The Royal Rumble is considered the kickoff to Wrestlemania season, and was regarded as one of the “Big Four” pay-per-views on the WWE calendar. Unfortunately, this year’s edition really emphasized the difference between a pay-per-view and a “premium live event.”
The show started off with the Universal title match, and the reasoning for that was probably because of the finish, but more on that later. This match was the Paul Heyman type of bout with a fireworks show of high spots throughout it to jump start the crowd. It was successful for the crowd reaction, but it also set up for a steep drop in the show afterwards, which is the downside for that type of booking. As far as the in-ring action, this was easily the best match on the show, but when you’ve got table spots within ten minutes of the opening bell, how do you follow it? If this was booked in the main event to conclude the show then you have a wild match to finish the event. Instead, you have table bumps and finishing moves in the opening minutes of a four-hour event so the contest isn’t nearly as memorable or effective as it could’ve been if put at the right place on the card. More than anything, this proved that despite being booked in some absolutely horrendous scenarios that completely halted any momentum he had for the past several years, Seth Rollins is a top-notch talent. The Roman Reigns heel turn continues to be the best run of his career, and it might be because there’s a noticeable lack of star power on Smackdown, but Roman should probably remain the champion for another year, he’s that effective in the role of the champion. Keep in mind, this was a heel vs. heel match so the DQ finish is completely illogical. Are the fans supposed to rally behind the heel Rollins to get a fair title shot? Seth was booked in some really silly scenarios in the past few years so another defeat wasn’t going to make or break his status within the company. As mentioned, it was booked like a Paul Heyman match, but it had a Vince McMahon finish, which led to a rather flat pace for the rest of the show.
The Women’s Royal Rumble match was nearly an hour so there’s no need to get too in-depth with it other than the few notable spots. Since the company released a few dozen wrestlers in the past year, the female Rumble had more guest stars because there simply weren’t enough competitors on the roster for the full match. I’m not sure what Kelly Kelly has been doing since the last time she was in a WWE ring, but she certainly wasn’t attending any training sessions. Summer Rae looked more lost here than she did during her original stint in the company. Ivory made a cool cameo and the Right To Censor persona was comical. Ivory didn’t get the credit she deserves during the majority of her career so it’s nice that she got a spotlight moment in the Rumble. It was nice to see Mickie James back in the WWE after she was infamously sent her belongings in a trash bag after she was released from the company. That being said, as much as some want to claim it was earth-shattering that the Impact Knockouts champion was in the Rumble, keep in mind, even in the WWE audience could find the channel that airs Impact, the product is so niche that any gained viewership would be minimal. More than anything, the footage of Mickie with the Knockouts title on WWE programming is a great way to get MLW’s rather silly anti-trust lawsuit dismissed. Ronda Rousey’s return was rumored and not only did she return to the company after a three-year hiatus, but she also won the match to jump the line to main event Wrestlemania again. I already wrote an article about the situation last week so I’m not going to repeat everything again, but the two major points that should be taken into consideration with this fresh Rousey run are she called the WWE fake after she left and called the fans ungrateful so other than the publicity that will appease the stockholders, is there really a demand for Ronda back in the WWE? Furthermore, at a time when the company depends on part-timers for star power, will anyone from the roster be a bigger star with Ronda in the main event?
The Raw Women’s title match was fine, but got zero reaction from the audience. Supposedly, there were 44,000 fans in the building, and nobody thought it was remotely possible that Doudrop could win the title so nobody had any interest in anything that happened during the 15-minute contest. That said a lot more about the structure of the WWE product than it does about either wrestler. There’s something wrong when Becky Lynch, one of the biggest stars in the entire company, is in the match that garnered the lowest crowd response. This happened later in the show as well, but when the product becomes too predictable, the fans just wait for the finish. I also want to mention that it’s ridiculous that Piper Niven got stuck with the name “Doudrop” because it’s literally just a way to mock her and it’s completely counterproductive to make a star. Becky got the win, which still got a mediocre reaction.
Similar to Roman/Rollins, the WWE title match was a Paul Heyman style contest for a 10-minute bout that was very physical and a fast-paced in the ring. The match was entertaining for what it was, but it wasn’t anything more than what we’ve already seen from the Brock Lesnar playbook, which is why it had to be kept relatively short. The much bigger problem was the booking for this match and the rest of the card was so predictable that the broadcast was more or less put on autopilot until it went off the air. Management had to call an audible when Roman was off of the Day One pay-per-view with COVID so Brock was booked to win the WWE title. Brock/Roman is still the plan for WM 38 so the office had to figure out a way to get to that destination without both of them being champions. I understand it’s easy booking, but sometimes if something is too obvious, it takes away from the show. Of course, Reigns was going to cost Lesnar the title so that Brock could enter at number thirty to win the Rumble and management could get to their original main event. When you know the finish, does the rest of the segment actually matter?
Speaking of easy booking, as I wrote before the mixed tag of Edge and Beth Phoenix vs. The Miz and Maryse was a story that wrote itself, but was there really a demand for an Edge/Mix feud? If not, the office should’ve let Edge stay home. Edge and Beth got the victory, but the match is skippable.
Another example of skippable was the men’s Royal Rumble match because you could’ve skipped about 45 minutes of it without missing anything important. Outside of Shane McMahon and Bad Bunny, there were no guest appearances. Nothing against either of them, but would anyone have been disappointed if Shane and Bad Bunny weren’t there? After Shane’s last extended run on television, there’s not much else for him to do and he had more TV time than most of the roster so it’s not as though the fans are clamoring for his return. Outside of Brock at number thirty, which everyone knew, there wasn’t really anything memorable about the Royal Rumble match. Drew McIntyre was one of the final two competitors in the match, but when he’s feuding with Happy Corbin and Madcap Moss, did anything think he was going to eliminate Lesnar? As I’ve written several times, I think management has recycled the Reigns/Lesnar match too many times, but they are the only athletes on the roster that consistently get booked like stars so what choice did the office have for Wrestlemania? That being said, it speaks volumes about the company’s lack of ability to make new stars when the same match that was booked as the main event seven years ago will be the main event of Wrestlemania in a few months.
What do you think? Comment below with your thoughts, opinions, feedback and anything else that was raised.
Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
E mail [email protected] | You can follow me on Twitter @jimlamotta
