WWE Royal Rumble 2021: Every Match Ranked From Worst To Best
The Road to WrestleMania begins in style.
Despite the lack of a live crowd - as is especially important for this of all events - the 2021 Royal Rumble largely delivered beyond expectations.
With two highly entertaining Rumble matches - one genuinely great, the other very good - and a breezy undercard that (mostly) didn't outstay its welcome bar one exception, this year's show was a solidly crowd-pleasing delight.
The Road to WrestleMania has been charted in ways both satisfyingly predictable and totally unexpected, giving WWE a few months to capitalise on these developments and create an exciting build to the Big One.
Whether that'll happen or not remains to be seen of course, but here's hoping.
While not strictly a Rumble event for the ages that fans are likely to count among the classics 20 years from now, WWE avoided some of the show's historic pitfalls while doing their best to compensate for the void left by the absence of an in-person audience.
It moved fast, accepted the obvious limitation of its production, and delivered an entertaining night of wrestling. What more could you really ask for?
6. WWE Women's Tag Titles: Asuka & Charlotte Flair (c) Vs. Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler
Result: Nia Jax kills Charlotte with the worst leg drop you've ever seen to win herself and Shayna the titles (10:30).
Rating: This was a whole lotta nothing, even with the mildly surprising result.
There was no flow or energy to the action even when Nia was out of the ring, the unnecessary distraction shenanigans made Charlotte look like a total geek, and Nia once again confirmed every bad thing that's ever been said about her.
Between saddling Shayna with a title reign nobody cares about and making everyone suspect Charlotte might go on to win the Rumble, this was pretty aggravating.
As wrestling on its own terms, this was pure white noise: it was clear nobody in the match cared much about it, so why should we? 4/10