Roman Reigns Wins 30-Man Battle Royal at 2015 Royal Rumble

Roman Reigns' ascent to the top of WWE received a huge boost Sunday night, as The Powerhouse won the Royal Rumble match to become the No. 1 contender for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania XXXI.

The final four left in the match were Reigns, Big Show, Kane and Rusev. Reigns eliminated Kane and Big Show, only to have the return get back into the ring anyway and attack Reigns.
Then The Rock made his shocking return to WWE to make the save for Reigns and take out Show and Kane.
However, Rusev had been hiding under the ring, biding his time. He attempted to surprise Reigns but ate a spear instead. After that, the outcome was academic:
Reigns then eyed up his destiny:
Jim Utter of the Charlotte Observer was a bit disappointed with the final result:
The Rock held Reigns' arm up in triumph, which did little to turn the Philadelphia crowd in Reigns' favor after it vociferously booed him the entire match:
Chris Jericho, on the other hand, was a supporter of Reigns' major push:
The 29-year-old superstar has been heralded by many as the future of the company over the past year, and his Rumble triumph proves that WWE officials feel the same way.

Who should have won the Royal Rumble?

Roman Reigns Daniel Bryan Dolph Ziggler Dean Ambrose Randy Orton Other Submit Vote vote to see results

Reigns made a massive impact in last year's Rumble match as he broke Kane's record for most eliminations in a single Royal Rumble with 12. He made it all the way to the final two before being thrown out by Batista, which proved to be a stepping stone to what he accomplished Sunday.
While Reigns is now the champion-in-waiting, the road to get to this point was somewhat rocky. Back in September, Reigns was forced to undergo emergency hernia surgery the day before Night of Champions, which caused him to miss nearly three months of action.
He returned with a vengeance at the TLC pay-per-view, as he took out Big Show, who had interfered in the match between John Cena and Seth Rollins.
After his explosive comeback, Reigns announced his intention to enter the Royal Rumble as well as the fact he was back in business, as seen in this video courtesy of WWE's official Twitter account:
Once Reigns was back in the picture, the wide-ranging assumption was that he was the odds-on favorite to win the Royal Rumble and main event WrestleMania.
Wade Keller of PWTorch is among those who felt as though WWE was hinting at that very result, as he predicted back in December:
What once seemed certain became a bit murkier a couple of weeks later, though, as Daniel Bryan also made his long-awaited return from injury. With Bryan announcing that he would also enter the Rumble match, he immediately became a top candidate to win as well.
Truth be told, Bryan was undeniably the crowd favorite as expected. Reigns is liked by many, but there is also a group of the WWE fanbase that doesn't believe he is ready for the big time. Conversely, Bryan is almost universally beloved.
That dynamic is something that concerned WWE 50 author Kevin Sullivan:
His fears were realized to some degree as much of the Philadelphia crowd voiced its displeasure regarding the result of the Rumble match.
WWE knew that was a very strong possibility, but it decided to move forward with Reigns regardless. Now, the company faces a major challenge to get the bulk of the viewing audience firmly behind its rising star.
That is absolutely huge from WWE's perspective, since it presumably wants to give Reigns a WrestleMania moment by having him close the show as WWE World Heavyweight champion.
It is undoubtedly a gamble on WWE's part compared to how safe of a choice Bryan would have been, and it will be interesting to see how Reigns is built up between now and the biggest match of his life.