13 Ups And 16 Downs From WWE Royal Rumble 2019

7. Cruiserweights Unload

cruiser 4 way
WWE.com

By now, it’s basically a given that the Cruiserweight Championship matches at WWE PPVs will be on the kickoff show, but Sunday’s fatal four-way got a pretty prime spot as the last match before the regular PPV started.

Buddy Murphy, Akira Tozawa, Hideo Itami and Kalisto unloaded on each other with kicks, strikes and lucha-style moves at rapid-fire pace in a match that flew by in a frenzy. The crowd, somewhat quiet at first, livened up as things heated up in the ring, which is about the best compliment you could ask for from fans who weren’t invested in the match initially.

In the end, Murphy continued his dominance of the purple brand, pinning Itami after a Murphy’s Law. But hats off to all four for a fast-paced, enjoyable match to kickoff the evening.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.