30 entrants is too many.
The mens rumble was way too predictable. Was pretty much the top 29 wrestlers on the roster (plus Booker T). I’d prefer to see a few from NXT.
Even the the older returnees are often predictable, as they only pick guys(& women) who are on hall of fame contracts.
Would be great to see someone like Al Snow, Ken Shamrock or Steve Blackman.
Cody winning was obvious as soon as he had his ‘match’ and won against Rollins.
Final 4 should always be the 4 that you can picture in the Main Event to build to a satisfying climax. Gunther is not main eventing any time soon and Logan Paul is not close to it. Guys like Logan and Ricchocet have their uses in spots but not for the final few and boy did they struggle with good spots in the Rumble. Did Kofi fail another save attempt?
There was no suspension of belief when you have the raging hot favorite Cody fighting Gunther. It was Cody all the way. Infact, it was quite odd that they eliminated the few stars they had early ie. Lesnar after 3 minutes, McIntyre didn’t make the last 7, Lashley out quickly after Lesnar, Edge in and out quickly, Booker T out in 2 minutes.
Imo - Bronn Breaker should have debuted early in the Rumble, eliminated heaps and booked as strong as possible until the final 4. He’s going to be the next company big thing if they book him properly. Lesnar and Bronn face off (setting up for Mania) with Lesnar eliminating Bronn, and Cody (having entered far earlier) eliminating Lesnar to win. Sets up Bronn as the next powerhouse to beat Lesnar, Cody for Reigns.
i feel like this is what the rumble should be
we’re still hungover from a time where wwe was so hyperfocussed on only 2-3 blokes at a time, so you would need surprise entries in order to pad out 30
also 10 years ago, there were guys who were a few years out of the game but we’re still young enough to jump in a ring for 10 minutes. nowadays the guys there now are the same guys who were there a decade ago, so finding “old” guys who are still physically capable is a challenge. booker t looked ripped enough but could barely move. al snow and steve blackman have gotta be like 60 by now.
it was obvious when the first “triple h in 2001” rehab promo aired
Totally agree, aswell as a JD McDonagh or Joe Gacy.
Even guys who have recently stepped up onto the main roster like Dexter Lumis or Bronson Reed.
Especially when they wasted an entrance with Baron Corbin and Rey Mysterio
No overt Rumble spoilers below (though everyone else has done that for me already!)
Well… the men’s Rumble was less insulting than usual (apart from the “he was never eliminated!” moment) — but sadly was just flat-out boring. One awesome moment/spot, and the winner had to resort to a groin shot. They fed him the eliminations of the two most hated to help get him over. I did appreciate Dominik paying tribute to his actual father, though.
I guess Vince ain’t in creative control given the person who got #1.
Someone remind me how Bray Wyatt is meant to work in a wrestling ring. Visually it was OK, apart from the gutless camera angle and silliness at the very end.
Belair/Bliss was an uneventful 8 minutes, and spanked by Hayter/Sakura the night before on Rampage.
Rhea at #1? Why would the next 29 even bother coming out? She sells too much early on, and lets people botch on her and bloody her nose.
Stupidly long distance to reach the ring.
After all the suggestions that this year would be “Forbidden Door” surprise entrances, they instead bring in NXT talent (unlike last year). I guess they’ll claim that was a surprise itself.
Hint: 15th is not half-way through the Rumble. Woke the crowd up briefly, though.
Ha! They neglected to clean up the yellow Bray Spray behind the commentary desk.
Asuka got a notably bigger entry pop than Becky. WAIT NO… IT’S KANA! Albeit with less-gory-than-usual face paint.
HOSS FACE-OFF! Sadly, one of them is Tamina.
Creative finally found Chelsea Green something to do… holy ■■■■, that was cruel.
The lariatttttttttooooooooo by Rodriguez on Rhea was AMAZING. Stan Hansen would be jealous of that one.
10% Aussie content in the women’s Rumble is not enough.
#30 women’s… let’s hope no one gets injured. There’s a stack of bigger players in the ring at the time, so meh. Big enough to make Rhea look bad, though.
LOL at them boasting Rhea and Liv have broken the Rumble time record of 58 minutes — 7 minutes after 28x90 seconds = 42 minutes have nominally passed. (It was a legit 58 minutes, but best not to point out the creative timing.)
Creative last two eliminations! That “slip” was AJ-Styles-tumble-off-the-top-rope quality of looking real.
Those external fireworks were CGI, right?
WTF, dis-assembling the ring mid-show for a really bad singer?
LOL at Kevin Owens legit botching his move from the ropes… but Reigns was dodging where he was meant to land, and so got squashed!
Director has missed a stack of key moments tonight. Did remember to go shaky/endlessly-flipping camera near the end, though.
I’ll let someone who’s been watching for the past six (?) months call whether the closing scene worked as well as it could have. Commentary team and director arguably ruined it by focusing on the obvious outcome all of the bloody match.
Not sure if they were trying to make me barrack for Gunther over Cody at the end… and a bit of a botch not getting Gunther to 77 minutes so they could stop pathetically lying about who has the longest Rumble run (Daniel Bryan).
Kofi definitely failed another save attempt. It wouldn’t have been that noticeable bad except for Michael Cole going on and on about how he still had one foot on the chair, he could be still in it…even though his whole body was lying on the floor.
Royal Rumble my least favoriute ppv
4 hours for a ppv is ridiculous have the womens rumble on the next day
Fark Shawn Michaels and his botching, and double fark the WWE for doubling down on that stupidity for decades.
Lots of wrestlers could land on the ground on their side or one foot (especially since most of them are holding a rope on the way out!), and could easily keep one foot in the air, and get straight back in. But apparently THAT would be embarrassing.
i think he was just going like “are they going to try and salvage this…?” until someone (probably kofi or woods) told him nah we’ve fked it, move on
the crowd reactions weren’t a clue?
imo they nailed it. maybe a minute too long if i had to pick something. it’s the most compelling storyline they’ve had in years. maybe ever.
Ha, closer to the mark than I thought I was.
two rumbles in one event is very hard to get around
i don’t understand why the mens rumble doesn’t close the event either
Goontah is legit. Number 2 heel behind Reigns in the company, at worst 3 behind Seth. Not only is he arguably the best in ring wrestler on the planet, he’s a strongly booked IC champ in the middle of a great reign. I don’t think he’s eaten a single pin since debuting on the main roster.
Only other people you can put in that final elimination spot are Rollins and maybe Brock. (Idk if he’s even a heel)
Cawdy was always winning against anyone. The 1% chance of him not winning was The Rock.
Normally, yes. Not when you have a segment as strong as the Bloodline post match though. That was an all timer segment with peak crowd interaction/heat. It had to close.
The problem is they haven’t built anyone up. Other than Dominik Mysterio, who is nowhere near a legit chance at a midcard title let alone WWE title.
They spent a good 2-3 months building up Owens, for him to get smashed in a pretty average match.
With the bigger roster, there really isn’t time to build many compelling feuds It seems. And all of the belts are held by the top heels. With all the baby face’s having been regularly squashed over the last 3 years.
WWE need to cut down the roster and have 1 hour Raws and Smackdowns less is more kind of thing.
You will have less matches and feuds but the qaulity would be so much better
Mate you’ve been watching the indie japanese manga stars do flips in the bush leagues but haven’t been paying attention to one of the best long term storyline’s WWE has ever done?
I don’t think I’ve heard that loud of a pop when Sami hit Reigns with a chair since perhaps Austin came down to help Mankind win the championship.