WWE Royal Rumble 2016: Results and observations from the show

Considering that the last two Royal Rumble events left fans wondering why they even watch professional wrestling, WWE didn't have to do a whole lot to improve upon those catastrophes.

With that being said, WWE did more than enough to improve upon the last two years. Firstly, fans didn't leave the Amway Center in Orlando wanting to revolt like the fans in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia did, which is always good.

But WWE also laid the groundwork for what's to come as we go full steam ahead into WrestleMania season.

We have a lot to unpack from Sunday night's show so let's run through the full match results:

- Pre-show match – Mark Henry & Jack Swagger def. Damien Sandow & Darren Younng, The Ascension & The Dudley Boyz

- WWE Intercontinental championship (Last man standing) – Dean Ambrose def. Kevin Owens

WWE Tag Team championship – The New Day def. The Usos

WWE United States championship – Kalisto def. Alberto Del Rio

WWE Divas championship – Charlotte def. Becky Lynch

WWE World Heavyweight championship – Triple H wins the Royal Rumble

WWE didn't completely mess it up

It took a lot of effort, but WWE finally didn't completely mess up one of its most anticipated matches of the year for the third year in a row.

This year's Royal Rumble was well paced, had one major surprise and actually had some storyline development, something that was noticeably missing from last year's match. We got to see some potential stories sprout up such as Brock Lesnar versus The Wyatt Family or Kevin Owens versus AJ Styles or even Owens versus Sami Zayn.

While I don't completely agree with everything WWE did on Sunday night, I am happy overall that I left the Royal Rumble excited to what was going to happen heading into WrestleMania, as oppose to dreading it.

Good job, WWE. You didn't completely mess it up three years in a row. Now, let's see if you can do a good job two years in a row. I hope that's not asking too much.

Triple H wins the WWE World Heavyweight championship

For the 14th time in his illustrious career, Triple H has won a world championship.

Triple H claimed world title No. 14 after winning the Royal Rumble Sunday as the 30th and final entrant. He disposed of Dean Ambrose, who received a massive reaction from the Orlando fans hoping he would claim the gold, but Triple H found a way to get it done not only for himself, but also The Authority.

I know some people may see Triple H being the WWE World Heavyweight champion in 2016 as sacrilege, but it doesn't anger me any because it's not like he's going to have the title for a lengthy period of time. The longest I can see him holding it is until WrestleMania.

Also, from a storyline perspective this makes sense. If The Authority really doesn't want Reigns to hold the title, then why wouldn't one of them enter the Rumble to win it themselves. This is where Triple H steps in.

Now, Reigns is left with no title again and has to fight his way back up to reclaim his title. Everything WWE has done up until this point leads to this being a part of the story.

Hopefully, and I know this may be asking a lot, but hopefully once Triple H loses the title, The Authority can come to a much needed end. It needs to stop already.

We are creeping up on three years since that faithful night in Los Angeles, when Triple H helped Randy Orton cash in Money in the Bank on Daniel Bryan to kick this entire thing off. It is time to write the final chapter of this book. Please, WWE. End this madness at WrestleMania or very soon after.

WWE doesn't do Roman Reigns any favors

While WWE can do us all a favor by eventually putting a stop to The Authority, I don't think it did Reigns many favors Sunday night.

While the storyline of him losing the title makes sense, it just cut his title reign short at just over a month. Since he lost it, he now has to make that ascent back to the top to get it back.

While that is a good story in theory, the problem is that we just saw that story play out in November and December. We just saw The Authority knock Reigns down only for him to overcome the adversity and become champion. It worked like a charm in Philadelphia back on Dec. 14. I'm not so sure it'll work again if it happens from a WrestleMania crowd, which is never afraid to voice its opinion one way or another.

Speaking of fans voicing their opinions, the fans in Orlando spoke loudly Sunday night and the consensus was that they were not all that high on Reigns. Now, it is not the first time Reigns has been largely booed. It's not even the first it has happened at the Royal Rumble.

But this time just stuck out to me more than the others.

I will admit that WWE has done a relatively good job with Reigns since Tables, Ladders and Chairs, which helped him get more favorable reactions from fans.

