Roman Reigns Defeats Kevin Owens at Royal Rumble, Sami Zayn Makes Important Decision

In the main event of tonight's WWE Royal Rumble pay-per-view, Roman Reigns successfully retained the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship against Kevin Owens. After the match ended, Sami Zayn made a career-altering decision by hitting Roman with a steel chair and officially parting ways from The Bloodline.

AN HONORARY UCE NO MORE!@SamiZayn has just betrayed @WWERomanReigns and the entire Bloodline at #RoyalRumble! pic.twitter.com/ZtzAF1xGGD

— WWE (@WWE) January 29, 2023

Match coverage courtesy of Matt Boone of Rajah.com:

Undisputed WWE Universal Championship
Kevin Owens vs. Roman Reigns (C)

Once we return from the ad time out that followed Hardy's performance, we see Michael Cole, Corey Graves and Pat McAfee sitting at ringside promoting NXT Vengeance Day. They switch gears and then we see the pre-match video package for our final match of the evening.

It is main event time here at the 2023 WWE Royal Rumble pay-per-view from The Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.

After the video package wraps up, we return inside the stadium and we hear the familiar sounds of the entrance theme of Kevin Owens. "The Prize Fighter" makes his way out looking pumped up and ready for some fighting. He heads to the ring for our headline bout of the evening.

With Owens settled inside the squared circle, his theme dies down. The familiar sounds of the theme for "The Tribal Chief" plays and out comes the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns accompanied by members of The Bloodline, Sami Zayn and Paul Heyman. The Usos and Solo Sikoa, however, are nowhere to be found at the moment.

As both competitors in our main event are in the ring, the ring announcer begins the final, formal pre-match ring introductions for our championship main event contest. We see Heyman standing by Reigns' side, with Sami Zayn seated on the top rope behind them. Kevin Owens, meanwhile, is seated on the top rope across the ring.

The bell sounds and we're officially off-and-running with this Undisputed WWE Universal Championship main event. "We gonna teach 'em a lesson, tonight!" Reigns says as he circles Owens. The fans break out in a loud "Sami Uso!" chant.

Reigns out-muscles and show-boats with Owens early on, checking in with Zayn at ringside a few times. Owens finally gets in some offense and he turns to Zayn and Heyman at ringside and gives them the D-X "crotch-chop / suck it" gesture. Now the fight hits the floor and Owens and Reigns are duking it out at ringside.

Back in the ring, we see Reigns start to take back over control of the offense. He hits what Michael Cole hesitantly calls a Rock Bottom on Owens and goes for the cover, but "The Prize Fighter" manages to kick out. Reigns is selling his ribs hurting after taking a standing senton from Owens earlier on the floor.

Reigns does his slow, methodical beat down in trademark fashion in the ring for a couple of minutes until Owens starts to shift the offensive momentum in his favor. He knocks Reigns out on the floor and then comes soaring off the ring apron with a frog splash onto "The Tribal Chief" on the floor.

As the action resumes inside the ring, Owens heads to the top-rope and comes off with another frog splash that connects. This time he goes for the follow-up cover, but Reigns kicks out after the count of two. Owens backs in a corner and yells at Reigns to "get up you manipulative piece of ..." before going for a super kick. Reigns ends up avoiding it and connecting with a power bomb of his own for a close near fall, which Owens barely kicks out of.

With Reigns comfortably in the lead, he soaks in the massive audience in attendance and then throws his Ones up in the air, as do Zayn and Heyman at ringside. He drops down to the mat with his mighty fist and sets Owens up for a Superman punch. Owens avoids it initially, but seconds later Reigns does connect with one for a close pin attempt.

Reigns stalks Owens as he gets up slowly and does his "UCE!" yell before charging at Owens looking for a Spear. Owens ends up side-stepping Reigns and guiding him shoulder-first into the steel ring post. Owens comes off the ropes with a picture-perfect swanton bomb for a close pin attempt of his own.

The two end up on the top-rope together. Owens knocks Reigns down and looks to do a moonsault, but Reigns moves away from it at the last moment. Reigns follows up with a Spear and goes for the cover, but Owens kicks out at two.

Moments later we see the ref bumped and then Owens connects with a pop-up power bomb on Reigns. He goes for the immediate follow-up cover and as Michael Cole and the fans count well past three, there is no ref to do so. Owens gets up to see where the ref is and is blasted with a blatant low-blow from behind by "The Tribal Chief."

Reigns looks over and yells at Zayn, who defends himself saying he was told to do nothing. Reigns says he's telling him now to go get him a steel chair. Zayn runs over and grabs one but hesitates before eventually sliding it into the ring. He does and Reigns picks it up but turns around right into a Stunner from Owens.

Owens immediately goes for the cover but somehow Reigns kicks out after two and a half. Zayn nearly has a heart attack and gasps for breath after Reigns barely survives. Owens looks for another pop up power bomb but instead Reigns blasts him on the way down with a Superman punch.

