Buddy Murphy Pins Hideo Itami to Retain Cruiserweight Title at WWE Royal Rumble

Buddy Murphy beat Hideo Itami, Akira Tozawa and Kalisto in a Fatal 4-Way match at the Royal Rumble on Sunday to retain the Cruiserweight Championship.

Deep into the match, Murphy took Kalisto out of the equation with a knee to Kalisto's face as he was coming off the top rope. That allowed Murphy to turn all of his focus toward Itami.

Murphy stunned Itami with a knee strike, which allowed him to deliver Murphy's Law for the win.

Sunday's bout was put together by 205 Live general manager Drake Maverick after a string of successful title defenses by Murphy.

Multiple singles matches to qualify for the title match at the Rumble were booked, and they all featured hungry competitors looking to capture the Cruiserweight Championship.

Itami beat former champion Cedric Alexander to get in the match, while Tozawa defeated Drew Gulak and Kalisto got past Lio Rush.

On the go-home episode of 205 Live prior to the Royal Rumble, a Triple Threat match was held between the three challengers.

Itami prevailed over Tozawa and Kalisto, which gave him a ton of momentum entering one of the biggest matches of his WWE career.

While Itami, Tozawa and Kalisto were all credible challengers, they faced a stiff challenge against Murphy, who had been dominant leading up to the Rumble.

Murphy beat Alexander for the cruiserweight title at WWE Super Show-Down in his hometown of Melbourne, Australia, in October.

That was no small feat considering Alexander was perhaps the most dominant cruiserweight champion since the title's return in 2016 aside from Neville.

At the same time, Murphy was put in a tough spot in having to defend his title against three of the top cruiserweights 205 Live has to offer.

All of them brought strong resumes to the table, as Itami was a top star in NXT, while both Tozawa and Kalisto enjoyed short runs with the Cruiserweight Championship previously.

Even so, Murphy was again up to the task, and he is quickly developing into one of the top WWE cruiserweight champions ever.

The Australian has essentially run through the entire 205 Live roster at this point, so some new talent may need to step in if anyone is going to have a chance at dethroning him by WrestleMania 35.

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