Royal Rumble 2020

[Hannibal Scorch]

16 minutes ago, Accident Prone said:

He was made in a single night. He's hardly had a spectacular time since returning to WWE. There's been no, "Oh did you check out Drew's great match from last night's PPV?", and there's been no, "Drew had a cracking promo and show-long angle last night on RAW". He's just been plugging away, same as usual, dependable but not making many waves.

However, we always complain about how predicable the Rumble can be and how they don't use it to hoist those upper-mid carders into main event status anymore. Well on Sunday they did, and although Drew has had an unremarkable second stint in WWE, he's now being given all the tools and the opportunity to knock it out of the park. 

Of course it isn't all down to him though, as he still has to wade through WWE's backwards creative process, the minefield politics and Vince McMahon's inexplicable day-to-day decisions.

I get your point, but I would say for the last couple of months, they have slowly been pushing him, his promo the other week could be seen as an attempt he was going to do well at the Rumble (In my predictions league, I predicted either him or Edge to win it, so I didn't do badly). And he had a strong showing on Raw against The OC. So what will be interesting now is to see how he is pushed between now and Mania

[DavidB6937]

43 minutes ago, Jonny Vegas said:

I know I'm in the extreme minority but for me the acceptance and excitement of Drew McIntyre winning the rumble has to be the biggest example in a long time of how far the product has declined.

He's had a solid build in recent times on Raw.

The crowd reaction to him has been very positive.

It's not like he's come out of absolutely nowhere as a winner. Granted, compared to a large number of previous Rumble winners, he hasn't exactly had the most stellar of main roster careers. However I'd take someone fresh in the main event over a 10 time IC champ or a previous winner that we're already bored of.

He's a very solid hand. The audiences have been warming to him and his Claymore finisher is catching on. It's the perfect time to pull the trigger on him if they were ever going to.

Out of interest, who do you think would have been better options to win?

[Jonny Vegas]

28 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

Out of interest, who do you think would have been better options to win?

I just don't buy into McIntyre at all, I don't think his character works whatsoever unless he's a heal and I'm not a fan of heal vs heal title matches, particularly not ones that require a 2 month long build. I don't see what story can be told between now and Mania that increases my interest.

If whoever won it was going on to challenge Lesnar at Mania then I think it should have been a face or a tweener with legs of a 2 month build and a future after if he won. 

I also don't think Lesnar vs McIntyre looks anything like a Wrestlemania main event as opposed to a transitional PPV title match. I think if people are honestly saying that match screams Wrestlemania and not Fastlane then they're at it.

One option for me, Strowman with a proper build up to the Rumble. Seems a bit pointless to have Lesnar as this near unstoppable monster for 2 years or so bar the loss to Rollins last year only for him to potentially get toppled by Drew McIntrye at the biggest show of the year. Everyone was clamouring for a Kofi title win this time last year. He had a story to tell and it was a great Wrestlemania moment but within 6 weeks or so everyone had lost interest, Kofi went on to lose to title to Lesnar and disappear back into the midcard.

Lesnar and Strowman have unfinished business and I don't really know why Strowman has been seeming to do the square route of fuck all when he seemed hugely over previously then just seemed to almost disappear. If he beat Lesnar it helps get him over as the new unstoppable monster that he should be and as a tweener/

Secomd option, Edge coming back after 9 years and the triple fusion to win the Rumble against all the odds then be written off with 2 months of build about how he isn't the man he was, he has a young family and Lesnar could cripple him rather than retire him only for the "ultimate opportunist" to pull it off and dethrone him at Mania would have been a great story. There's legs in Edge then carrying on as a face in interesting matches with guys like Seth Rollins then also in a heel turn going from sympathetic face returning triumphantly after 9 years out to arrogant cocky heel who doesnt need peoples cheers or sympathy because hes came back and proved to himself and everyone that hes as good as he ever was.

I'm not saying that they were inundated with great options but I feel personally that McIntyre holds zero interest for me. 

[BomberPat]

there's absolutely no way I want to see Edge, fresh off returning from what looked like a career-ending degenerative spinal condition, fight Brock Lesnar. 

I don't necessarily see McIntyre as a Wrestlemania main eventer, but then I haven't been watching the show, so I don't know anything more than what I saw at the Rumble.

There's also no guarantee that it will be the main event. There's another world championship, plus whatever part-timers get glommed on to the card. 

[tiger_rick]

Update from a stats POV:

That was the first win from #16 in a Rumble (No one has ever won from #17 either as Charlotte did).

Miz, Kofi and Ziggler are now joint 2nd for most Rumble matches ever (12) with Big Show, Goldust and HBK. Orton is joint 3rd (11) with Undertaker.

Mysterio is up to 4th on all-time minutes in the Rumble (217).

Reigns is up to joint 5th on most eliminations of all-time alongside Big Show with 32 eliminations.

Lesnar's 13 eliminations in a match is a brand new record beating Reigns' 12 from 2014.

Big E's 6 rumbles without ever eliminating anyone is a joint record with Jack Swagger and Albert.

The "eliminated the same person more than once" list used to be a funny novelty but is now tediously long! Lesnar eliminated both Rowan and Strowman before in 2016 and Benjamin before in 2003. Reigns also eliminated Ziggler in 2014. 17 years is definitely the biggest gap ever in this stat though. Previous biggest was Bob Holly eliminating Mabel/Big Daddy V in 1994 and 2007.

Andrade's average stint of 27 mins cracks the top 5. Rollins is 4th with 28 mins. Charlotte's average in the women's, 38 mins, is bettered only by Chris Benoit. Natalya (32 mins) and Ember Moon (29 mins) would also make an overall top 5.

