The Royal Rumble PPV is usually one of the most popular of the year, not only because it kick starts the road to WrestleMania, but also because it is usually when WWE get a bit more creative and serious with their bookings. From surprise returns to incredible matches, the Rumble is usually a great event (ignoring the last few I guess). Although this past week has had some mixed reviews, I really think this was very subtly, one of the best booked events we have seen in a while.
Let’s start with Ambrose vs. Owens – probably the match of the night and definitely set a good tone for the evening. Right from the beginning of the match, this has a big fight and all out war feel, with some great and creative spots. It was one of those matches where you loved every single minute from bell to bell.
The tag team match for the titles between The Usos and The New Day followed kindly with a lot of energy and again, some great spots to get the crowd going, especially the end. With Big E catching one of the Usos from the top rope and hitting the Big Ending to win the match, The New Day continued their entertaining dominance.
From here we got a solid women’s match and not as solid US Title match. A few spots missed between Del Rio and Kalisto and Ric Flair kissing Becky Lynch was rather cringeworthy. Albeit a solid match, Sasha Banks definitely stole the show, with her finally breaking out on her own which should make for a tasty encounter with Charlotte at some point – assuming WrestleMania.
All in all a solid PPV, to which we now come to the main event, the Royal Rumble match. This was definitely a better rumble than we have seen in recent times, and not only because of the intrigue of who will walk out as champion. What we saw, was for the first time in a long time, subtly smart and longer term booking.
It felt like every entrant, their position as well as when and who they were eliminated by was meticulously thought out. AJ Styles made a triumphant debut early on, which really got the crowd going. Yeah he was there with Roman Reigns which doesn’t keep his babyface momentum if that’s what you want to achieve, but it still got the crowd pumped and gave him some spotlight. He was eventually eliminated correctly by Kevin Owens, who plays the monster heel who simply does not care. This could set up a match at WrestleMania.
Brock Lesnar was eliminated by all four members of the Wyatt Family, even though 3 of them where eliminated already. Strong booking again with Lesnar protected and potentially Wyatt vs. Lesnar at WrestleMania – and yes that means Heyman vs Wyatt on promos. Let’s hope that’s the case instead of Strowman anyway.
Roman Reigns was eliminated by Triple H setting up their future match, looking also likely to be at WrestleMania. This was again the right decision, with Triple H getting heel heat on and off screen for putting the title on himself. The only criticism is Roman Reigns being taken out the Rumble with an “injury” and then coming back. Felt very fake and would have helped more if Reigns was forced to go over an hour.
The entire rumble felt like it had a purpose, bigger than just who is champion but also who will eventually face who in the future and very subtly hinting to us what could and should happen in the future.
Let’s just hope it wasn’t for nothing.
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