Official Royal Rumble Discussion Thread

[Bushy.]

As someone who started watching wrestling in 2007, its cool to see nostalgia acts from my childhood return finally moving on from Attitude Era guys. Its surreal.

[Guest]

I forgot all about MVP's return. Shame lol

 

https://twitter.com/prince_petty_/status/1221637838967595008?s=19

 

ME WHEN KEITH LEE CAME OUT.

[AONO.]

 

There was momentum, though. There were several people rightly predicting him in the predictions thread because he had momentum and people were invested. In fact, I was able to predict him the night Brock announced he was in. I didnt pull that out of my ass. I saw how they were booking him and knew he had to be the guy. Heymans whole MO right now is building new stars and this exactly what this is. Thats where the shock factor comes in. The fact that hes a new face in this spot and theyre actually getting behind him. The lead up to this was there, though. So in that sense it was not very shocking.

 

Again, he was basically the only one that cared for the rumble in the first place. And I remember going a few weeks back thinking, "well yeah, if not Reigns, Drew will be my second pick, because he is the only one talking about winning it adamantly"

I don't go by predictions thread, I saw a lot of stuff there, predictions and overall wishes of the winner. Yes, there was a showcase momentum for the past month. And talk about how he never got a world title shot in his life. But that's it. And that also came from left field. That's why I am saying. That I wish they have given this more thought and proper time, or actually more than month and a half, so he could be more established as a potential baby face main eventer to broader a audience.

For an example, say Owens was in spot of Drew in the rumble, you don't think he would got that kind of reaction? A lot of guys would probably. Because they booked it smart in the match itself, but kinda basic and easy. That's the reason why I called it "lazy". Maybe it wasn't a good choice of words. The payoff itself in the end was fun, sure. All I am doing is questioning is the short term shock over long term for a character that you are going to put in a main event babyface position during the WM season. I'm sure Drew is going to be over until WM and with his probable win at WM. All I am saying is I wish that there was more quality to it so he could be a proper main event player and not potentially fade off after WM.

___________________

Cool how Keith lee got an excellent showing, being the first one to solo handle Lesnar properly and how Lesnar didn't just throw him out like whatever.

Dude is going to be big for sure. Hope that he wills till able to go for some time and be injury free.

[Ziggy Vercetti]

 

Most if not everything worked perfect last night.

 

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7z7x4Fn9ps/?igshid=10d50pz5rplfx

[Jeb ★]

https://twitter.com/TheBethPhoenix/status/1221848027092148224?s=19

[PaperThinWalls]

 

Again, he was basically the only one that cared for the rumble in the first place. And I remember going a few weeks back thinking, "well yeah, if not Reigns, Drew will be my second pick, because he is the only one talking about winning it adamantly"

 

I don't go by predictions thread, I saw a lot of stuff there, predictions and overall wishes of the winner. Yes, there was a showcase momentum for the past month. And talk about how he never got a world title shot in his life. But that's it. And that also came from left field. That's why I am saying. That I wish they have given this more thought and proper time, or actually more than month and a half, so he could be more established as a potential baby face main eventer to broader a audience.

 

For an example, say Owens was in spot of Drew in the rumble, you don't think he would got that kind of reaction? A lot of guys would probably. Because they booked it smart in the match itself, but kinda basic and easy. That's the reason why I called it "lazy". Maybe it wasn't a good choice of words. The payoff itself in the end was fun, sure. All I am doing is questioning is the short term shock over long term for a character that you are going to put in a main event babyface position during the WM season. I'm sure Drew is going to be over until WM and with his probable win at WM. All I am saying is I wish that there was more quality to it so he could be a proper main event player and not potentially fade off after WM.

 

We can only comment on what has happened. There's still two months until WM which is plenty of time to further Drew's push and cement the spot he's in. With that being said, I strongly disagree with your view leading up to this point. The pre-Rumble push with the squashes, the character turn, and Orton matches was enough to build a guy like Drew who has always been booked rather strongly (even if a number of the storylines he's been involved in lacked some meat).

