Royal Rumble 2018 Discussion [& stats]

[PunkStep]

Really enjoyed that show. I watched up to the men's Rumble last night and then watched the women's Rumble this morning- so I skipped the Raw tag title and Universal title matches. Doubt I can be bothered to go back and watch them, they were the two matches that interested me the least, so that played out well.

Men's rumble was excellent I thought, one of the better RR matches over the past decade and they went with a winner the crowd were well and truly behind for once. Women's rumble was also a good spectacle- some excellent surprise entrants there. They did a good job and it was better than most of the mens's Rumbles over the past 5 years. A few thoughts:

• Rey looked in superb nick. He's trimmed down and toned up, looks more 'athletic' than he has in over a decade and no longer bloated. We looked brilliant in there as well, very quick and light on his feet. What do we think- 205 Live GM? One shot deal? Permanent roster member? Looks like he can still go and he can definitely add some value. This also made peace with his appearance at the 2014 Rumble, where he was booed to fuck for not being Daniel Bryan, the poor guy. Even the 619 got a cheer, from a Philly crowd too! Unheard of.
• I liked how they used the #10 spot- having it be Tye Dillinger again but not wasting a spot by having him in there.
• The Heath Slater stuff was fun. I love little Rumble side stories like that- like the time Nunzio just sat outside against one of the barriers for ages.
• Almas had a good showing, Adam Cole got a nice big pop too. LOVED the Hurricane appearance and the pop he got for trying the chokeslam!
• Kelly Kelly and Michelle McCool looked shit, although to be fair they would've been rusty. My god though, I hated that era of women's wrestling. They had some right shite during the Johnny Ace Wank Fodder era, didn't they?
• Nice surprise seeing Molly Holly out there, she's in terrific shape too.
• Big fan of Naomi taking the Kofi spot. She took a couple of Kofi/Morrison spots to make a hybrid of them, but they were well done.
• Ember looked really good I thought. Sold the arm well and had a decent presence out there. The face off with Asuka was very good.
• I was surprised by Asuka winning it, mainly because they were making it so painstakingly obvious that she was winning that I was expecting a swerve. Which I guess is a swerve in itself in some ways? But yeah, by far the best and most logical winner there.
• Ronda appearance could've been done a bit better- i.e. not have her name plastered on the screen before you see here. Bit like when AJ made his debut 2 years ago. Good swerve as well, after Trish was #30 plus the tweets all day, you never expected it.

I'll probably watch through it all again tonight, two thumbs up from me. Two Japanese winners eh? Who would've thought it.

 

Oh, and AJ VS Nakamura at Mania (hopefully). Be still my beating erection- as Winston mentioned let's hope they go all out with a classic. We know they can, they had one 2 years ago.

[zep81]

Hopefully they give AJ/Naka plenty of time and scope to just go out there and tear the house down. Esp considering thryve given Naka the RR win to get this match.

[BomberPat]

Still can't believe they put the Japanese lads over.

 

I'd said all along that they wouldn't be stupid enough to have Reigns win in Philly again, but how they got to that finish was masterful - basically having Cena and Reigns work heel against the internet darlings for the closing stretch was a nice touch. Nakamura was my shout to win, but it was never a pick I was overly confident in. That he did it by eliminating Reigns and Cena consecutively is mental. His run there almost makes up for his last year on the main roster - this is the Shinsuke Nakamura we should have had from day one. My favourite Rumble in years, this, maybe best since 2001.

Almost a repeat of that finish for the Women's match; symbolically, you've got the "Divas" in the Bella Twins getting taken out by the world-travelled, unbeatable "proper wrestler" to win the Rumble. That's neat. A really fun Rumble, too, pretty much everybody got their shit in. A decent selection of surprise entrants, though I can't imagine maybe people feeling too nostalgic for Kelly Kelly and Michelle McCool, it was great to see Molly Holly in there. Wish they had a little more history they were prepared to acknowledge, or were prepared to cast their net a little wider, to get a few more totally out of the box surprise entrants, but I understand why they didn't.

I'm glad Rousey wasn't in the Rumble - I would have liked something a little more substantial from her at the end but that's the "tune into RAW!" hook, isn't it? It's just that the happy smiley way she was carrying herself didn't really gel with the dramatic sign pointing, tonally. That she was wearing Piper's leather jacket made me smile, though!

[zep81]

Havnt seen the match yet, but saw a gif of Lesnar punching Braun straight in the side of the head. Was it them just stiffing each other or?

[BomberPat]

Just now, zep81 said:

Havnt seen the match yet, but saw a gif of Lesnar punching Braun straight in the side of the head. Was it them just stiffing each other or?

Most of it was your standard Lesnar match - just finishers and table spots with no rhyme or reason, but early on Strowman caught him with a stiff knee to the temple, and that was Brock's receipt.

[TildeGuy~!]

Strowman caught Lesnar with a stiff knee just before so Lesnar gave him a dig to put him back in line 

[ColinBollocks]

1 hour ago, bigfoote said:

When it was down to two, I didn't want to think about the possibilities, even convinced myself the PLAN was unbreakable. Then they did it. As for the women, right result, and then the WWE again showed they can swerve even the "smartest" of internet fans. Fair play to Ronda, would have been nice to hear the commentary team mention it was Roddy's jacket, even to explain she hadn't just borrowed some jacket too big for her. Wildly reading into it, I did lip read something like "Nice title, Charlotte" from Rousey's lips, and TBH I have no issues with it being Asuka/Bliss (or Carmella if she cashes in and wins, to avoid Bliss taking a clean loss) and Charlotte/Ronda. 

