WWE Royal Rumble 2019 Results: AJ Styles and Biggest Winners and Losers

The WWE Royal Rumble is an event that sets the tone for the rest of the year for both the company and its wrestlers.

It's an important show for someone to make a name for themselves and build momentum that can carry them into WrestleMania season and beyond.

With 30 men and women in the titular matches, it's easy for most wrestlers to become just another cog in the WWE machine, but between the Battle Royals and the championship matches on the card, there were still plenty of opportunities to stand out.

Some of those are in a good way, with new champions crowned and No. 1 contenders established, as well as great performances throughout the night; others aren't so lucky, becoming fodder for the Royal Rumble, losing a title or putting on a bad show.

Out of the vast array of characters who appeared at the 2019 Royal Rumble, here are the biggest winners and losers of the show.

WWE Royal Rumble 2019 results

• Bobby Roode and Chad Gable defeated Rezar and Scott Dawson by pinfall
• Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Rusev to win the United States Championship
• Fatal 4-Way Match: Buddy Murphy defeated Akira Tozawa, Kalisto and Hideo Itami by pinfall to retain the Cruiserweight Championship
• Asuka defeated Becky Lynch by submission to retain the SmackDown Women's Championship
• The Miz and Shane McMahon defeated The Bar by pinfall to win the SmackDown Tag Team Championship
• Ronda Rousey defeated Sasha Banks by pinfall to retain the Raw Women's Championship
• Becky Lynch won the 30-woman Royal Rumble match
• Daniel Bryan defeated AJ Styles by pinfall to retain the WWE Championship
• Brock Lesnar defeated Finn Balor by submission to retain the Universal Championship
• Seth Rollins won the 30-man Royal Rumble match

This list would be incomplete if no explanation was given as to why several competitors in the championship matches weren't referenced at all.

Given this is a rundown of the biggest winners and losers, it's difficult to attribute much wow factor to folks such as Brock Lesnar, Finn Balor, Daniel Bryan, Ronda Rousey, Sasha Banks and Asuka.

Lesnar's win over Balor is something everyone should be used to by now. It didn't bury the Irishman to make him a total loser, but nor did he achieve anything in his loss. Equally, The Beast Incarnate's win does nothing to boost his credibility.

Bryan retaining over Styles was a win but a weak one. He's hardly worthy of being considered one of the biggest winners of the night.

Rousey and Banks had a hard-fought match together and deserve to be praised, yet again. The former UFC star is undefeated and another victory isn't much of a surprise, while The Boss fought admirably and shouldn't be trashed for her efforts.

Asuka's win over Becky Lynch is another good step forward for The Empress of Tomorrow. However, is anybody really talking about her at this point after beating the woman who would go on to win the Royal Rumble later in the show?

These men and women were winners and losers to varying degrees but not enough to classify them as true standouts on this list.

It's painfully obvious the Raw tag team division is in shambles as WWE has never fully focused on that side of things even when the roster was stronger than it currently is.

Going into Royal Rumble, there were no matches scheduled to represent this division on the card, and the consolation prize in an attempt to rectify that served only to highlight the flaws even more.

On the pre-show, Drake Maverick explained how Rezar came to team with Scott Dawson and if they defeated Bobby Roode and Chad Gable, The Authors of Pain and The Revival would somehow get title opportunities.

AOP is already hurt with Akam's injury and The Revival have suffered losses for so long that it's no wonder everyone is just waiting for Dawson and Dash Wilder to leave WWE altogether.

Being thrown on to the pre-show—the section of the night that matters least—so you can lose to the lackluster makeshift team of Roode and Gable and fail to earn a title shot when there aren't any other contenders in the division is just awful.

This was one more beat to the drum that the powers that be are simply not invested in this aspect of the company and probably never will be, no matter how many empty promises they make.

Rusev and Lana had a terrible Royal Rumble experience for three different reasons.

On the pre-show, Lana's attempt to stop Shinsuke Nakamura from cheating was unsuccessful, and by the end of the match, she managed to get injured and Rusev lost the United States Championship.

As if that wasn't enough, the injury came back to bite Lana when it prevented her from competing in the Royal Rumble match.

The Ravishing Russian tried her best to hobble to the ring, but after an attack by Nia Jax, she was unable to compete. Her spot went to Becky Lynch, who managed to win the whole event. 

The couple will need to regroup after this event where nothing went right for either of them.

Winning a match in any fashion is a good thing, but there are far more levels to what The Miz and Shane McMahon accomplished at Royal Rumble than just that.

They have only tangentially teamed together in easier scenarios with less pressure, yet despite their lack of history together, they managed to upset five-time tag team champions The Bar to capture their titles.

A championship victory is that much sweeter and impressive as we head into WrestleMania season.

Unless everything is undone and they drop the titles before April 7, this essentially secures a spot for McMahon and The Miz in a title bout at the Show of Shows.

From within the storyline eyes of the company, this is a major feat and something that is sure to be celebrated by both men.

While Becky Lynch was unable to regain the SmackDown Women's Championship after tapping out to Asuka, she traded that defeat in for an even bigger win.

Despite not even being entered in the Royal Rumble match, The Irish Lass Kicker capitalized on the injury to Lana and the lack of a No. 28 entrant by convincing WWE producer Fit Finlay to let her take The Ravishing Russian's place.

This proved to be the luck of the draw as Lynch didn't step into the match until after all the other competitors had already been fighting, so she was fresh, albeit still bruised from her earlier title bout.

The Man has captured the imagination of the WWE Universe and by winning the second women's Royal Rumble match, she has also secured a title match at WrestleMania 35.

