WWE Royal Rumble 2012 Results: Who Walked out as WWE Champion, Punk or Ziggler?

Dolph Ziggler and CM Punk clashed over the WWE title at the Royal Rumble tonight in a great match.

The two talented grapplers showed why they were the main event.

John Laurinaitis decided not to be the main ref in the match, and he instead opted to officiate on a secondary basis from the outside while another ref called the match in the ring.

He also kept to his word and banned Vickie from ringside during the match. He did still have impact power, however.

Punk and Ziggler went back and forth early on, with both men getting in some nice moves and reversals. Ziggler got a little pop when he did a Flair strut early on which saw the crowd give Flair's trademark "Woo!"

At one point, Ziggler knocked Punk from the top rope, and Punk seemed to hit his head on the turnbuckle on the way down. It did not injure him, thankfully.

I was very impressed with Ziggler in this match, he played a great heel and proved he deserves this main event title match against Punk.

One of the best exchanges of the match came when Punk reversed a running hurricanrana attempt into a spinning power bomb.

Ziggler showed his amateur wrestling background quite a bit tonight, as he and Punk had what will easily go down as the match of the night.

Both men nearly hit their respective finishers multiple times throughout the match in some of the best back-and-forth action I have seen in weeks.

At one point Ziggler tapped out, but the ref was knocked out outside the ring and JL was too busy checking on him to see the tap out.

Ziggler came close to winning after a Zig Zag to Punk while he was arguing with Laurinaitis about him not making the count when he would have won.

Punk ended up getting the win after a GTS and both refs counting the 3-count on Ziggler. After the match Laurinaitis tried to prove he was unbiased by handing the title to Punk.

Punk celebrated in the ring as JL applauded him from the ramp. This was easily the match of the night.

What did you think of Punk vs Ziggler and Punk's win?