Randy Orton earned a title shot at Wrestlemania 25 as he won the 2009 Royal Rumble by eliminating HHH at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, MI, Sunday night.

Orton (the 8th entrant) won by tossing out HHH from behind as "The Game" was eliminating Cody Rhodes and will likely face World Champion John Cena to highlight the March mega-event in Houston, TX. Cena retained his title by defeating JBL, while Edge regained the WWE title by defeating Jeff Hardy thanks to a swerve - just not the one fans expected.

The event itself was entertaining, but did lack 'water cooler' moments as most of the results were somewhat predictable. Regardless, WWE began to mold their Wrestlemania card Sunday night with their first PPV event of 2009.

Here are your detailed as-they-happened results from the 2009 Royal Rumble, courtesy of Ropes, Ring and Cage:

ECW Champion Jack Swagger pinned Matt Hardy

Match roughly went 10 minutes with Swagger getting the clean pin. Hardy hit a moonsault, but Swagger kicked out. He then blocked a Side Effect by Hardy and tossed him shoulder-first into the ring post. One Doctor Bomb later and Swagger had the clean pin. Hardy was definitely acting emotional and frustrated post-match, which would become clearer afterward. ECW needs some faces badly with Swagger on top.

Melina pinned Beth Phoenix to win the Women's title

Phoenix had a cool spot where she had a single leg crab on Melina and actually hit her in the back of the head with it. End came when Melina jumped into Phoenix and blocked her attempt at a front slam with a roll-up type deal for the clean pin. Santino Marella was at ringside with Phoenix, but no Rosa Mendes.

World Champion John Cena pinned JBL

As expected, the match centered around whether Shawn Michaels would interfere for JBL, but the crowd actually booed Cena when he kicked at the ropes in Michaels' direction. Michaels did come in when the ref got laid out and Cena/JBL clotheslined each other.

After taking a while to decide, Michaels superkicked JBL to Cena's approval and then laid out Cena with another superkick. After dragging JBL onto Cena, he then left. Cena kicked out at 2 and after JBL missed on a Clothesline from Hell, Cena hit the Throwback (FU) for the pin and win. Average match which was fueled by the HBK twists.

Edge pinned Jeff Hardy to win the WWE Championship

Unfortunately, there was no Christian but this match did have an expected swerve. Chavo Guerrero came out with Edge seconds after Vickie Guerrero made the bout No DQ. Biggest spot was when Hardy (looking like the love child of Sting and Vampiro) brought out a ladder and laid out Chavo on the Spanish announcer's table. Hardy nearly completely missed Guerrero as he went to the very top of the ladder and it wobbled at the last second.

Hardy hit a swanton but Vickie pulled out the referee. That brought out Matt Hardy who fended off Vickie and then told Jeff to set Edge up for a concerto. As Jeff brought in a second chair, Matt blasted him with it and just stared as Edge got the pin for the title. Since there had been such an expectation built for Christian to return, this came as a letdown, but hopefully they can somehow pull this Hardy vs. Hardy feud better than they did the first time.

Jim Ross and Tazz went speechless for minutes after the chair shot.

(More after the jump)

Randy Orton won the Royal Rumble

The final four were Orton, Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase and HHH. HHH eventually got the upper-hand after some triple-teaming and eliminated DiBiase and then Rhodes. As he was doing so, Orton snuck in from behind and threw HHH over the top to win the event and get a title shot at Wrestlemania.

The match itself started at 9:30 and was marked by long stretches of time with no eliminations. While there were plenty of spots and finishers, there was no one big moment that the event will be remembered for and the main event talent blended into the match until they were needed to do their business.

More Rumble match notes after the entrants/eliminators list.

Order of Entrants/Eliminators

1- Rey Mysterio (eliminated with Knox, by who?)
2 - John Morrison (HHH)
3 - Carlito (elm'd by Kozlov)
4 - MVP (elim'd by Kozlov)
5 - Great Khali (elmi'd by Kozlov)
6 - Vladimir Kozlov (elmin'd by HHH)
7 - HHH (Orton)
8 - Randy Orton - winner
9 - JTG (Undertaker)
10 -Ted DiBiase Jr. (HHH)
11 - Chris Jericho (Undertaker)
12 - Mike Knox (eliminated with Mysterio, by who?)
13 - The Miz (HHH)
14 - Finlay (Kane)
15 - Cody Rhodes (HHH)
16 - Undertaker (Big Show from outside)
17 - Goldust (Rhodes)
18 - CM Punk (Big Show)
19 - Mark Henry (Mysterio)
20 - Shelton Benjamin (Undertaker)
21 - William Regal (Punk)
22 - Kofi Kingston (Kingston)
23 - Kane (Orton/Rhodes/DiBiase)
24 - R-Truth (Big Show)
25 - Rob Van Dam (Jericho)
26 - Brian Kendrick (HHH)
27 - Dolph Ziggler (Kane)
28 - Santino Marella (Kane)
29 - Hacksaw Jim Duggan (Big Show)
30 - Big Show 10:29 pm (Orton)

Rumble match notes

• Marella was the quickest elimination at 2 seconds by Kane.
• Mysterio lasted 49 minutes, which I think was the longest. HHH came close, but a final time was never announced. Most of the match centered on Mysterio avoiding elimination with the most notable occasion being when he walked on top of a freshly-eliminated Morrison and Miz to avoid hitting the floor.
• The 26-28 entrants lasted less than 45 seconds combined.
• RVD got a nice ovation on his entrance and his most of his notable moves during the match. At one point, he was going to hit the 5-star Frog Splash on R-Truth but decided against it at the last second. Strange.
• Rhodes and Goldust did a minute or so of brawling and eventually Orton ordered Rhodes to eliminate his brother.
• MVP got a big pop for some of his moves, which was surprising.
• Orton hit three straight RKOs at one point and dished out another two later on.
• Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler called the Rumble match.

In Other Segments

• When Randy Orton arrived, everyone acted quiet around him and just stared. In an interview, Todd Grisham said 'legal action' may be brought against Orton Monday. Apparently, the law has to wait a week and be televised.
• Undertaker and Michaels had a quick run-in backstage prior to the Cena/JBL match. A lot of people hope this will be a match for Wrestlemania, but no real seeds were planted tonight.
• As confirmed earlier, No Way Out will feature dual Elimination Chamber matches for the World/WWE titles.
• WWE began advertising their Legends of Wrestling video game. Interestingly, I saw an ad for the WWE Legends of Wrestling DVD set while watching WEC on Versus.

Josh Nason - josh [at] ropesringandcage [dot com] - has published MMA, wrestling and boxing blog Ropes, Ring and Cage since 2007. If you are using any content or recapping from this site, please include a link to www.ropesringandcage.com or Bleacher Report. Thank you for your support!