Perhaps the most exciting time of the year for wrestling fans is Wrestlemania season, when WWE not only begins the build to the ‘Showcase of the Immortals’, but it seems like wrestling as a whole ups their game. Regardless of whether your loyalty is solely to AEW or WWE; or if you are a fan of wrestling as a whole and are happy we have so many different choices and styles of wrestling to choose from, you can’t deny that there is something different about this time of year on the wrestling calendar. Having said that, the road to Wrestlemania is now in full swing with the Royal Rumble in the books. This year’s edition of the annual spectacle emanated from Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts and for the most part, it was a fun show; there were parts of the show that didn’t stick, but no show will ever be perfect. That said, here are my thoughts about the show as a whole:
Women’s Royal Rumble
Winner: Charlotte Flair
I’m probably not alone in thinking that Charlotte was winning as soon as it was announced that she was returning from a year-long injury absence. Predictable? Of course it is, but love or hate her, there’s no denying she is a solid worker and is capable of some classic matches (see Rhea Ripley vs. Charlotte at Wrestlemania 39 which I was in attendance for). The fear among many fans is that because of her name and star power that either Rhea or Tiffany Stratton is going to see their title reigns cut shorter they should be, but that remains to be seen since we don’t know who Charlotte will challenge as of this writing. Overall, aside from a couple of lulls, this was a fun match that had a strong showing from the NXT Women’s division and the fact WWE didn’t need to lean on legends from the past beyond Trish Status is a testament to how loaded the women’s roster is across all three brands. I was disappointed that AJ Lee wasn’t a surprise entrant, but that’s not the end of the world; can we take a second to appreciate the huge pop that accompanied the returning Alexa Bliss? Easily the biggest pop of the night!
WWE Tag Team 2 out of 3 Falls Match
DIY defeated Motor City Machine Guns
I’m going to be honest, I really didn’t sit down to watch much of this match as it was a chance to make dinner before the Ladder Match and Men’s Rumble match. I still had it on as background noise and from what I’ve read, this match didn’t really live up to the hype considering the talent involved. This was through no fault of their own; the match placement between an exciting Women’s Rumble and the ladder match did them no favors. Short of a five star classic, the fans in attendance were probably not going to be fully invested either way. Going back and watching the match after the fact, I can see that the effort was there, but again, this unfortunately was the ‘cooldown match’. The big story from this match was the Street Profits showing up to cost MCMG a chance to regain the titles before attacking DIY post match, but unfortunately, WWE still doesn’t seem to treat the tag team division as any sort of priority so it’s really hard for me to be excited about any of the tag titles.
Ladder Match for the WWE Title
Cody Rhodes defeated Kevin Owens to retain
Wow, this was a brutal match which both men seemed to want to end the others’ career; in the buildup to this match, we’ve seen subtle shifts in Cody Rhodes and this match bought a more aggressive side out of him. To be fair, you kind of have to lean into your more aggressive side when you’re going against someone like Kevin Owens who thrives on getting into people’s heads when he’s not beating them in. How both men are able to walk after this war of attrition is beyond me, but wrestlers are just built different. Though it goes without saying they are going to be feeling the affects of this match for a while, especially Kevin Owens after taking a vicious Alabama Slam through the ladder at the end of the match. While at ringside towards the end, Sami Zayn surprisingly did not get involved like many thought he might, but this I would imagine plants the seeds for his match with Owens at Wrestlemania (the post match beatdown after Zayn’s loss to CM Punk on this week’s episode of RAW confirms as much).
Men’s Royal Rumble Match
Winner: Jey Uso
Where the women’s match had the predictable winner, this one had the surprise winner, especially considering John Cena was the last one eliminated. Whether Jey Uso actually wins the world title remains to be seen (one would assume he seeks out another match with Gunther), there is no denying how over he is with the fans. While this match didn’t have any involvement from the NXT roster (unless I blanked out), it did have its fair share of moments. Starting off with Rey Mysterio and Penta was inspired and I want to see these two have a proper match before Rey hangs up the boots for good. As someone who watched countless Penta matches in AEW, I am happy to see him being presented as the star he is by WWE early in his run. The appearance from TNA World Champion Joe Hendry (say his name and he appears) produced probably the second biggest pop of the night and it was quite the sight to have 70K+ singing along with his theme; he was never going to win, but he looked good in his time in this match. Aside from a surprise return from AJ Styles (thank god they gave him his old music back), the part of this match that stood out the most is the sequence in which CM Punk eliminated both Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins before being eliminated by Logan Paul, setting off a brawl outside the ring which saw Rollins snap on both men. That’s likely the Wrestlemania program unless the long promised Rock/Reigns match is able to happen. There is enough history and bad blood among those three to sell a match on its own, to say nothing of the accolades they have amassed between them. One can only wait and wonder what exactly the favor is that Paul Heyman owes CM Punk and how that plays into WrestleMania plans, guess we’ll have to wait and see.
All in all, a solid Royal Rumble that has only just begun to lead us on the path to Wrestlemania and I can’t wait to see which storylines develop along the way!
The Casual Otaku 