They were playing surprised, no? Cole would really suck if he went "WHAT THE?! IT'S ROUSEY! I CAN't BELIE... Oh, by the way, that's dead Roddy Piper's old jacket... UNBELIEVABLE. I NEVER EXPECTED...".

Anyway, that was the best Rumble in ages.

I'm pleased they're throwing some heat behind Nakamura again. If one person suffered more than the viewer during the Jinder experiment it was Nakamura. For the first Rumble in a while, they read the crowd and they played the finish perfectly. 
I think the other note is how good Rey Mysterio looked. He's quite clearly made the decision to drop some weight and I imagine it's helped his knees. He's exactly what they need should they want to make 205 anything.

The women's Rumble flew by. It's pretty shocking how well a lot of the Attitude era women have aged. Seeing as it's wrestling, you'd expect them all to look like Sunny, these days, but my cock proudly stood up and spat out a "YOU'VE STILL GOT IT" chant of it's own.
I'm a big Ronda Rousey fan, so I'm proper invested in here next move. Bad Reputation is such a brilliant entrance song and I'm pleased WWE are using it.

[bigfoote]

I'll concede that one, rather short-sighted on my part. I blame fatigue, 6+ hours is a long night. And yeah, it's great to see them give Nakamura the push, and to set up the match with AJ at Mania.

[d-d-d-dAz]

I’m all for progress, but spade-a-spade lads, that main event was like a greatest hits tour for my teenage wanks.

Vickie Guerrero was my experimental stage..

Seriously, though, I thought both Rumbles were excellent. I thought they were fantastically paced, with the right people arriving at the right time, and the right stories being told. I said aloud ‘oh, yes, that’s fucking brilliant’ when they did the Cena/Orton/Rey v Finn/Reigns/Naka bit. 

Rey looked tremendous.

Had a genuine worry at one point that Ziggler was going to win it. Glad that cunt got binned off quick.

All told though, I think I preferred the women’s match. Bit scruffy in parts, but the men’s has had loads of that too in recent years. The first strike Asuka landed made me go ‘oh shit’ which was nice.

The only things that seemed a bit off were;

a) Carmella. She was playing the role of throwback, and it didn’t sit right in this match. The screaming, the affectations... she was playing Diva in a Women’s world, it seemed.

b) The commentary. The lads just didn’t get the tone. From Corey Graves going full Lawler and perving on someone to Michael Cole suggesting the women didn’t understand the rules, it was a little strange. For the first time in forever I was actually thankful for Steph’s presence, just keeping them in check.

c) The Curious Case of Torrie Button

d) Ronda’s debut. I’m all for a swerve but it left her with not a lot to do. And the pointing is beyond parody at this point. She should have thrown someone on their head.

All that said, I was still at my happiest watching the Universal Title match. What wonderful nonsense. Brock cabbaging Braun; Braun jumping through a table almost without Kane’s involvement at all to the point where Michael Cole had to try and justify it by saying ‘I think he knew what was coming and thought it would be better if he put himself through the table’; Braun getting hit with a chair and inexplicably putting his hands in the air like he just didn’t care, just so Kane got a free shot of his ribs; Brock lifting up the announce table and everyone gasping like he’d bench pressed a double decker... all just wonderful, wonderful nonsense.

First show I’ve watched in ages. It better stay good. And fun.

 

 

It definitely won’t, will it?

 

[BomberPat]

My favourite part of the triple threat was Strowman not covering Brock after his finish because Kane was nowhere near ready for his next spot, so just repeatedly powerslamming him instead. Like the only thing Braun can think to do to kill time is to heft big lads around.

[PunkStep]

@d-d-d-dAz To be honest I quite liked Carmella screaming. Every now and then I'd wonder who was making that god-awful racket, then see her halfway over the top rope. She's a gobby little Noo Yoik girl, makes sense that she'd scream that she's being chucked out.

Fully agree with you on Ziggler, punched the air when he was eliminated because as the 30th entrant I suddenly came up in hives worrying that the prick would win it.

 

FINALLY, good to see @SpursRiot2012 enjoyed himself over the weekend. After a few months holed up at home, I'm glad he's fully recovered from his broken leg!

 

[d-d-d-dAz]

“What’s the difference between the two?”

...everyone’s a critic.

 

[NoUseforaUsername]

Was waiting till 3am to tune in so I could watch the Royal Rumble and then I find out it's already more than halfway over, cos you know, political correctness.

Fuck sakes.

[d-d-d-dAz]

 

5 minutes ago, NoUseforaUsername said:

Was waiting till 3am to tune in so I could watch the Royal Rumble and then I find out it's already more than halfway over, cos you know, political correctness.

Fuck sakes.

I don’t know how to downvote, but a million downvotes for that post you utter turd.

The women went on last because they had a stronger story to tell, more surprise entrants to showcase and a huge debut to unveil.

Even if you discount the idea that the fact that it’s the first ever should probably count for something and make it special enough to go on last (you shouldn’t discount it. It being the first is in itself special and warrants higher billing I reckon), but by any pro-wrestling metric the Women’s match deserved to go on last. 

Besides genitals. Obviously. Because those really matter.

Which is a fitting end to this post,  NoUseForAUsername, because you’re a dick.

[NoUseforaUsername]

As for Ronda Rousey, she's a good match for WWE, but the Holm and Nunes fights basically exposed her as a marketing tool for the UFC who was lucky to be there at the right time and right place.

Her lack of technique and bull in a china shop fighting style went only so far.

Edit: Well, d-d-d-dAz, I got my cosmic payback in the form of missing the RR for the first time in ages.