just made both Rumble matches a little bit longer and have a spot in the women’s match where Bianca gets someone eliminated to set up a Mania match.
Same with Bray Wyatt and LA Knights match. Just, what even was that?
It was a match in black light specifically to be an ad for Mountain Dew. Now, I get it make your money but there HAS to have been another way to do this. It just wasted time and left the crowd a tiny bit confused as to what they should cheer for and what they should boo for.
But then, we arrived at the women’s Royal Rumble match, and man this was a very good match. Rhea Ripley started at No. 1 with Liv Morgan coming in at No. 2. Again, two great wrestlers setting up a solid line up on entrants.
Then there was storyline beef that happened in the match with Bayley and Becky Lynch with a surprise Michelle McCool entry from the crowd because she was just sitting ring side and WWE thought why not?
Just when I thought it could not get any better, Auska returned to a thunderous cheer – that should’ve been for Rhodes but that’s over now and the women did it a lot better. We finally built up to the end where Nia Jax returned and asserted her dominance until Ripley rallied the troops and everyone combined their effort to eliminate Jax.
More eliminations followed as the ring was a little full and we got to a point where only Asuka, Morgan and Ripley remained. Asuka would spit a blue mist in Morgan’s eyes to “blind” her, which would lead Ripley to eliminating Asuka and then finally Morgan to win the Rumble.
Beautiful storytelling and the right woman won the match because I speak for all wrestling fans when I say this, Rhea Ripley deserves to be champion.
Finally, we got to the main event where Roman Reigns took on Kevin Owens for the World Heavyweight Championship. Hooray! We all know the ending to this match as well. But it was the post-match antics that we all wanted to see, and man did it deliver.
Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn are best friends in real life, but for story purposes Zayn was loyal to Reigns and his family. WWE would then play up this friendship and Zayn’s loyalty in the buildup to this match leading to the ultimate crossroads.
Reigns and his family would attack Owens after the match and handcuff him to the ropes leaving him defenseless when Zayn would try to protect Owens by telling Reigns he was already beaten down and did not need to continue.
Reigns would then hand Zayn a steel chair and tell him to hit Owens with it. Zayn looked at his helpless and defenseless friend, lift up the chair and smack Reigns in the back with it, which blew the roof off the building.
This was amazing story telling and while some wanted to see Zayn vs Reigns at Mania for the championship this was still a satisfactory ending to this story.
Overall, it was not a bad event considering the injured wrestlers that had to miss the Rumble match, but I feel like it was sped up and was just a looking version of Monday Night Raw.
It has been a while since I wrote a column, and I figured with that lack of sports this week because of the weather I would write one this week because I watched the most recent WWE Royal Rumble and have a lot to say about it.
Yes, I know wrestling is scripted and the outcomes are predetermined, but it is entertainment and when dumb decisions are made, I will have complaints. Think about your favorite show and one of the main characters is just written off with no explanation or reason. For a second it is confusing, but you’re still interested and have to see the ending.
That’s basically how the Royal Rumble went.
The men’s Royal Rumble kicked off the premium live event and it was just odd and clunky, to say the least. I mean we had two great wrestlers start the match and set up what looked like a solid lineup to come.
It was a very solid contest as the match would go on and more wrestlers would enter the ring fighting for a chance to go to WrestleMania. But then nothing interesting happened, like no one seemed to have that “big” moment and the fans seemed to be getting more and more anxious waiting for a big return or a crazy elimination but it never came.
With every entrant, the match got faster and faster almost speeding to the end. When we got to the end Logan Paul entered at 29 followed by Cody Rhodes at the 30th and final spot. This is where my complaints start because WWE decided it was a good idea to spoil Cody’s return a couple weeks before the match.
The Royal Rumble is a place where massive debuts and huge returns take place, and it is used to create special moments. Why WWE decided to ruin that big moment for one of their top returning stars is beyond me, but here we are.
When we got to 30 and Rhodes was not in the match yet, the ending was way too predictable, but I’ll move on from it.
Paul would have a very strong showing, but his whole point in the match was to do a mid-air bump and then leave. Anyway, we finally arrive at the final two people of the match when I realized that while Rhodes entered at the 30th and final spot only 29 men entered the match.
Rey Mysterio is a guy that everyone just loves watching, but there is this storyline where he and his son are feuding, and his son would beat up Rey backstage and would be unable to enter the Rumble. So now, not only was the ending ruined, but we did not even get to see one of the most athletic and electric wrestlers ever compete in one of the biggest matches in the wrestling industry.
So, Rhodes would win and punch his ticket to WrestleMania to fight for the World Heavyweight Championship while making Gunther look like an absolute beast, which was my one compliment of this match, but it all felt rushed and everyone in the building knew who was going to win.
While Rhodes winning is a very special moment that will go down in history it just seems like early 2010s WWE because it was too predictable.
Then we had two matches that barely sniffed 10 minutes and were honestly to progress and build stories. Why is Bianca Belair, who is one of the best wrestlers in the industry today, only getting eight minutes on one of WWE biggest premium live events?
I understand the Alexa Bliss and Bray Wyatt spooky storyline is something we are all anxious to see where it goes. But they could’ve
