The Royal Rumble. What can you say? It's taken over the internet the last couple days, unfortunately for the wrong reasons. The hashtag #CancelWWENetwork went viral and was trending all over the world. Everyone was up in arms and by the reactions, some people might have thought a high government official had been assassinated. But alas, it wasn't as traumatic or serious as that. It was, professional wrestling.
Wrestling fans are loyal and emotional, sometimes as we've seen, on a unreal level. But I guess that is what a fan is right? Fanatical. The Royal Rumble proved just how fanatical wrestling fans can get, but before we get to the main event of the night that set twitter ablaze, had people booing their heads off, and even had the Rock wondering what the hell was going on, let's talk about the precursor matches.
In the kick-off show we saw two member of New Day take on Cesaro and Tyson Kidd, who had Adam Rose in their corner. The match was okay, but what many people were talking about were the shirts Cesaro and Rose were wearing. Apparently the "Brass Ring Club" may or may not be a personal motto between the three unlikely allies, and both Rose and Cesaro came out with a parody shirt of the Bullet Club, made famous now through NJPW. Replacing the skull, machine guns, and bullets for the Brass Ring Club was a cat skull with ears, two Swiss crosses on the sides and two long stemmed roses. It was actually pretty cool. I really hope Cesaro "proves" he's over, because in my book he already is.
The Usos went on to defeat The Miz and Mizdow. Not much to say about this match, but Mizdow continues to impress. The fans really like him, but I have a sneaking suspicion that even when he splits from Miz, they'll have a match or two, but then "creative" will have nothing for him, which is horrible.
The Bella Twins beat Paige and Natalya, which only had a couple good spots. I wish Paige would get back into a good story line, whether it's for the title or not. Preferably for the title. Every time Nikki Bella holds that title up, it just seems like one of those things where someone had a championship or what not, but you know they shouldn't. But they are holding it up to prove to everyone that they do. I can almost hear the words "Nah-uh, I'm the champion. See!! I have the title, see! I'm the champion." That's the feeling I get. She's good, so maybe she just needs to change her demeanor/attitude.
The Ascension defeated the New Age Outlaws, in a match I think was there to show that the Ascension are good, but I'm still not buying them. I've been watching them since NXT, and I wasn't buying them there either. I don't think they are gonna work. Hopefully they can get something else with either different tag team partners and single story lines.
The World Championship match came right before the rumble, and wow! Man, this match was great. It got great buzz on social media from everyone, whether they were in WWE or not. I tweeted that no matter the outcome of the rumble, that match was worth the 9.99 for the network.
Brock Lesnar is a beast. plain and simple. His nickname as the Beast Incarnate has never been so apropos as these last few matches he's had and he did it again at the Royal Rumble. He's a monster. He's a suplex machine. And ever since that Undertaker match at WrestleMania 30, every match he's had he's just looked dominant.
For all the boos and all the haters and every person out there that says "I respect him, I just don't like him", John Cena is the man. And not the man in the sense as the face of the company and all that, even though he is. I mean he's the man in the sense that he puts it all on the line, every match and you gotta give him props for that. He went through barricades at the rumble and threw stairs around and took a boatload suplex's yet again and he still put on a great show.
And Seth Rollins. I'm buying in on Seth Rollins. If this wasn't his coming out party to the top players in the WWE, it was damn close. Jumping off the top rope with knees to Lesnar and Cena, that amazing Phoenix Splash on Cena and Oh. My. God. That top turnbuckle elbow drop on Lesnar over the spanish announce table (why is it always the spanish announce table?). Rollins proved that he definitely is in the main event scene, and as he puts it, the future of the WWE.
Finally we had the Royal Rumble.
Okay, while I felt the end was definitely lack-luster, I did not jump on the #CancelWWENetwork bandwagon. I like the network. I like the countdowns, and I'm always browsing through the documentaries. But yes, they could have had a little more drama to end the match.
Daniel Bryan. We all knew he wasn't going to win, but it felt like he got eliminated as just another guy. Some more story and drama could have been utilized. Anything other than just being bounced off the apron.
The guest spots were pretty cool. Bubba Ray Dudley making a come back was cool for sure and it was awesome watching DDP nail some diamond cutters on people. One thing I wasn't thrilled with was the Boogey Man taking a spot. I get it, he was a crazy scary guys going up against Bray Wyatt, supposedly another crazy scary guy. But I thought they could have given that spot to someone else. Maybe even Sami Zayne or Adrian Neville from NXT. Last year the NXT guy was Rusev, so I was hoping at least one person from NXT would show up. But nope.
While not disappointing, a little bit of a head scratcher was Kofi Kingston's "rumble spot" this year. Kofi's become an attraction at every rumble the last few years, with interesting predicaments on how to get back in the match without being eliminated. Granted, it's hard to come up with these spots, but this year we saw him sort of crowd surf the rosebuds around one part of the ring and get put back in. Kind of "meh".
It was cool that The Rock came out to help Roman Reigns for a moment, the last thing that really disappointed me was the way Dolph Ziggler, Ryback, Bray Wyatt and Dean Ambrose were eliminated. No drama. No tension. Just Big Show and Kane laying waste and quite literally simply dumping them over the top rope. Come on WWE!! Give us a little more story and drama then that! I get it, you want to show them unstoppable for Reigns to try and look heroic, but while you're making one guy look like a hero, you're making the other main event players look like chumps.
So, yes, while the Royal Rumble match itself was a bit under-whelming, I still keep thinking about the championship match and it reminds me that there are still great matches to be had and stories to be told. And even if Roman Reigns is rumored/scheduled to be the man in the future, I'm not hitching my horse to that wagon. Make mine Seth Rollins.
#IBelieveInSethRollins
I am the light at the end of the tunnel.
— Seth Rollins (@WWERollins) January 27, 2015
