The biggest winners and losers of Royal Rumble 2019

#2 Winner: Asuka

In a surprising but pleasing decision, Asuka defeated Becky Lynch cleanly last night to retain the SmackDown Women's Championship, in a great show opening match. Forget her Royal Rumble victory a year ago or even her title win at TLC, this was the biggest win of Asuka's career. Despite those previous victories, Asuka had never scored a pinfall or submission win over a major A-list name on the main roster with a title on the line. Now she finally has.

After Becky Lynch called her a paper champion for weeks on end, it was exactly what needed to happen. The win legitimizes Asuka's reign, erases any doubts about her claim to the title, and puts the SmackDown women's division in good hands on the road to WrestleMania. It helped Becky, too, but we'll get into that later on.

It took far longer than we wanted it to, but Asuka became a made woman last night.