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One of the most talked about matches from this past Sunday’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view was the Last Man Standing match between Kevin Owens and WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns.
The finish of the match saw a miscue as Paul Heyman attempted to unlock a handcuffed Roman Reigns, which resulted in the referee stalling a 10-count.
Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez spoke on the botch during the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio. Meltzer explained, Paul Heyman had issues unlocking the handcuff due to the the keyhole being on the wrong side.
Meltzer: Okay, so, the handcuffs, the hole with the key was on the wrong side. The keyhole was on the wrong side. They didn’t get it in time or something. Time stood still.
Alvarez: It was on the wrong side? So, why didn’t he turn the handcuff over?
Meltzer: Eventually, he did (laughs). They did get him out!
Alvarez: So, he was just jamming the key into the side in which there was no hole and couldn’t figure out why it didn’t work?
Meltzer: I don’t know, yeah!
Alvarez: The bigger question is that nobody had a pair of bolt cutters in the building to just go and clamp it off?
Meltzer: Perhaps, they could, but they weren’t going to beat the ten count.
Alvarez: Well, they were never going to beat the ten-count anyway. They might as well just got those things out there.
Meltzer: Maybe nobody was thinking on their feet about bolt cutters! Maybe they were just thinking we need a key.
Special thanks to SK Wrestling for the transcription.