International talent big winners at WWE Royal Rumble
Asuka made history by winning the inaugural Women’s Royal Rumble, and her Japanese counterpart, Shinsuke Nakamura, won the Men’s Royal Rumble during the WWE Royal Rumble on Sunday, Jan. 28 live on WWE Network and pay-per-view from the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
The Women’s Royal Rumble main evented the card. Current WWE Superstars mixed with plenty of legends including Vickie Guerrero, Molly Holly, Jacqueline, Kelly Kelly, Lita, Michelle McCool, Beth Phoenix, Torrie Wilson and Trish Stratus, who entered at No.30 of 30 women.
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The Final Four featured the Bella Twins (Brie and Nikki), Sasha Banks and Asuka. The Bellas teamed to eliminate Banks, who did tremendous, making the Final Four after being the first entrant in the match. Instead of double teaming Asuka, Nikki turned on her sister and eliminated her better half, setting up the confrontation with the undefeated Asuka, who prevailed.
In the men’s Rumble, WWE alums Hurricane Helms and Rey Mysterio participated.
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Some other familiar faces made the Final Four. John Cena and Roman Reigns joined Nakamura and Finn Balor of The Balor Club. Like Banks, Balor had a strong showing. He was the second entrant in the Rumble. BTW, Balor and Banks are teammates in the Mixed Match Challenge on Facebook Watch.
Cena eliminated Balor, before Nakamura eliminated Cena and Reigns to win it.
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Brock Lesnar with Paul Heyman is still the Universal champ, winning a three-way with Kane and Braun Strowman, and AJ Styles retained his WWE title, beating Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn in a 2-on-1 handicap match.
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Asuka and Nakamura earned major title matches at WrestleMania 34, which is April 8 in New Orleans.
To close the show, former UFC star Ronda Rousey appeared, standing in the ring with Asuka, SmackDown Women’s Champ Chrlotte Flair and Raw Women’s Champ Alexa Bliss. Rousey shocked everyone as the newest member of the main roster and wants to wrestle at WrestleMania 34.
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Earlier in the show, The Usos (Jimmy and Jey) retained the SmackDown tag belts, defeating Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin 2-0 in a best-of-three match. DuDu-Dut-DuDuuuu Sheamus and Cesaro regained the Raw tag team titles, beating Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan.
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For more Royal Rumble results and information, click:
http://www.wwe.com/shows/royalrumble
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This story was originally published January 29, 2018 at 5:19 AM with the headline "International talent big winners at WWE Royal Rumble."