By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE Royal Rumble Hits
Gunther vs. AJ Styles: A dramatic match with some great near falls due to high stakes retirement stipulation. While I suspected that Styles would lose, I was hoping to see him win this match, only to have Gunther get his heat back by winning the Royal Rumble. It’s a shame that we won’t get an official Styles retirement tour, but apparently, that’s not what he wanted. Meanwhile, Gunther has retired Goldberg, John Cena, and now Styles in less than six months. It will be interesting to see where he goes from here. Will Gunther retire another wrestler, or move back into the title picture? Was this truly the end of Styles’ career? It seems like this is it in WWE
Men’s Royal Rumble match: They picked a strange place to debut the former Powerhouse Hobbs. It was fun to see the newly named Royce Keys as one of the surprises, but it was obvious that most of the fans in the stadium were not familiar with him. It was a nice touch to show the Powehouse Hobbs name on the big screen before unveiling his new name, which will take some getting used to. The Rumble had to be a learning experience for the creative forces when it came to which wrestlers the Saudi fans had no reaction to. Most of the attempts at comedy fell flat with this crowd, and they clearly had no idea who the AAA wrestlers were.
It’s a tough balancing act for the creative forces in terms of deciding whether to cater to the live crowd or the fans watching at home. It’s not as simple as just playing to the larger audience, because doing so risks having some wrestlers come off poorly with tamer crowd reactions than they would receive from a North American or European crowd. It will be interesting to see how the creative forces approach next year’s WrestleMania event. Will they present the same show they would regardless of where the show is held, or will they book it with the tastes of the Saudi fans in mind?
Drew McIntyre showing up at ringside and hitting Cody Rhodes with a Claymore Kick to eliminate him from the Rumble seems to point toward Cody winning the Elimination Chamber to get his WrestleMania rematch. It seems like there’s also a good chance of the match being a Triple Threat with Jacob Fatu. If that’s the plan, the big question is how they get there.
The elimination of Brock Lesnar was lousy. Cody and LA Knight teamed up to double clothesline him over the top rope. Yawn. It didn’t feel like it set up anything. Speaking of Knight, the live crowd was as hot for him as anyone in the men’s Rumble match.
Roman Reigns took any coolness away from Jey Uso’s entrance by encouraging him to run it back and then punching him. Then again, if Michael Cole dancing to Jey’s entrance couldn’t kill it, maybe this won’t either.
The most frustrating parts of the men’s Rumble were the teases of major confrontations that never delivered. Someone else would step in, or the big names would freeze like morons due to the sound of entrance music. I don’t expect them to give too much away, but surely they could have had more physicality in these situations.
Roman Reigns winning the Rumble wasn’t the most satisfying option for those who were hoping to see some new blood. As much as I hoped to see them make Oba Femi by putting him over and having him in a WrestleMania main event, it’s just not something they’ve done with the Rumble over the years. The closest they came was with Sheamus back in 2012, and he’d actually debuted on the roster three years earlier. And while some of us would prefer to see the company get behind someone new, Roman’s win was well-received by the live crowd and by more casual fans. Overall, the men’s Rumble was the better of the two this year and held my interest from bell to bell.
Women’s Royal Rumble match: The women’s match was enjoyable for the most part. The full-body attire the women have to wear in Saudi Arabia didn’t help, as there were times when the ring was filled with wrestlers, and it took a second or two to differentiate between the wrestlers. Ultimately, though, the men’s match had more star power and fewer gaps were it felt like nothing meaningful was happening.
Was that The Rock or Brie Bella? Okay, the reaction to Brie may not have been quite that loud, but it was much stronger than anyone could have anticipated.
Lash Legend was showcased as the new powerhouse of the women’s division. It’s a bit odd because she’s in a tag team at the moment, but I’m all for elevating a newcomer.
Nattie, eliminating Becky Lynch felt a little cold. It’s cool if it’s going somewhere, but I don’t know if it will, since it was a heel eliminating another heel.
It was great to see Jacy Jayne get a spot in the Rumble. It seemed like she was going ot be a transitional champion when she captured the NXT Women’s Championship, but she actually thrived in the role and earned this opportunity. I wonder if Sol Ruca eliminating her is a sign that they are building toward the two of them meeting for the title.
Liv Morgan winning the match works for me. I was hoping for Bianca Belair to return and win the match, but Morgan was a nice consolation prize. One of the bigger stories heading into Raw is how Raquel Rodriguez will react to Morgan not only eliminating her but laughing in her face about it afterward.
WWE Royal Rumble Misses
Drew McIntyre vs. Sami Zayn for the WWE Championship: A minor Miss. It was good from a match quality standpoint, but it was very noticeable that Zayn has cooled off since his past appearances in Saudi Arabia. The fans still liked Zayn, but they didn’t create the wild hometown-like atmosphere for him. McIntyre going over was the right call, as the last thing his character needed was to lose the title in his first defense after his previous world title reign lasted only a matter of minutes. Another issue with the match is that they never convinced me that Zayn was on the verge of winning. This was a lopsided win for McIntyre. It was obviously good for him, but how will Zayn respond to losing another title match? Will his frustrations boil over and lead to a heel turn?
(Jason Powell, founder and editor of ProWrestling.net, has covered pro wrestling full-time dating back to 1997. He hosts a weekly podcast, Pro Wrestling Boom, and also appears regularly on the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast. Reach him via email at dotnetjason@gmail.com and on social media via @prowrestlingnet.bsky.social or x.com/prowrestlingnet. For his full bio and information on this website, click here.)
I think Sami will turn heel, Jason. His promo after John Cena retired smacked of the sort of desperation that in the past has sowed the seed for just that. I’ll be interested to see what happens next, and if you’re right about Cody winning Elimination Chamber I can see Sami losing in that match (maybe even taking the last pin) to further the desperation. The only issue is where does that leave him for Wrestlemania.
For myself I did pop a bit for Powerhouse Hobbs/Royce Keys – if only because of my “AEW’s lost another one!” line. I was also astonished to see Brie Bella given who’s she married to (That’s why she got the pop she got and the follow up Yes chants). I was however disappointed not to see AJ Lee.
Maybe AJ, unlike her husband, was not willing to sell out.
Personally I thought putting Hobbs’ name up on the screen first was very odd. All it did was highlight that he used to be known under a cool name, and now it’s been changed to a lamer one.
Good rundown of the Rumble card. A couple of points from yours truly:
I agree on Cody winning at Elimination Chamber. Really, I never saw him winning the Rumble. Bron Breakker was the surprise for me. He was my dark horse pick to win the Rumble but also thought it possible they would do something involving Seth Rollins and the Vision to get that story going again. But I never thought Bron would be the first one eliminated. I had Gunther winning the Rumble, as I liked your theory on him losing to Styles and then taking the main event. I thought it might be a big night for him by beating Styles and then winning the Rumble. Can’t say I was thrilled that Roman won it, but the promo he and Punk cut on Raw makes me interested in their WM match.
As for the Women’s Rumble, Liv Morgan was the consensus pick, but I love that Sol Ruca was in there as long as she was. A good night for her.