Nigel McGuiness from Monday Night RAW and Byron Saxton from Smackdown welcomed the WWE Universe to the Kickoff Show of the 2019 WWE Royal Rumble pay per view event.
WWE Cruiserweight Championship
Akira Tozawa V Buddy Murphy(c) V Cedric Alexander V Hideo Itami V
Lio Rush w Bobby Lashley V TJP
The Royal Rumble kickoff show only had one match on it, a six man survival elimination match for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. It featured defending champion Buddy Murphy(c) and the five challengers of Akira Tozawa, Cedric Alexander, Hideo Itami, Lio Rush who had Bobby Lashley in his corner and TJP. TJP was eliminated by Itami thanks to the GTS, Itami was eliminated by Tozaw by way of a Bridging German Suplex. Lashley interjected himself into the match and laid both Tozawa and Alexander out with a Double Spear.
Which allowed Rush to eliminate Alexander and then unintentionally allowed Murphy to do the same to Tozawa. Lashley laid Murphy out with another Spear and then exited the ring thinking that his job was done and Rush dragged Murphy over to one of the corners and then climbed up to the top rope and did some showboating.
Then he dived off the top rope in the form of an attempted Frog Splash only for Murphy to get his knees up at the last second.
From here Murphy got back to his feet and dragged Rush up and then hit Murphy’s Law for the pin.
Winner & Still WWE Cruiserweight Champion: Buddy Murphy
Back at the commentary desk the duo of McGuiness and Saxton discussed the match and then thanked the WWE Universe for joining them.
END OF KICKOFF SHOW