Road to Glory
“What’s that metronome I hear, perhaps the end is drawing near, you never hear the shot that take you down…” It is the Road to WrestleMania and everything up to this point is leading to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.
This weekend was WWE’s annual Royal Rumble weekend with NXT World’s Collide on Saturday and Royal Rumble on Sunday; and what an event this turned out to be.
At World’s Collide we had NXT and NXT UK taking each other to show which brainchild of Paul “Triple H” Levesque is the top brand. Make no mistake, they each may share the NXT name but each brings their own kind of style to show that they are the best of the best.
Each match had a combination of NXT and NXT UK taking each other on in brand supremacy. Each side shined as NXT UK came away with the spoils as NXT UK’s Imperium was able to withstand a game Undisputed Era, even when they were down one man due to injury. NXT UK was even able to take one of NXT’s titles across the pond as UK’s Jordan Devlin survived three other superstars to come out as the new NXT Cruiserweight champion, shocking everyone in attendance. The show was an overall success but was just a taste of what was to come the following day.
The following day was the Royal Rumble event that officially begins the Road to WrestleMania, WWE’s biggest event of the year. The event featured great matches like the Fiend vs Daniel Bryan, wherein a losing effort Bryan tried to defeat the alter ego of one Bray Wyatt.
However, the main point of the event is the Royal Rumble match. The women’s rumble saw all three brands compete for a chance to headline Wrestlemania against a champion of their choosing. The match began with Smackdown’s Alexa Bliss and NXT’s Bianca Belair. From the start, the NXT rookie shine in her main roster debut as she eliminated 6 other women before being eliminated by Charlotte Flair. After the ring began to fill again it was #30 NXT’s Shayna Bazler’s chance to shine as she eliminated 6 other women leaving her and Flair and Bazler as the final two participants of the match. Each woman came with everything they had left trying to eliminate each other. In the end, Flair got the upper hand of Bazler eliminating and winning the women’s Royal Rumble.
Next came the men’s Royal Rumble. In a twist, the WWE champion Brock Lesnar announced he would enter in at number one and take on each fellow participant to show that he is the conquerer of WWE. One by one each participant from Smackdown, Raw, and NXT came down only to be eliminated by Lesnar. It wasn’t until Drew McIntyre down to the ring and finally eliminated the champion with one Claymore Kick. The fans were stunned as Lesnar hit the floor.
It then became McIntyre’s coming out party as the ring began to fill with other superstars. With each entrant, another was eliminated; in the end, it came down to four men. Of the four, Edge and Randy Orton teamed up against Roman Reigns and Drew McIntyre only for Edge to turn on Orton and eliminate his one-time tag team partner. After Orton was eliminated Roman Reigns made short work of Edge and left it to him and McIntyre to duke it out for the chance to headline the showcase of the immortals. However, it was McIntyre’s quick thinking the reversed and spear from Reigns into a Claymore Kick that ended the match. As Drew stood tall it was clear that a star was born and he had one target, the man he eliminated earlier Brock Lesnar.