Knowing the way things are going, she will be looking to Ronda Rousey; and if this momentum keeps up, she'll go down in history as being in the first women's main event at the showpiece in April.

AJ Styles is far from a loser in the ranks of WWE, particularly after his year-long title reign, but the Royal Rumble was not his best night.

His match against Daniel Bryan left much to the imagination, which already docks him points on the performance side of this evaluation.

He also lost, which is never beneficial.

Automatic rematches are no longer a thing, and Styles had to fight hard to win this title shot to begin with. Rowan's involvement notwithstanding, would fans actually want to see a sixth match between the two men when this wasn't all that amazing?

Either Styles goes to the back of the line or the next time we see him, he's begging the McMahon Family for another shot. Both scenarios are a major step back for someone who started last year on such a high note.

When it comes to Nia Jax, your view on her Royal Rumble will come down to whether you are optimistic or pessimistic.

On the downbeat side of things, she has somehow lost two Royal Rumble matches on the same night, which is a feat that has never happened before and likely will never happen again.

However, if you're the type of person who thinks getting in the record books in any fashion is a win, then this is a good thing.

By simply competing in the men's Royal Rumble—she scored an elimination and put up a fight—many will view that as a major victory. She's only the fourth female to be in a men's Royal Rumble, she lasted until close to the end in one Battle Royal and etched her name in the record books.

She still hasn't punched her ticket to WrestleMania, though.

Seth Rollins won the men's Royal Rumble match and has earned a title shot against the champion of his choosing for WrestleMania. That in itself explains it all, doesn't it?

Entering in the first third of the draw at No. 10 and outlasting all other Superstars—including those who are bigger, such as Braun Strowman—to leave Phoenix as the winner is a great accomplishment.

Rollins now adds his name to the select few Superstars who have been able to win a Royal Rumble and that is surely a dream that he as a lifelong wrestling fan has had since he was a child.

It's one of the rare things he had not yet done in his WWE career, but he can now cross it off the list.

If he holds true to his word and challenges Brock Lesnar, this may even be the beginning of walking the path to winning the Universal Championship and adding another accolade to his esteemed history.

Plenty other Superstars in the 30-woman Royal Rumble match are worth talking about and should be given a quick mention for their participation.

Losers

Liv Morgan was eliminated in just eight seconds, setting a new record for the shortest women's Royal Rumble time, overtaking last year's quickest of 57 seconds set by Vickie Guerrero.

Mickie James is, arguably, the most disappointing waste of talent as the six-time champion lasted 11 minutes and the only noteworthy thing she did was horribly miss a kick and a punch to Mandy Rose, striking nothing but air.

A special shout-out also has to go to Maria Kanellis. She looked completely out of place among more talented in-ring performers and had the worst spot of the match when she and Alicia Fox became focal points just to fuss over Fox's hat.

Winners:

Xia Li, Candice LeRae, Rhea Ripley, Kairi Sane, Io Shirai and Kacy Catanzaro are all winners in the sense that they surpassed their current roles in NXT to become featured players on the main roster.

While this is likely not a true call-up situation, as evidenced by Sane's performance last year, it's still something to be proud of.

In particular, Catanzaro deserves extra recognition as being one of the true standouts even among veterans and more established Superstars. She outperformed Naomi's spot of saving herself and showed off her amazing agility and athleticism to surely win over many fans who will follow her career with great interest.

Natalya deserves a pat on the back for setting the record for the Iron Woman of the match at over 56 minutes, as well as now the most cumulative time in both Royal Rumbles, clocking in at over 80 minutes total.

Charlotte Flair cannot be overlooked, either, as she lasted the second longest at 50 minutes, was the runner-up and had the most eliminations with five to her name.

Coinciding with the women, the men of the Royal Rumble match were a variety of pros and cons, with some having a good showing and others making fools of themselves.

Losers:

The shortest time for this year went to No Way Jose at just two seconds, but he wasn't alone in this category.

Clocking in at only three seconds was Xavier Woods and right on his heels was Titus O'Neil at five seconds.

Bobby Lashley had an incredibly poor performance, as the intercontinental champion should have been a prime candidate to last a long while and was eliminated in only 13 seconds, which is especially embarrassing knowing the next shortest time was Jinder Mahal, who lasted twice that amount with 29 seconds to his name.

That is, of course, unless you count R-Truth as officially not lasting even one second, since he was attacked and replaced by Nia Jax. In that case, he is by far the biggest loser of this match, doing the worst job with the best possible number.

It's also a shame to say two Hall of Famers couldn't last even four minutes, as Jeff Jarrett was tossed out in 79 seconds and Kurt Angle lasted slightly over three minutes. They obviously did not live up to their reputations.

The last set of losers for this match are the NXT call-ups who were completely missing from the equation, for some reason. Despite being advertised often the past month, there was no appearance from EC3, Otis Dozovic, Tucker Knight or Lars Sullivan.

That isn't a great start to their main roster careers to be overlooked like this and forgotten about in a match with room for at least one of them to do something.

Winners:

Braun Strowman and Drew McIntyre were the most dominant men in this match, scoring the most eliminations.

For anyone keeping track of the longest times, Seth Rollins topped the list at 43 minutes, but the second place score goes to Mustafa Ali with 30 minutes to his name—an impressive time for a first Royal Rumble and for someone who was on 205 Live just a few months back.

Also, any time someone from NXT is able to wrestle on a major event like this, they're going to walk away happy even if they lose, so Aleister Black, Pete Dunne and Johnny Gargano were big winners in that regard.

Who would you classify as the biggest winners and losers of WWE Royal Rumble 2019? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below

Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.