12 Ups And 8 Downs From WWE Royal Rumble 2016

By Scott Carlson /

4. 100 MPH Last Man Standing Match

A special kudos needs to be give aside from the show-stealing quality of the Dean Ambrose/Kevin Owens Intercontinental Championship match. Owens and Ambrose engaged in a Last Man Standing match, a stipulation that has yielded mixed results through the years. It€™s often designed to put a period (or an exclamation point) on a feud, ending the rivalry in dramatic fashion. But one of the biggest drawbacks to these types of matches is the fact that you have to have a ref counting to 10 multiple times throughout the bout, often reaching 8 or 9. This means that the action screeches to a halt, then picks up momentarily, only to stop again. But Owens and Ambrose went 100 MPH (or 160 KMH) from the opening bell, hitting vicious moves on each other, including: Owens cannonball through the timekeeper€™s area; KO stabbing Ambrose with a broken kendo stick; Ambrose elbow dropping KO through a table; Owens hitting a fisherman€™s suplex through a table; and of course, Ambrose shoving Owens off the top rope through a double stack of tables.All of that was vicious, crisp and fast-paced. It made for a high-octane Last Man Standing match rather than something that ground to a halt multiple times. And the fans ate it up from beginning to end.