The 2012 WWE Royal Rumble Pay-Per-View starts with a video hyping the Royal Rumble match, which is back to having thirty participants, unlike the forty of last year (click here for our 2011 Royal Rumble report).

After a video recapping the events of the past couple of weeks involving Daniel Bryan and The Big Show after Show accidentally knocked over Bryan’s girlfriend AJ when chasing him, the Triple Threat Cage match for the World Heavyweight Championship between Daniel Bryan, The Big Show, and Mark Henry kicks off the show.

The match sees Bryan get the victory and retain the World Heavyweight Championship as a result of escaping the cage, when he struggles out of Show’s grip and lands on the floor outside.

After a video package hyping John Cena, an Eight-Diva Tag Team match sees Beth Phoenix, Natalya, and The Bella Twins being pitted against Kelly Kelly, Eve Torres, Tamina, and Alicia Fox. The match sees Beth get the victory for her team, when she forcefully tags herself in and hits Kelly Kelly with the the Glam Slam for the 3-count.

After a video recapping the events of Monday Night Raw involving Kane, Zack Ryder, John Cena, and Eve Torres (click here for our Raw report), an an interaction between a wheelchair-bound Zack Ryder, Eve Torres, and John Laurinaitis in which she says that she hopes he will be fired on the upcoming episode of Raw, John Cena goes against Kane.

The match sees neither side declared as the victor, as John Cena and Kane are both counted out after not returning to the ring. Afterwards, the fight continues through to the back, where Kane finally manages to put Cena down with a number of chair shots.

Kane then spots Zack Ryder’s dressing room, and after kicking it down and using the suffocation hold on Ryder, he wheels Ryder out into the arena. He pushes the chair over once he reaches the bottom of the ramp, knocking Ryder out of the chair too in doing so, and then picks him up and rolls him into the ring.

Upon Kane re-entering the ring and approaching Ryder once again, Eve runs down to the ring to check on Ryder, begging Kane to leave him alone. Her pleading is to no avail, as Kane picks up Zack Ryder, and vindictively hits him with a Tombstone Piledriver while looking straight at Eve.

Kane turns his attention fully to Eve, but before he can do anything, John Cena hits the ring and starts to attack him. Cena’s attack is fruitless however, as he is unable to hit Kane with an Attitude Adjustment when he tries, thanks to the damage from the earlier chair shots.

Kane then takes Cena out again, when he hits him with a chokeslam in the ring. After Kane has left, medical personnel, referees, and Eve tend to Zack Ryder, as Cena sits and watches.

After a video promoting the “be a STAR Alliance” and a video hyping The Rock, Drew McIntyre takes on “Funkasaurus” Brodus Clay (accompanied as always by Naomi and Cameron) in a match which sees Clay get the victory, when he hits McIntyre with the “What The Funk” for the 3-count.

After a video hyping the upcoming episode of Monday Night Raw, which will feature John Laurinaitis’ job evaluation by Triple H, and a video recapping the events over the past couple of months involving John Laurinaitis and CM Punk, and the past few weeks involving Dolph Ziggler too, CM Punk is pitted against Dolph Ziggler (accompanied by Vickie Guerrero) in a match for the WWE Championship.

Before the match can take place however, Laurinaitis introduces himself and says that even though he has been assigned as the Special Guest Referee for this match, in the interest of fairness, impartiality, and conduct above reproach, he has decided that he will oversee the officiating from outside the ring and leave the officiating inside the ring to a WWE referee.

After calling for a WWE referee down to the ring, he himself exits the ring and Dolph Ziggler (with Vickie Guerrero) and CM Punk then make their own entrances. Before the referee rings the bell, Laurinaitis enters the ring once more, where he turns his attention to Vickie Guerrero, as he then orders her to leave and Michael Cole reminds us that she wasn’t allowed to be there due to Punk defeating Jack Swagger a couple of weeks ago.

Though the referee gets knocked out at one point, causing multiple opportunities for Punk to be declared the winner to be missed as Laurinaitis’ attention is on the downed referee, Punk retains the title when he hits Ziggler with yet another GTS for the 3-count, with it being counted by the referee this time, and joined by Laurinaitis’ hand for the 2nd and 3rd slaps of the mat.

After a video hyping the statistics of past Royal Rumble matches, it’s time for the 2012 Royal Rumble match, with the first two participants being The Miz and his former protégé Alex Riley – before the match gets under-way however, The Miz talks about how he is not worried about being the first entrant, and how the same people who said that he would never be a WWE Champion will be proved wrong once again.

Notable moments in the match include Mick Foley and Santino Marella pitting Foley’s “Mr. Socko” against Marella’s “Cobra”, Kofi Kingston walking on his hands in a handstand to avoid elimination, Michael Cole, Booker T, and Jerry “The King” Lawler entering the Rumble from the announce table, and Ricardo Rodriguez entering the Rumble with Alberto Del Rio’s music and attempting to imitate his entrance somewhat, though with a much poorer car.

Surprise entrants include “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, The Great Khali, Road Dogg, and Kharma, with Kharma scaring Cole into eliminating himself (with the additional help of Booker and Lawler pulling Cole off the apron), hitting Dolph Ziggler with the double-underhook facebuster when he attempts to tell her that she shouldn’t be there, and also eliminating Hunico, before being eliminated herself by Ziggler.

The last two left standing in the ring at the end of Sheamus and Chris Jericho, but as there can of course only be one winner, the advantage goes back and forth, with both men being close to being eliminated multiple times, until Sheamus gets the victory by knocking Jericho off the apron with a Brogue Kick.

Sheamus celebrates in the ring, with pyro going off around the entrance and the WrestleMania sign, as the 2012 Royal Rumble Pay-Per-View goes off the air.