 

As for the Predictions thread, I'd like to think when people make predictions, there's some basis to them and not pure wishful-thinking. It's not like people are going around predicting a guy like Pete Dunne to win which would be a true left-field pick to me. You may like the guy a lot, but no one would be foolish enough to throw a prediction like that out. That's pure wishfulness with no basis. So I disagree with not using the Predictions thread as a way to gauge the current booking climate. You'll get insights on what's going on in there for sure.

[Guest]

https://twitter.com/HEELZiggler/status/1221828022472343552?s=19

 

Tell em Zigman.

[PaperThinWalls]

https://twitter.com/HEELZiggler/status/1221828022472343552?s=19

 

Tell em Zigman.

It was such a boneheaded cut. Stick to what's happening in the ring.

[St★rstrucꓘ]

There was momentum, though. There were several people rightly predicting him in the predictions thread because he had momentum and people were invested. In fact, I was able to predict him the night Brock announced he was in. I didnt pull that out of my ass. I saw how they were booking him and knew he had to be the guy. Heymans whole MO right now is building new stars and this exactly what this is. Thats where the shock factor comes in. The fact that hes a new face in this spot and theyre actually getting behind him. The lead up to this was there, though. So in that sense it was not very shocking.

The momentum and everything was there; it just wasn't super heavy like we're accustomed to. Too many times in the past have we been two months away from the Rumble and you can almost EASILY predict who's gonna win or at least make the final four. A lot of people had momentum, a lot of exposure/screen time and looked credible going into the event. Usually there's maybe one or just s few people at most who stand out, which makes it more predictable.

[Crazy.]

Yeah, there had definitely been a proper build-up for Drew leading up to the Rumble. I'd actually say it has been perfect. They booked him strongly but also didn't make it seem like he was a super predictable winner, which is why him eliminating Lesnar was believable and got the point across. It wouldn't have been nearly as effective had, say, Ziggler been the one to eliminate Brock, because he hasn't had that kind of build-up. Drew has recently had encounters with Styles, Orton, Owens, etc. and looked strong against all. Also the decimation of jobbers and his promos about winning the Rumble. Most importantly, he just comes off as legit and that is why it didn't feel for one second that him eliminating Lesnar came out of left field. It seemed natural.

 

 

[PaperThinWalls]

The momentum and everything was there; it just wasn't super heavy like we're accustomed to. Too many times in the past have we been two months away from the Rumble and you can almost EASILY predict who's gonna win or at least make the final four. A lot of people had momentum, a lot of exposure/screen time and looked credible going into the event. Usually there's maybe one or just s few people at most who stand out, which makes it more predictable.

That's Heyman's booking for ya.

[Creepia]

Let's just be thankful that they didn't book that Cain guy

[PaperThinWalls]

I was so uneasy whenever someone brought him up. lol Booking him to eliminate Brock would have been the worst case scenario.

[Crazy.]

Don't know why people even entertained that possibility. Was pretty obvious his arc was over as soon as they had him lose to Lesnar in like a minute after trying to make him look like a genuine threat. Lesnar got his 'revenge' after beating him and that was it. Was always only supposed to be a special attraction thing for the Crown Jewel PPV and nothing more.

[PaperThinWalls]

I can see there being a rubber match between the two eventually (which gave that speculation some credence), but this was definitely not the right time to set it up, especially with Cain's bad knee. So yeah, as it stands, he was used as a guy to put Lesnar over in his current run. Which speaking of, I think this current run of his has been booked extremely well. Since this run began he demolished Kofi in seconds; easily got his win back from a great foe of his; had a tremendously heated feud with Mysterio; and was a complete, dominant monster in the RR match which we have never seen before. So having Drew dethrone him in this run, I think will carry a bit of weight.

[Rekka_N0_Ryo]

Shayna should have won the womens RR. As im tired of Becky, Charlotte, Bayley (struggling in her heel role) and Sasha. As it feels like they have been doing nothing but hogging the spotlight. Though im convinced that if Becky had not gotten over with the fans, she would not be in the picture and would be doing what she was doing before, floundering..

