The Best Match From Every 2021 WWE PPV

While it would be incorrect to suggest that Royal Rumble 2021 was a one-match show, selecting the match of the night was a foregone conclusion.

WWE again opted for building box office instead of future stars, having Drew McIntyre defend the WWE Championship against 54-year-old Goldberg in a two-minute blitz. Women's Champions Asuka and Sasha Banks were needlessly tied to the Women's Tag Team Championship picture and a placeholder feud with Carmella respectively. Sadly, even as satisfying as Bianca Belair and Edge's Rumble moments were, the matches themselves seemed disjointed and out of rhythm due to the lack of energy and enthusiasm that would have come with a live crowd. Fortunately, the Last Man Standing Match between The Tribal Chief and The Prizefighter was riveting from bell to bell.

A dizzying blizzard of bodies flying through ring steps, tables, LED boards, golf cart windshields and from the peak of an elevated forklift, Reigns and Owens' brawl had echoes not just of their previous Rumble tilt in 2017, but Mankind and The Rock's Empty Arena Match from more than 20 years prior. The climax briefly went askew when Owens handcuffed Reigns to a lighting trellis, rendering him unable to return to his feet, but it wasn't enough to derail the tension or the quality of the contest.

The champion improvised beautifully, incapacitating the counting referee by slamming him into the trellis and buying time for Special Counsel Paul Heyman to extricate him. A Guillotine Choke moments later would seal Owens' fate.