He hits the ropes and blasts Owens with a Spear and immediately covers him, yet somehow Owens again kicks out at two and a half. Zayn again nearly loses his sh*t when that didn't end it. The fans chant "This is Awesome!" and then we see Owens on the ground at ringside recovering.

Zayn yells at him to stay down. Owens tries crawling up Zayn's body. As Owens gets to his feet Reigns charges by him and Spears Owens through the barricade. Reigns heads over and slams the back of Owens' head into the steel ring steps violently. He does the same thing a second time and now Michael Cole starts shouting at the ref to call the match off.

In the ring we see Reigns playing with Owens, who tries to throw a punch, but Reigns simply backs into the ropes and comes at him full steam with another Spear. He goes for the immediate follow-up cover and gets the 1-2-3. Roman Reigns retains the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship in a great main event at what was an absolutely excellent show overall.

Winner and STILL Undisputed WWE Universal Champion: Roman Reigns

All Hell Breaks Loose Within The Bloodline

After the match, Roman Reigns' bad-ass theme song plays as the rest of The Bloodline -- Jimmy and Jey Uso and Solo Sikoa, join Sami Zayn, Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman in the ring. Uso goes to give Zayn his lay and have him officially join The Bloodline, taking the "honorary" away from his name. Reigns tells The Usos to go beat on Owens more first. They oblige.

Now Reigns tells Sikoa to go at it, too. The Usos put Owens' head into a steel chair and then Sikoa runs over and bounces ass-first into it with a huge splash. Now Reigns looks over at Heyman. Heyman hands him two pairs of handcuffs. The Usos take the cuffs and put one side of each pair on his wrists.

They put the others to the ring ropes. Owens is handcuffed and lifeless on the ropes. Reigns gives more orders and The Usos each hit him with super kicks back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back. Owens is completely lifeless and Michael Cole is screaming for them to stop it.

Clearly we're seeing Sami Zayn being tested as to how he'll react to seeing his longtime friend from Canada getting beaten badly. Reigns then grabs a chair and yells at Owens for disrespecting his family in Sami Zayn. He says it's time to show him for good. He backs up and goes to baseball swing the chair at Owens' dome.

Zayn jumps in and stops him. He then pleads with him, acknowledging him and telling him that this is beneath him. Reigns stops and thinks for a moment and then hands the chair to Zayn to do it himself. Reigns yells at Zayn that Owens has been an anchor to him since day one.

He says if he wants to be down with The Bloodline, do it, otherwise go back to "doing Jackass sh*t." He then demands that the hesitant Zayn pull the trigger. Zayn starts to get emotional so Reigns pie-faces him over and over again, shoving his face back with his hand. Reigns then turns and Zayn looks like he's gonna hit Reigns.

He walks forward and does exactly that for probably the loudest pop in human history? Insanely loud. He looks at The Usos and apologizes. Jey Uso in particular gets emotional asking why he did that. Jimmy Uso super kicks him. Jimmy looks at Jey and yells that ain't your brother, I'm your brother.

He kneels down and grounds and pounds Zayn until Solo Sikoa stops him. Sikoa then picks him up and hits Zayn with the Samoan Spike. Reigns is back up and now he directs all of The Bloodline to beat on Zayn. Jey Uso is the only one not doing so, but he looks disgusted as he looks down at Zayn.

The Bloodline all turn at Jey and ask him what he's doing. Reigns focuses on Jey now, who drops down and rolls out of the ring as the fans explode with a loud, collective gasp. He walks alone to the back as the fans pop huge as sh*t and Jey gets emotional walking off. Reigns shakes with anger looking at him from the ring.

Roman Reigns picks the steel chair back up and just absolutely and completely wears it out on Sami Zayn, beating him to a pulp with it and then picking him up by his t-shirt as it stretches and breaks and yells at him as he shakes his lifeless body around. He takes the lay they almost gave Zayn from Sikoa and stands over Zayn.

The fans loudly chant "F*ck you, Roman!" and he acknowledges the chants. He then shreds the blooms off the lay they were going to give Zayn and leaves them sprinkled over Zayn's lifeless body as the fans boo. This is great, great stuff. Unbelievablely good, actually.

The Bloodline members still in the ring leave Zayn laying after tearing his honorary uce shirt off of him. The fans boo as they head up the aisle with Owens still lifeless and handcuffed to the ropes and Zayn completely lifeless and laid out on the mat. One final shot of Roman Reigns talking with The Bloodline is shown as the WWE Royal Rumble 2023 pay-per-view wraps up on that note.

⚡ WWE Royal Rumble Live Coverage and Results (Jan. 28, 2023)

The following are the ongoing live result of tonight's WWE Royal Rumble pay-per-view, courtesy of Matt Boone of Rajah.com: Men's [...]

— Caylon Knox Jan 28, 2023 08:17PM