SmackDown Superstar Wins 2017 Royal Rumble

Randy Orton is the 2017 Royal Rumble winner.

Orton came into Royal Rumble match at a very good spot at #23 and outlasted other legends who appeared later on in the match, including Goldberg, Brock Lesnar and the Undertaker. He even had to deal with a surprising return in Roman Reigns, who came into the match at #30 after Reigns finished with a brutal WWE Universal Title match against Kevin Owens. Reigns was hit with a frog splash through a table, a Superman Punch from Owens, who was wearing brass knuckles, and an attack from Braun Strowman at the end of the match.

Orton was in the final 3 alongside Reigns and Bray Wyatt, whom Orton has aligned with a few months ago. Reigns eliminated Wyatt and Orton turned a Spear attempt from Reigns into an RKO and used that to then eliminate Reigns and win the match.

The Rumble match win is Orton's second win in the Rumble. He won the 2009 Royal Rumble, but failed to capitalize on the WWE Title opportunity when he lost to Triple H in the closing match of WrestleMania 25.

Orton had been looked at as the betting favorite in the days leading up to the pay-per-view and when the "smart money" came in, Orton was still the favorite to win the match.  

Fightful is currently doing a live podcast reviewing the Royal Rumble pay-per-view. The podcast can be seen in the video above.