After losing both a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match and a Steel Cage match, it appeared that Kevin Owens had used up all his chances at the Universal Championship. Luckily for him, Adam Pearce got on the bad side of Roman Reigns and found himself having to duck a game against the champion tonight (Sun 31 Jan 2021) WWE Royal Rumble pay-per-view (PPV) at the ThunderDome at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.
He managed to do that by agreeing to a Last Man Standing match and then citing an injury that required a replacement. Owens must be that replacement.
In a fun bit of trivia, Reigns challenged Owens for the universal title at Royal Rumble in 2017 in a No DQ match that Owens saw retained.
This time it was Roman’s turn to keep.
They had a great physical competition first, with Owens getting some crazy bumps. That included being thrown off a platform via a table below:
And rules him over with a golf cart:
Later Owens jumped from a pallet high in the air onto a forklift and put Reigns through a table underneath. Later still Reigns guided Owens through the stage.
Towards the end there was a great false finish, with Owen handcuffed Reigns in such a way that he couldn’t get up. The referee got up to 9 and Roman, seeing no other way out, threw him into a bar to stop the count. A new referee showed up after a while, Paul Heyman took the cuffs off and Reigns put Owens to sleep with a guillotine choke.
Get complete Royal Rumble results and coverage of every game on the map here.