Royal Rumble Results

The 2016 of the WWE PPV Royal Rumble was Sunday night. As usual, the Monday night after a PPV is typically a good Raw episode. Last night's will be remembered for the following:

1. Spoiler alert, Triple H won the Royal Rumble so he is now the WWE Champion. He goes on to Wrestlemania to face someone. Vince McMahon, his daughter Stephanie, and Triple H came out to start the episode and announced that the they (the stable known as "The Authority") would evaluate all of the wrestlers and then decide who will be in the next PPV (Fastlane) main event and that that winner would go on to Wrestlemania to face Triple H. 
2. AJ Styles, who I enjoyed watching in TNA and Ring of Honor, fought Chris Jericho. It was Styles' first ever Raw match. Styles won, which is good. Jericho is a part-time wrestler and probably only going to be on Raw as long as it takes for Fozzy, his heavy metal band, to be ready to record another album. I will say, though, Styles looked a bit rusty in the ring. I don't think there was good chemistry between the two. The camera showed Jericho calling out the next move during the match, which is bad. That said, there were a couple of moves that impressed me based upon the decades I have watched hundreds of pro wrestling matches. The best was when Styles was in the Walls of Jericho submission move (which must really hurt as Styles' body was bent in a way that I could never be bent) and crawled across the ring to break the hold instead of tapping out. A jaded viewer like me never  sincerely thought Jericho was going to get the victory against Styles, especially since Styles probably required a good sum of money. What would have been interesting would be to have Bubba Ray Dudley, who Styles fought in TNA, come out and either congratulate or beat down Styles after the match. Instead, Styles offered Jericho a handshake - which is what the wrestlers in Ring of Honor do before a match - which Jericho reluctantly accepted. It would be interesting to see Styles / Jericho become tag team partners with an eventual betrayal by Styles to make Jericho the face and Styles the heel.
3. The Rock showed up and wow, he's entertaining. As he was doing his promo, he noticed some fans dressed up as other professional wrestlers - The Undertaker, Hulk Hogan, The Rock, and Macho Man Randy Savage - and said, into the microphone, "This is where we leave the script." It was an impromptu move and the Rock, charismatic as ever, pulled off the segment. When the New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods) came out to interrupt him, he asked why they were the tag team champions when they had llama penises on their forehead. The crowd ate it up and started chanting, "llama penis!" It was genuinely funny. The Rock stated that he would be at Wrestlemania and, when he said that, the thought flashed in my mind that Triple H and The Rock had an uneasy promo a while back about who won more matches between them. I thought it was going to be a setup for The Rock v. Triple H at Wrestlemania.
4. For the main event, it was Roman Reigns / Dean Ambrose v. Sheamus / Rusev in a tag team match. Reigns / Ambrose were referred to as "brothers in arms" by the WWE announcers a couple of times during the match. After Reigns got the win, I sincerely thought that The Authority would put Reigns v. Ambrose in the Fastlane main event as a way to screw with Reigns even more. Instead, The Authority announced that the Fastlane main event would be a triple threat match, announcing that it would be Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, and -- here's where I thought they would name Sheamus -- Brock Lesnar. After the announcement, the camera focused on the reaction from Reigns & Ambrose because, now, they have to fight each other for the chance to face Triple H at Wrestlemania 32. Even though we've seen the "friends fighting friends" angle before, I'm predicting the WWE announcers will follow the storyline that in order to fight Triple H, Reigns not only has to fight Lesnar, an enemy, but also his friend, Ambrose. I must say, the way WWE pulls this angle off will be very interesting.