WWE Royal Rumble 2018: Every Match Ranked From Worst To Best

2. 30-Woman Royal Rumble

Result: Asuka eliminates Nikki Bella to win the Rumble (59:10).

Rating: I have to give WWE credit for taking the women's Rumble seriously by avoiding a lot of the pitfalls fans expected, namely a short 35-minute runtime, Stephanie McMahon entering herself into the match, and Ronda Rousey completely undermining it by entering and winning.

None of these things happened: it ran almost as long as the men's Rumble, Steph wore an outfit that screamed "I won't be wrestling tonight", and though Rousey made a bizarre, cringe-worthy appearance post-match, that did little to take away from the well-deserved win for Asuka.

While the men's Rumble saw the legends mostly lasting for a cup of coffee, the women's Rumble generally gave them more domineering roles which was a nice surprise. It was also great to see WWE exploiting Sasha's natural heelishness more than usual.

It's a shame the Bellas did so well here and Asuka probably should've had a better opponent for the final stretch, but despite the surely burning temptation to make a giant news headline out of Ronda winning, they compromised by giving Asuka the victory and saving all that nonsense for afterwards.

A very well-executed first women's Rumble, even if it lacked a little of the electricity of the men's, and there were far too many roll-outs which made the match hard to follow at times. 7/10