WWE Royal Rumble 2016: 10 Things We Learned

10. The Kickoff Match Proved Pointless

It's an arguable point, but there may not have been a more useless Kickoff bout than the one featured right before the Royal Rumble pay-per-view began. The Dudley Boyz and The Ascension were the only proper tag-teams presented, and they were joined by the barmy duos of Darren Young and Damien Sandow as well as Mark Henry and Jack Swagger. The winner secured two spots in the Rumble match. Out of nowhere, Henry and Swagger emerged victorious, which seemed like a fairly random decision. It's entirely plausible that WWE only did this to give Henry (a man who is coming to the end of his career) one last shot at performing in the match. As it later turned out, the result was pointless. Both Henry and Swagger only lasted less than a few minutes (combined) in the Rumble, doing little of note while they were involved. Surely fans would have much preferred seeing Bubba Ray and D-Von enter the bout and perform their trademark routine.
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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood.