By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE Royal Rumble Hits
Men’s Royal Rumble match: The Jey Uso win was a truly surprising crowd pleaser. I have mixed feelings about going with Jey in a WrestleMania main event, but I love that his win will pay dividends in Rumble matches to for many years to come. The last time people seemed this surprised by the outcome of a men’s Royal Rumble match was probably in 2012 when Sheamus was an upset winner. And the last time the fans seemed truly caught off guard by a winner and were actually happy about it was back in 2008 when John Cena made a surprise early return from a pectoral muscle tear. If the company plays this right, Jey’s win could make fans think that anything is possible and that Rumble wins are not just for the established main event players.
Sami Zayn is definitely a person to watch coming out of this match. There are parallels between his popularity with fans during WrestleMania season in 2023 and Jey’s popularity today. Furthermore, Jey eliminated Zayn from the Rumble by inadvertently superkicking him. Sami has hit the wrong target with a couple of Helluva Kicks lately. Will Sami’s character be forgiving or hypocritical? Either way, The Bloodline saga is the gift that keeps on giving.
Opening the match with Rey Mysterio and Penta was a fun idea. Yes, it’s unfortunate that Penta’s feet touched the ringside mat when he wasn’t supposed to be eliminated, but life goes on. It was great to see Jacob Fatu showcased during the match. Joe Hendry had a forgettable appearance unless you count Michael Cole big timing TNA by saying that Fatu showed the TNA World Champion that it’s a different world. The stretch where top stars entered the match late was a lot of fun. Logan Paul eliminating CM Punk just one night after Punk mocked Kevin Owens for losing to the social media influencer was an interesting development.
Cody Rhodes vs. Kevin Owens in a ladder match for the WWE Championship: A violent ladder match with really hard work from both wrestlers. The key is that they set the table for the violence by establishing a heated rivalry that led up to this point. In other words, they didn’t have a hardcore brawl just for the sake of having a hardcore brawl. One can only hope that Owens is okay after his head struck the ladder while he was performing a fisherman’s buster suplex, not to mention the final spot of the match that saw his head go through the ladder rungs during a wild ladder bridge spot.
Women’s Royal Rumble match: An enjoyable match until the predictable finish. This is the second creative regime that just can’t stop themselves from pushing Charlotte Flair right to the top. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that she’s back and she is obviously a main event talent, but they are depriving themselves of some interesting stories that could have been told about her battling back from adversity for once as opposed to immediately returning to the title picture.
Roxanne Perez’s long run in the match suggests that the creative team have high hopes for her. Chelsea Green is one of the most popular acts in the division despite being a heel. Jaida Parker stands out as a future star. Alexa Bliss received a tremendous reaction. It’s only one crowd, but it was hard not to notice that Stephanie Vaquer received a better reaction than NXT Women’s Champion Giulia. Just imagine how much buzz the company could have created had they gone with a double surprise by having Jey Uso win the men’s Rumble and Jordynne Grace take the women’s Rumble. Grace should do really well in WWE, but this could have been a star making moment for her.
WWE Production: The new Rumble ticker graphic at the bottom of the screen was excellent. It listed the country that each wrestler is from while also showing their Rumble history, how many entrants were alive in the match, how many had been eliminated, as well as the length of time that some wrestlers had been in the match. After all these years, the production team came up with a way to make my favorite match of the year more fun and easier to follow. Well done.
WWE Royal Rumble Misses
“DIY” Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa vs. “Motor City Machine Guns” Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin in a best of three falls match for the WWE Tag Titles: Whenever a first fall ends just a few minutes into a best of three falls match, it always begs the question of why they didn’t just go with a traditional single fall match. There was good work from both teams, but the live crowd just didn’t seem as invested as they were the in the other three matches. The Street Profits interfering to give DIY the win was fine, and I like that Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins attacked Gargano and Ciampa after the match. It’s good to see the Street Profits return with more of an edge.
Joe Hendry is a guy I have seen videos of wrestle in front of 18 people in places in Scotland I can’t even pronounce and he just had a moment in front of 70,000 people, almost all of whom popped big time for his entrance. My guess is he will never forget it!
My point is not everyone can be a star in a 30 person match. AJ Styles, Finn Balor, Nakamura and others were just kind of there. You simply can’t tell 15 stories in what is basically a battle Royal.
But my guess that moment, for my boy Hendry and his legion of fans, was incredibly special
Overall I totally enjoyed the show KO and Cody had match of the year on the first day of Feb. Jey winning was a lesson from the mishandling of the hot hand in the past (Bryan, Kofi). The women’s rumble showed the future of WWE is in excellent shape (despite that woman who says she is Charlotte winning the match)
Also 10000% agree the production and graphics were aces and let’s give Wade Barrett a shout out too – he has become the top announcer in all of wrestling
A great show!
I’ve seen plenty of guys go from the indies to big spots in the Rumble. I’m always happy for them, but some appearances are more memorable than others. In Hendry’s case, I’m happy for him on a personal level, but they could have done more. You’re right that only so many people can be featured players in the Rumble. I just think they could have given him more than they did, and Cole’s line about Hendry being a TNA World Champion, yet it being a different world in WWE felt unnecessary.
Great call regarding Grace, that would have been a great choice as winner. I actually thought the women’s Rumble was poor this year, after a really good one last year.
Am I the only one who would like to see WWE go a couple of years without anyone lasting until the end from the first couple of spots? The commentary team always give it the whole “what a miracle” treatment, but it happens literally every year.
I’m with you on that. It’s not special if it happens every year (sometimes more than once on the same Rumble show). I could also do without the numbers 27 or 30 winning. Well, unless I have those numbers in Brian Fritz’s Rumble game!
Great points.I liked Jey winning, but I hope he doesnt beat Gunther.
I didnt mind Charlotte winning. If you have doubts about Jey being in a WM main event, wouldn’t you have 10000x the doubts about Grace in a similar spot? I really like Grace, Belair, Bliss, et al, but one Rumble upset was enough for me. Maybe they couldve sold Charlotte having ring rust, etc to make the win more suspenseful?
And I’m all in on the Wade Barrett love. I really like him as a heel commentator. As good as McAfee and Graves are, they tend to be cute and make it about themselves.
I would actually have far fewer doubts about Jordynne Grace than Jey Uso in a main event. Grace is fantastic and always comes through with strong matches. She may not have been in stadium main events, but she’s had a lot of high profile matches by TNA standards and I can’t really think of a time when she’s earned the letdown label.
But I must add that we’re all getting pretty liberal with the WrestleMania main event description. I see the night two main event as the true main event, but I can go along with night one also being a WrestleMania main event because it technically is one. So there are two. Will Jey be in one of them? Maybe. I still want to see the story play out. After all, Cody won last year’s Rumble and legend has it that he was going to be removed due to a storyline injury. I think Jey will get his title shot, but will it close one of the shows? Again, maybe. If it does, that very likely means that neither one of the women’s title matches will be in either main event slot.
That’s fair, and good point about what’s actually the ME of WM. During both Rumbles, they seem to tout it as the winner will main event WM, but it’s not worked out that way. I’ve only seen Grace in NXT/WWE, but she’s been stellar in those appearances, for sure. It’s crazy how small TNA was for years and then seeing the pops she and Hendry get.
TNA’s resurgence is one of the strangest things I’ve seen. They’re on a network that most people don’t get and they’ve never touted their TNA+ numbers, so I assume they’re fine yet unspectacular. As either Scott D’Amore or Don Callis put it when they took over, they were getting rid of the shit that pissed people off. Those two and the creative folks that came after them have followed through on that for the most part. Even so, it’s not easy to generate the buzz they have on a bad network when the landscape is so crowded, even when they get a little love from NXT. Good for them. It’s nice to see a consistently entertaining product rewarded.
And that TNA line by Cole stood out like a sore thumb. Not sure what he was thinking.
The referees now have a new clothing outfit.
I thought Logan Paul came off as reckless during the match. He was tying up with LA Knight, which distracted and got in the way of Drew’s elimination, which production rushed to make a moment of. But that elimination of CM Punk showed no care for Punk’s safety, and he landed hard on the mat.
I would have been happy if Bliss, Trish and Charlotte were booked like the men’s Rumble, where those high profile eliminations set up stories, and the winner was someone a bit more unexpected. It’s not like Charlotte ever needed to complete for a title shot.