WWE Royal Rumble 2022 recap, review: Rousey returns as women steal show

By Ryan Satin
FOX Sports WWE Analyst

ST. LOUIS — WWE is officially on the Road to WrestleMania after the Royal Rumble on Saturday, and two huge stars are in the driver’s seats.

Before I unpack my thoughts on Saturday’s event, here are the quick results:

- Seth Rollins defeated Roman Reigns via DQ

- Ronda Rousey won the Women’s Royal Rumble, last eliminating Charlotte Flair

- Becky Lynch retained the Raw Women’s title over Doudrop via pinfall

- Bobby Lashley defeated Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship

- Edge and Beth Phoenix defeated Miz and Maryse

- Brock Lesnar won the Men’s Royal Rumble, last eliminating Drew McIntyre

ROYAL RUMBLE HIGHS

Ronda Rousey returns

Even with rumors of her return running rampant on social media in the days leading up to the event, the live audience was truly stunned to see "The Baddest Woman on the Planet" back in WWE after such a long hiatus.

Ronda winning the Royal Rumble also creates actual intrigue over which opponent she’ll choose to face on "The Grandest Stage of Them All" in April, which will hopefully spice things up on TV over the next few weeks.

Becky Lynch would seem to be Rousey’s obvious choice due to their built-in rivalry and fans craving a singles match between the two, but Charlotte can’t be disregarded either based on how the Rumble match concluded.

Plus, if you think back, the only singles match between Charlotte Flair and Ronda ended in DQ after Charlotte brutalized Rousey with a kendo stick at the 2018 Survivor Series. This was a big moment in the story arc of Ronda’s character, as the hometown audience heavily boo’ed her after, causing Rousey to turn on the fans.

Bobby Lashley wins the WWE Championship

Not only was this a good match, but the decision to have Bobby go over Brock was the right call to make. Lashley has been positioned as one of the strongest competitors in all of WWE, and a loss to Lesnar could have been detrimental to how fans would’ve viewed him going forward.

Showing the WWE Universe instead that he’s on the same level as Brock — even if he got help from Roman Reigns in the end — keeps his positioning intact and makes their rematch that much more enticing.

Shield Seth Rollins

Seth going full Shield for his match against Roman Reigns ruled (even if he didn’t bring back the blonde streak).

First, the entrance was fantastic.

Using the old Shield theme music and coming out through the crowd in their iconic outfit was genius. The crowd was going nuts in the stadium, and I was right there with them, losing my mind.

This, combined with Rollins using his old move-set and the attempt to get a fist bump from Reigns, made for a nice gift to the core WWE audience who have watched The Shield’s journey from the start.

I’ll admit, I was a bit disappointed by the lack of an actual finish between Roman and Seth, but it’s hard to complain when that’s done in lieu of a better way to extend a program between two of the top performers of this generation.

The chair shot attack from Roman Reigns at the end was top-notch storytelling, too, so I really can’t be mad at the outcome. The mind games from Seth Rollins worked — just too well, and he paid for it. Simple, yet deep. Good stuff. 

Women’s Royal Rumble match

In my opinion, this was the better Rumble match of the night.

We got Superstars from all eras, a big return in Ronda Rousey, fun moments like Ivory doing the Right to Censor gimmick, Nikki Bella getting the opportunity to wrestle again, Molly Holly vs. Nikki A.S.H., Mickie James with the Impact Knockouts title making her entrance to "Hardcore Country" and a satisfying conclusion.

My only complaint is that Sasha Banks was eliminated a bit too early, as the live audience seemed disappointed by her exit. It’s possible, however, that this was done as a precautionary measure due to her recent injury, which is totally understandable.

ROYAL RUMBLE LOWS

Men’s Royal Rumble

Don’t get me wrong, I’m loving everything Brock Lesnar is doing right now, and I’m not even complaining about the fact that he won — I just would’ve liked some kayfabe reasoning as to why he was included in the Rumble pool after being in a title match earlier in the night.

Even something as simple as Brock beating up another Superstar in the entranceway and taking their spot would’ve sufficed.

Why were Finn Balor and Cesaro not in the match, but Brock was? This might be a minor detail to some, but to me, it was a glaring issue.

On the bright side, Bad Bunny's surprising appearance and top-notch performance was a lot of fun, as was Johnny Knoxville's time in the Rumble.

I also wasn’t a fan of Big E being tossed out after so little time spent in the match. I’m not sure if it was because of Kofi’s accidental elimination, or that was the plan all along, but the guy was WWE Champion a month ago. If WWE wants to build new stars, quickly eliminating their most recent former champion from a match of this caliber is not the way to do it.

Same goes for Drew McIntyre being eliminated by Brock Lesnar to finish the match. Doing that rendered McIntyre’s WrestleMania story over "The Beast" at the start of the pandemic almost pointless to a degree.

All of these things had me feeling slightly underwhelmed in the end.

Ryan Satin is a WWE analyst for FOX Sports. Satin previously appeared on FS1's "WWE Backstage" and founded Pro Wrestling Sheet, where he broke countless news stories as editor-in-chief.