On Sunday, however, WWE made multiple missteps when handling Reigns. Firstly, it put Reigns in the ring with a debuting AJ Styles. While the visual was cool for the fans, those same fans didn't cheer for both guys. They chose to cheer for Styles wholeheartedly.

Reigns entered the match as a lukewarm babyface and 10 minutes later he was getting jeered out of the building.

Another misstep was having Reigns take a lengthy break during the match after suffering an attack from the League of Nations. Midway through the match, the League of Nations ran down to the ring, attacked Reigns and put him through a table.

Although League of Nations attacked him, the group never made sure that he was eliminated from the match, setting him up to make a triumphant return from injury and possibly win the match.

It wasn't like Reigns was gone for five minutes. He was gone until Sheamus entered the match at No. 29. It's a classic babyface tactic, but it went for way too long and the fans in Orlando saw right through it.

Both of those things turned the fans off to Reigns. On top of all of that, Triple H returned at No. 30 and the fans went crazy. The fans went crazy not only because they were happy to see him back in a ring, but also because he could potentially eliminate Reigns.

And when he did eliminate Reigns, the roof came off the Amway Center and Triple H, one of the company's top heels, looked like a babyface that had just taken down the top heel and won the match.

None of this helped Reigns at all and it is only one example of the miscalculations WWE has had with him.

In one night, WWE managed to get Reigns booed again, his archrival cheered and his best friend way more over. That's not the result of a Royal Rumble crowd being a hardcore fan base that roots for the bad guys. That's the result of putting the game pieces in the wrong spots.

AJ Styles enters Royal Rumble

I've mentioned him earlier, but it finally happened. All of the rumors can cease because the phenomenal AJ Styles made his WWE debut in the Royal Rumble.

Reigns obviously entered No. 1, as Rusev entered the match second. It only took a few seconds for Reigns to dispose of Rusev, leaving the ring to all to himself.

The buzzard sounded for the third entrant and out walked the former IWGP and TNA World Heavyweight champion.

Once the crowd realized it was him, it lost its collective mind and rightfully so. It's AJ Styles.

As far as my thoughts on his performance, I thought he looked as good as ever in the ring, but what I look for when someone debuts in WWE is whether they look comfortable in that spotlight or whether they look or feel out of place.

I'm happy to say that Styles didn't look or feel out of place. He looked liked he belonged and to WWE's credit, it allowed Styles to have a good showing by lasting more that 20 minutes.

I also like that WWE potentially set up a feud for right away against Owens. The talent Styles possesses is obvious to most, but all that matter is whether it matters to one. We all know who that one is.

Brock Lesnar vs. Bray Wyatt seems inevitable

I'm not sure I like it, but it looks like WWE is putting Brock Lesnar on a collision course with The Wyatt Family.

I'm willing to give it a chance, but as of right now, it looks like a waste of Lesnar. No one takes The Wyatt Family as serious as they once did and no one would believe that any one member of The Wyatt Family could hang with Lesnar in spite of their size.

Dean Ambrose-Kevin Owens beat the hell out of each other

With all of the noteworthy happenings coming out of the Royal Rumble match, the show's opening match was kind of forgotten by the end of the night.

But that doesn't it wasn't any good. As a matter of fact, it was great, as Ambrose and Owens beat the crap out of each other with all kinds of weapons.

My only knock against it was that I thought Owens should have won, but I'm not upset that Ambrose keeps the title for at least a little while longer.

Sasha Banks returns and wants the title

Since there were no women in the Royal Rumble match, Sasha Banks used the Divas championship match to step out and demand a shot at the title. She then put Charlotte in the Banks statement for good measure.

All of this hoopla kind of shoved Becky Lynch down the priority list, which I hope is not the case as she had been on fire lately.

It would be a shame to heat her up as much as it has only for her to be cycled back down like it never even happened. Personally, I would have had her win Sunday.

With that said, I always look forward to whatever Banks is involved in.

Kalisto wins the United States title … again

Yay! For the second time in a less than a week Kalisto won the United States championship again.

You know why you're not that excited for that outcome? Because you just saw it less than a week ago. If you're an avid viewer of Smackdown you saw it there with a different outcome.

Why didn't WWE just wait until the Royal Rumble for the rematch? As a matter of fact, why didn't WWE just wait until Royal Rumble to put on the very first match.

Either way, this has helped no one.