WWE Royal Rumble 2017 results, videos, highlights, reactions

Randy Orton emerged victorious during the 30-man over-the-top-rope battle royal during Sunday's Royal Rumble 2017 event at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.

In a match that lasted approximately 62 minutes, Orton outlasted the likes of Roman Reigns, Bill Goldberg, Brock Lesnar and Chris Jericho and punched his ticket to the main event of WresteMania 33. Orton, who previously won the match in 2009, eliminated Reigns after the latter eliminated Bray Wyatt, Jericho and The Undertaker in quick succession after entering the main event battle royal as the No. 30 participant.

Earlier in the evening, John Cena tied hall-of-famer Ric Flair's record of 16 world championships after defeating incumbent WWE champion A.J. Styles in a classic bout. In a match that lasted 24 minutes, Cena hit his signature move, the Attitude Adjustment, on numerous occasions before winning via pinfall. The night also saw Kevin Owens defend his WWE Universal championship against Roman Reigns in a no-disqualification match. Owens retained his title after Braun Strowman interfered and laid out Reigns.

WWE Royal Rumble 2017: The road to WWE WrestleMania 33

Also, Charlotte Flair retained her WWE Women's championship against Bayley after performing a Natural Selection on the apron. According to several reports, Flair is now on a 13-0 winning streak during PPV matches dating back to last year's Royal Rumble event. She is rumoured to defend the title in a four-way match against Bayley, Nia Jax and Sasha Banks at WrestleMania 33 in April.

During the pre-show, the team of Naomi, Nikki Bella and Becky Lynch defeated the team of Alexa Bliss, Mickie James and Natalya in a six-woman tag match. In the all-Smackdown affair, Naomi pinned champion Alexa Bliss after hitting the split-legged moonsault. During the other pre-show match, the team of Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson defeated Cesaro and Sheamus to capture the Raw tag team titles. The match ended when Anderson took advantage of a distraction and rolled up Cesaro for the three count.

In the third and final pre-show match, Nia Jax defeated Sasha Banks after nailing "The Boss" with a pop-up Samoan Drop. The match, that lasted a little over five minutes, was dominated by Jax from start to finish. After the Banks-Jax match, WWE legend Shawn Michaels came out to the ring to greet his hometown fans in San Antonio and hype up the event. As seen in the video below, Michaels spoke about the history of the Royal Rumble event and said "there's only one thing left to do, let's get this party started".

As reported earlier, the main card for WrestleMania 33 has already been set and Sunday's Royal Rumble 2017 planted the seeds for some of those impending feuds. Matches such as Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar, The Undertaker vs. Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins vs. Triple H and Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt are rumoured to headline the 33th edition of WWE's showpiece extravaganza.