Edge now has the 4th longest time span between first and last Rumbles, 21 years between 1999 and 2020. he also has a 10 year appearance gap between 2010 and 2020, as does MVP.

10 women are ever-present in Women's Rumbles so far - Carmella, Dana Brooke, Liv Morgan, Mandy Rose, Naomi, Natalya, Sarah Logan, Sonya Deville, Tamina, Kairi Sane.

Sarah Logan hasn't eliminated anyone in those 3 matches.

Chelsea Green's 1 elimination in her 12 second stint would break Brian Kendrick's record (15 secs) in a joint list.

I make half the 2020 Women's entrants surprise or guests.

[dopper]

40 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

I don't necessarily see McIntyre as a Wrestlemania main eventer, but then I haven't been watching the show, so I don't know anything more than what I saw at the Rumble.

There's also no guarantee that it will be the main event. There's another world championship, plus whatever part-timers get glommed on to the card. 

Absolutely. The winners of the last three men's Royal Rumble matches did not main event that year's WrestleMania.

[Briefcase]

I'm not Drew's biggest fan but those rumble moments have won me over. Also it's nice to have someone different win the Rumble. 

I look at it that Drew has nothing to lose with this being a bit of a wild card match, whereas if Reigns or Seth would have won then it would have been the same old status quo main event match we've seen before, same build up etc. 

I know it probably wouldn't happen but imagine if Drew did a Goldberg, Claymore inside 10 seconds and takes Brock out. What a moment that would be and hopefully the next big star. 

[King Pitcos]

1 hour ago, Jonny Vegas said:

I just don't buy into McIntyre at all, I don't think his character works whatsoever unless he's a heal and I'm not a fan of heal vs heal title matches,

The correct term is cleric.

[Guest]

Would that make the championship the golden cleric award?

[hallicks]

Just another nod to the piss poor direction. To miss Edge's first spear in a real match in 100 years with a fucking crowd shot is hilariously terrible, and really their problem in a microcosm. If Kevin Dunn (or whoever is calling the shots) is too busy lining up and moving on to the next shot that they miss such a huge spot, they're clearly doing something fundamentally wrong - like not concentrating on the fucking match for a start. Slight aside, AEW are as bad if not worse for random crowd shots mid match. Fucking stop it, everyone. 

Daniel Bryan is still the absolute man. Those kinds of single weapon stipulation matches are usually terrible but he got some real emotion out of it. 

[King Pitcos]

In Edge’s initial run, general UKFF consensus said his spear was shit and many didn’t even rate him as a top star. If he’d done about twelve spears in the Royal Rumble in 2010 and the camera angles missed one of them, Samaritans would have had 0 calls about it. It wouldn’t have even ranked in the top five complaints about Bucky Beaver Motherfucker from that show.

I’d have been upset about not seeing it, but everyone would have just gone “lol it’s a shit spear anyway faggot why do you suddenly care so much about a spear you know is shit, is it just because you’re a faggot who loves to have something to complain about, faggot” because back then you could still say faggot in wrestling. I’m not saying it was right or better, but it was more popular and better and right. PG sux. PC sux. Don’t twist what I’m saying.

Edited January 28, 2020 by King Pitcos

[DavidB6937]

1 hour ago, King Pitcos said:

In Edge’s initial run, general UKFF consensus said his spear was shit and many didn’t even rate him as a top star. If he’d done about twelve spears in the Royal Rumble in 2010 and the camera angles missed one of them, Samaritans would have had 0 calls about it. It wouldn’t have even ranked in the top five complaints about Bucky Beaver Motherfucker from that show.

I’d have been upset about not seeing it, but everyone would have just gone “lol it’s a shit spear anyway faggot why do you suddenly care so much about a spear you know is shit, is it just because you’re a faggot who loves to have something to complain about, faggot” because back then you could still say faggot in wrestling. I’m not saying it was right or better, but it was more popular and better and right. PG sux. PC sux. Don’t twist what I’m saying.

No one gives a shit about Edge's spear compared to Goldberg or Roman etc.

What they do care about is a moment like that. The first official in ring action from a guy who didn't retire on his own terms and who many never believed could come back.

It doesn't matter if he's Austin or Rock or Flair etc. He's a guy who was a damn solid face or heel. Someone who has given a lot of his life to the industry and clearly loves it. So to see him able to come back and get involved like that was special on many levels. And whoever made the call to focus on randoms in the crowd instead is a twat.

It's going to take something really special to beat it for the best moment of 2020.

[ElCece]

Just watched the Royal Rumble and a I have to say both matches really hit the spot for me, the Santina bollocks was a fucking travesty and I think Flair winning was a bit meh(personally I would of preferred Shayna) but the booking of Belair was superb. Also though Bliss looked great.

Mens match was the best since at least 03 for me, right winner and Drew looked strong. Brock was fucking wonderful and sold Lee brilliantly. I didn't pop massively for Edge surprisingly. 

[kev2050]

Good Ruble, and + 1 to the moans about the shitty camerawork from me. 

In the Reigns/Corbin match it made parts of the match pretty much unwatchable for me, especially when there was outside interference. The attempt to make it look chaotic really takes away from being able to see what is actually happening. I feel like a real grumpy old man moaning about something that seems so trivial, but I just can't fathom why they think this is the way they need to go with the camera work and direction. 

[tiger_rick]

I watched the Rumbles again, partly to update the database and partly because I wanted to watch again (I'd normally just wait until next December). Missed the first time how when Orton was hitting his flurry of RKO's, Cole called them all by yelling "RKO" in the same tone and volume. The commentary really does sound like a video game.