[Creepia]

Don't know why people even entertained that possibility. Was pretty obvious his arc was over as soon as they had him lose to Lesnar in like a minute after trying to make him look like a genuine threat. Lesnar got his 'revenge' after beating him and that was it. Was always only supposed to be a special attraction thing for the Crown Jewel PPV and nothing more.

And you don't think WWE would book him again? Of course they would, 100%.

[EJ!]

Charlotte for real won the Rumble lmao

and Becky retained lmaooo

and no Ronda to offset any of this lmaooooo

 

Shayna winning should have been a layup

[Crazy.]

Might be in the minority here but I really don't mind that Charlotte won the Rumble. Heck, even Shayna winning would have been meh to me considering she's just coming off the back of a long ass reign. Honestly, the Women's division in general is quite lame right now imo. It's hard to take anyone not named Charlotte, Becky, Bayley or Sasha seriously. Belair would have been the best choice imo but can understand why they didn't go with her. Charlotte was always going to win one RR match, at least that's out of the way now. Just pray that she doesn't win this year's MITB too.

[EJ!]

Hard to take anyone else seriously if theyre not given a chance. There are a handful of women in that match who couldve believably broken through that Horsewomen stronghold if they wanted. Charlotte felt very safe. Charlotte is amazing but it looks like downright refusal to do anything different with the women on the main roster. What reason would one have to keep paying attention to the main roster womens division if you know theyll just juggle the same four people? Shayna and Becky have unfinished business but they threw that away for Charlotte vs Becky part 56. Damn this reminds of how annoyed I was this time last year about Charlotte being put somewhere she doesnt NEED to be.

[Jeb ★]

I don't see any WM Championship Match as of right now for Charlotte that I'd be that interested in

 

I was so sure Ronda would return, straight clowning

[PaperThinWalls]

If Shayna hadn't come back to NXT she would have been a shoe-in to win for me. But since she did, it kind of took away her luster and my excitement for her to win. Plus, I'm against whenever someone from one brand goes after another brand's belt (I can't help it). Aside from Asuka/Kairi going heel, the RAW/SD women's scene has been very stagnant since Ronda's departure, though. Even though I'm happy I got the prediction right (hehe!), Charlotte being the winner is not very interesting. I hope if she's going to be a heel in whatever title feud she's in, they modify her character a bit. She is stale in her current state.

[Crazy.]

Hard to take anyone else seriously if theyre not given a chance. There are a handful of women in that match who couldve believably broken through that Horsewomen stronghold if they wanted. Charlotte felt very safe. Charlotte is amazing but it looks like downright refusal to do anything different with the women on the main roster. What reason would one have to keep paying attention to the main roster womens division if you know theyll just juggle the same four people? Shayna and Becky have unfinished business but they threw that away for Charlotte vs Becky part 56. Damn this reminds of how annoyed I was this time last year about Charlotte being put somewhere she doesnt NEED to be.

 

I know. Guess what I'm saying is that they've made it really tough to care about any of those other women. Shayna would have been the better option compared to Charlotte but I really wanted someone new to the title scene to win for a fresh scenario which was never realistic due to the lack of investment in them. Plus they seem hell bent on giving Charlotte every honor under the sun which is frustrating and also kinda explains them not giving a shit about the other women because she's always first choice for every thing.

[LEGION]

Wanted Shayna to win, but don't mind Charlotte winning it. There aren't many women on the main roster that I'm currently interested in in-ring wise. And the ones I am, are either still a little bit too green, one of a few women's tag-teams or a champion. I just hope that the WM match for Charlotte can stay a 1-v-1 and I'm fine with it being another Charlotte/Becky or Charlotte/Asuka match.

 

Though I see the possibility of Becky losing the title at EC to someone.

[Crazy.]

Speaking of the women's Rumble, Dakota Kai was booked terribly. One of the few women who actually had a good build leading up to the event and they had her last, what, a minute and be eliminated by Chelsea Green... who got eliminated within seconds herself? What was even the *censored*ing point? Because it made neither look good.