10 Awesome Wrestling Matches That Had Harsh Consequences

For all the predictability surrounding recent Royal Rumble events, the 2016 pay-per-view was actually one of the year’s better cards. It kicked-off with a visceral Last Man Standing match between Intercontinental Champion Dean Ambrose and Kevin Owens, and while the Tag Team, United States, and Divas Title matches didn’t set the world on fire, none of them disappointed.

The Rumble itself was tremendous. It loses points for the predictable outcome, but with AJ Styles’ debut, The Wyatt Family’s dominance, and Sami Zayn’s surprise appearance to battle Kevin Owens, the match had much to cheer about. It wasn’t at the level of classic Rumbles like 1992 and 2001, but it was a great match overall, and one that’d be considered among the all-time greats if not for the Roman Reigns/Triple H-induced predictability.

Sadly, the Rumble’s outcome effectively doomed WWE to four months of creative purgatory. This event typically sets the tone for the rest of the year, particularly heading into WrestleMania, and in setting-up Reigns vs. Triple H as an obvious ‘Mania main event program, WWE killed their audience's interest levels. Raw limped through several months of turgid programming en route to a match that nobody wanted to see, and by making Triple H vs. Reigns their first quarter centerpiece, WWE effectively wrote 2016 off early.