron, eliminating him. That was his sixth elimination, by the way. The countdown clock hits again and coming in at number 29 is Big Show. The fans could care less. We’ve got one final spot left in the 2015 Royal Rumble. Will it be The Rock, and if so, will the fans look past their feelings about Daniel Bryan and embrace him? We’ll find out in 60 seconds.

As Big Show enters the ring, everyone stops what they’re doing and starts stomping away at him. Big Show fights his way free. The fans start chanting something, but I can’t make out what it is. Ryback is eliminated. Jack Swagger is eliminated. Kane has tied Shawn Michaels with 39 lifetime eliminations. Kane and Big Show seemed to have teamed up now, and are working together to get rid of people.

The final Royal Rumble entrant is coming out and it’s none other than ….Dolph Ziggler. The fans dig Ziggler, however, as they cheer his offensive efforts early on. He double-DDTs Big Show and Kane. “Let’s go Ziggler” chants break out as Ziggler eliminates Bad News Barrett. Cesaro grabs Ziggler and does the big Cesaro Swing to him. He clotheslines him over the top rope, but Ziggler hangs on.

Ziggler has eliminated Cesaro. Kane and Big Show team up and eliminate Ziggler together. With the elimination, Michael Cole informs us that Kane has broken the record for most all-time eliminations. Big Show and Kane grab Wyatt and together, they eliminate him. The only people left are Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose.

The final four are Big Show, Kane, Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose. The crowd is pretty flat for this final four. Reigns and Ambrose fight away at Big Show and Kane, but the larger heels get the better of them. Seconds later, Reigns hits the Superman punch on Big Show. The fans boo Reigns like crazy. Not a good sign if Reigns is scheduled to win. Reigns and Ambrose work together to eliminate Big Show. Kane drops Reigns and Big Show starts helping him again.

Big Show and Kane team up and eliminate Ambrose. The fans boo like crazy. Big Show and Kane team up together and stomp away at Reigns. The fans loudly chant “Bullsh*t! Bullsh*t!” Very loudly. The announcers talk about how the fans aren’t happy that Daniel Bryan, Dean Ambrose and Dolph Ziggler were eliminated. Reigns fights back against Big Show and Kane, but the fans boo the living hell out of him as well. Looks like they’re going to boo regardless of who wins this one.

Kane tries to eliminate Reigns. Big Show nearly eliminates them both. Kane survives, so he’s pissed and he now gets in Big Show’s face. Reigns, meanwhile, is laid out in the ring. Kane and Big Show team back up now and go to work on Reigns. Out of nowhere, The Rock’s theme hits and out he comes. The fans definitely pop for that one. Big time!

The Rock sprints to the ring and takes out Kane and Big Show with clotheslines and punches. Rock takes Kane down and now hits the People’s Elbow on him. Rock turns around into a chokeslam attempt from Big Show but Reigns helps him. Rock hits a Rock Bottom on Big Show. Big Show and Kane are eliminted. Reigns, whose mouth is all busted up and bloody, looks around. Rusev, who apparently was never eliminated, re-enters the match. Reigns spears him. Reigns now does eliminate him. Reigns wins and the fans boo like crazy.

Backstage, we see Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman looking on as Reigns celebrates in the ring with The Rock. Rock hugs Reigns and raises his hand, but the fans are boo’ing still. Out comes Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, and they don’t look happy. Reigns points to the WrestleMania sign as the announcers talk about how it will be Reigns vs. Lesnar for the title at WrestleMania. The Authority leaves upset. Rock hugs Reigns one more time and leaves. Reigns celebrates on the top rope but the fans are still boo’ing like crazy.

Winner of the 2015 Royal Rumble match: Roman Reigns

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