Autobiography of roman reigns 2016 royal rumble

American professional wrestler (born 1985)

Leati Joseph "Joe" Anoaʻi (Samoan pronunciation:[a.noˈaʔ.i]ah-no-AH ee; born May 25, 1985), better known by his ring nameRoman Reigns, is an American professional wrestler and former football player. He is signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand. Regarded as one of the best professional wrestlers in the world, Reigns's 1,316-day reign as Undisputed WWE Universal Heavyweight Champion is the fourth-longest world title reign in WWE history and the longest championship reign since 1988.

After playing U.S. college football for Georgia Tech, Anoaʻi started a professional football career with brief off-season stints with the Minnesota Vikings and Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League (NFL) in 2007. He played a full season for the Canadian Football League's (CFL) Edmonton Eskimos in 2008 before his release and retirement from football. A member of the Anoaʻi wrestling family, Anoaʻi was signed by WWE in 2010 and made his main roster debut under the ring name Roman Reigns in 2012 as a member of The Shield alongside Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins: with Rollins, Reigns has held the WWE Tag Team Championship once. The trio teamed together until disbanding in 2014, after which Reigns entered singles competition.

From 2014 to 2020, WWE positioned Reigns as a heroic character and attempted to establish him as their next "face of the company", which was met with intense disapproval by audiences and critics. During this period, Reigns won the WWE Championship three times, the WWE Universal Championship once, the WWE United States Championship and WWE Intercontinental Championship once each, was named Superstar of the Year at the 2014 Slammy Awards and won the Royal Rumble match in 2015. After a hiatus, Reigns was repackaged as a villainous character between 2020 and 2024,^[14&#

The 2016 Royal Rumble match was an event where WWE did something for the first time ever. It was the first time where the WWE Championship was defended by the champion, who was Roman Reigns.

It’s not the first time where the WWE Title would go to the winner because we all remember the 1992 Royal Rumble with Ric Flair’s win, but this was a special occasion where the champion was forced to defend the title. That’s because the evil bosses Vince McMahon, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon wanted to make things tough on Roman, who was the babyface WWE Champion even though the fans weren’t fully behind Reigns. It was a one match show in a lot of ways, but the undercard did have some intriguing matches.

This review was originally written on the night it happened in 2016. I added some thoughts in blue font because there’s always more to say.

WWE Royal Rumble
Amway Center in Orlando, Florida
January 24, 2016

The show begins with a limo pulling up as Vince McMahon and Stephanie McMahon arrived. They were interviewed by Jojo. Vince said they’re giving Roman Reigns an opportunity. Vince knelt down to make fun of Jojo’s height. He said that Roman can make history and Stephanie went over the same point. He said he loves this night “almost as much as I love me.”

Analysis: Even on a PPV we have to start with a promo. At least it was about two minutes only instead of 15 minutes in the ring!

A video package aired setting up the Royal Rumble with a focus on Roman Reigns of course.

The pyro and crowd shots showed that it was a sellout, which is no surprise for an event like the Royal Rumble.

Dean Ambrose is out first for the IC Title match. The announce team for the show are Michael Cole, John Bradshaw Layfield and Byron Saxton. They replaced Lawler with Saxton likely because Lawler’s a heel announcer on Smackdown, so putting him with JBL would be weird with having two heels out there. Kevin Owens entered as well.

00:00:00And here we go, Rusev and Roman Reigns start things off in the 2016 Royal Rumble match.

00:00:10The road to WrestleMania is underway.

00:00:12I can promise you one thing,

00:00:14they got a long way to go and they can't keep up this pace.

00:00:17In 29 years of the Royal Rumble match,

00:00:21two superstars have won the entire thing entering number one.

00:00:24Two superstars have won the entire match entering number two.

00:00:28The odds, not in the favor of either one of these men.

00:00:32And the record as you saw in that battle firing voiced over was Rey Mysterio, 2006.

00:00:4062 minutes, 12 seconds, also Mr. McMahon at number two, 1999.

00:00:45And look at Rusev looking to eliminate Roman Reigns.

00:00:47If Roman Reigns is eliminated here, guaranteed to have a new champion tonight.

00:00:50Imagine what that would do for

00:00:52Rusev to be the man who eliminated Roman Reigns from the Royal Rumble matchup.

00:00:56Hey, the McMahons could start the party early.

00:00:59Can you imagine if Rusev eliminates Roman right now?

00:01:02We know for sure we'll have a new WWE World Heavyweight Champion.

00:01:05Roman went through the second rope, not over the top.

00:01:07Remember, over the top rope, both feet hit the floor, you're eliminated.

00:01:11Reigns went through the second rope, he's still in this match.

00:01:15Not sure if Rusev realizes.

00:01:17I don't think he did.

00:01:19I think Rusev thought that Reigns may have been eliminated.

00:01:22He just realized that drive-by.

00:01:24It was a translation error.

00:01:25And a spear by Roman.

00:01:26And now Rusev sent over the top rope and he's eliminated.

00:01:33And Roman Reigns sent in a tweet earlier today, light him up, throw him over.

00:01:42This is key for Roman Reigns, keep the numbers down,

00:01:44keep the advantage in your corner.

00:01:47Is it?

00:01:49Can it be?

00:01:51It is.

00:01:53The Phenomenal One is here.

00:01:55AJ Styl

WWE pay-per-view and livestreaming event

The 2016 Royal Rumble was the 29th annual Royal Rumbleprofessional wrestlingpay-per-view (PPV) and livestreamingevent produced by WWE. It took place on January 24, 2016, at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. The event was also the fifth Royal Rumble pay-per-view to be held in the state of Florida, after the 1990, 1991, 1995, and 2006 events, the second to be held in Orlando (after 1990), and WWE's first pay-per-view event to be held at the Amway Center.

Traditionally since 1993, the Royal Rumble match winner receives a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. For the 2016 event, however, Roman Reigns was scheduled to defend the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in the 2016 Royal Rumble match and as the number one entrant. This was the main event match, which was won by the returning Triple H, who eliminated Reigns before lastly eliminating Dean Ambrose to win the championship. This was Triple H's second Royal Rumble win and he became the third person to win the match as the number 30 entrant. This was only the second time that a Royal Rumble winner won the world championship for winning the eponymous match, after the 1992 event, where the vacant title was the prize, however, it was the first in which the reigning champion defended the title in the match.

Five other matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. The event was notable for the WWE pay-per-view debut of longtime Total Nonstop Action Wrestling mainstay AJ Styles as the third entrant in the Royal Rumble match. This was also the last Royal Rumble event to be held before the reintroduction of the brand extension in July.

Production

Background

The Royal Rumble is an annual gimmickevent produced every January by WWE since 1988. It is one of the promotion's original four pay-per-views (PPV), along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, dubbed the "Big Four".^[2]