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Well, the Royal Rumble 2018 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia opened hot with the WWE Championship on the line in a handicap match with AJ Styles defending against both Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn.
As per traditional Handicap Match rules, Styles started the match off against Kevin Owens for all of about two seconds with the former Universal Champion tagging in Sami Zayn even before he started, with Zayn entering the ring to only return the favour and allow Owens to enter the match very, very slowly.
Styles managed to get a kick in before Owens tagged in Zayn yet again and, finally, the two lock up before Styles goes for a quick roll up.
When Owens is finally tagged in again, we see AJ Styles stand between KO and Zayn - but Owens, innovative as ever, slides out of the ring, sprints to Sami, slides in right in front of him and makes the tag.
15 minutes into the pay-per-view, and we might well be nearing just as many tags when Owens and Zayn start to make the numbers advantage count, with Owens stomping down Styles before tagging Zayn back in to continue the beatdown.
Yet again, Owens is in and he takes it to the outside, slamming Styles into the barricade before bringing him back into the ring, but only managing to keep the current Champion down for the one-count. Tom Phillips reiterates that Owens has to be careful as they can lose this match by disqualification.
Styles valiantly fights back, knocking Zayn off the apron and mounting some offence on Owens, but going to the top proves costly and he ends up eating some canvas.
Owens goes for a cannonball but completely miscues, and Corey Graves recalls the ankle injury that Styles inflicted on SmackDown when he made Owens tap out to a Calf Crusher, refusing to relent after the bell rang.
Zayn tags back in and is immediately dropped by Styles, so has to tag Owens back in but Styles hits KO with an incredible Pele Kick... forcing Owens to tag Zayn in again. Zayn goes right for the Helluva Kick but misses and gets a moonsault into a reverse DDT for his troubles.
The tags keep coming and Owens is back in the game...but so is Zayn. Owens tries to catapult Styles into Zayn, but Styles lands a beautiful huricanrana to send the "Underdog from the Underground" to the outside and gets Owens in the Calf Crusher again... Will Owens tap?
No! It's a close one but Owens holds on for what feels like an eternity, long enough for Zayn to get back in and break it up. It isn't too long until Styles fights back again though and sends Owens into the ring post, forcing another tag.
Zayn lands a Blue Thunder Bomb, the move that got him the win on SmackDown, off a cheap shot from Owens behind the ref's back - and it could not have been closer! The referee's hand must have been a millimetre from the mat as "The Phenomenal One" got an arm up.
We get some nice back and forth before Styles manages to hit the Phenomenal Forearm, but Owens saves the match in the nick of time.
Styles and Zayn exchange forearms as Owens begs for the tag, but he and Zayn both look out of it. Zayn ALMOST gets the tag.. and, if the tag was made, it had to be fingertips, maybe even fingernails.
Styles chucks Zayn over the top rope and somehow rolls up Owens to retain his WWE Championship against all odds!
Even the replay looks too close to call, but it looks like no tag was made between Zayn and Owens AND AJ's shoulders looked to be down on the count too.
We go backstage to see Owens and Zayn complaining to Shane McMahon, saying it's not fair. They ask if Shane saw what happened and he replies,
"Did I see it?"
"Yep!"
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