Ranking Every WWE Title Match At Royal Rumble - From Worst To Best

3. Royal Rumble 2017 - AJ Styles Vs. John Cena

The Rock CM Punk
WWE

Many feared how WWE would use AJ Styles once the Phenomenal One debuted in the 2016 Royal Rumble. One year later, P1 was the WWE Champion and had put on banging matches with Chris Jericho, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, and John Cena.

Having got the better of Cena at 2016's Money in the Bank, SummerSlam, and No Mercy PPVs - No Mercy being a triple threat featuring Ambrose - Styles walked into the 2017 Rumble with SmackDown's biggest prize over his shoulder.

Big Match John would get the win here, picking up his 16th World Championship, but more importantly the match somehow managed to top the fantastic bouts the pair had put on previously. This was two masters of their craft putting together something special, with Styles reiterating just how good he was and Cena once again proving the haters wrong.

While this win for the one-time Doctor of Thuganomics saw him embark on what currently stands as his last reign atop the WWE tree, AJ Styles would regain the WWE Title by November of that year. There, the former Bullet Club leader toppled Jinder Mahal at a Manchester, England episode of SmackDown, in turn setting up Styles to face Brock Lesnar in a Champion vs. Champion contest at Survivor Series '17.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.