WWE Royal Rumble 2021

[LaGoosh]

I haven't watched WWE outside of the odd YouTube clip for a few years now, thought I'd give some of this a go. It was shite.

I watched the title matches and mens rumble.

Goldberg/Drew was exactly what I expected. So predictable and forgettable rubbish. Goldberg is in incredible shape for a man his age. But he's still a fucking old man. Why is the company so bereft of stars that they have to bring in old men to face the Champ?

Owens/Roman was pathetic. Roman looks like a God to be fair though. This was textbook WWE gimmick match. Conveniently and completely unnaturally placed tables with crash mats underneath, backstage areas looking like ghost towns that no human being has ever used, endless chair shots to the back, wrestlers shouting out character motivations rather than emoting naturally, the generic shocked faces when their opponent gets up...the works.  Owens getting hit by a gold cart was fucking BRUTAL. Neither the announcers or wrestlers themselves sold it at all. In fact, the selling throughout this was absolutely atrocious. Full on going through the motions crap. They fucked up the ending with the handcuffs when Heyman couldn't get Roman out of them with the referee stopping his count ON SCREEN when it was clear Heyman couldn't get them off. Reigns then got on his feet showing that the handcuffs didn't actually stop him from getting on his feet at all. Then a match that has featured someone being thrown off a scaffold, someone being hit with a golf cart and a swanton bomb off a crane or whatever ends on a front face lock??? Truly, truly terrible.

The Rumble was dull as fuck. The best thing about a Rumble match is the ability to tell multiple stories and get over multiple wrestlers at once in a way you can't usually. This match had zero stories...maybe half a story with Edge/Orton. I don't think anyone came out of this looking even remotely impressive. The number of guys in this match who have been in this company for absolutely years and don't look like they've progressed anywhere outside the mid-card or changed their characters was fairly astonishing: Ziggler, Miz, Morrison, Corbin, Elias, Sheamus, Cesaro...loads of the fuckers. The match is perfectly summed up by Dolph Ziggler, in his THIRTEENTH Rumble match doing nothing for 20+ minutes then being eliminated by Fat Kane.

The commentary reminded me of the automated commentary from the PS2 Smackdown games. Mind numbing and soul sapping stuff.

They piped in a "THIS IS AWESOME" chant. They piped in the worst fan chant during a match that was definitely not awesome. 

So my brief return to WWE was not successful. What a terrible pro wrestling company.

Edited February 1, 2021 by LaGoosh

[TheBurningRed]

Some thoughts after watching my first full WWE PPV/WWE show in general since Wrestlemania last year. 
 

Glad to see the push of 47 year old Edge going the distance and winning the rumble. Very anticlimactic end to a very average rumble match. We knew Orton was going to come back in and yet it lasted seconds. I’ve always liked Edge, but he didn’t need this. Was hoping for Bryan or Big E. 

Christian is definitely one of the most surprising returns to happen at a rumble. Was pleasantly surprised to see him. Would’ve preferred he and Edge going for the tag titles at mania instead. 

Up and comer Kane eliminating veteran Ricochet. Also, Ricochet lost a qualifying match for the rumble on Raw and still got in. Pointless. 

Was already done with Lacey Evans and Captain Tom interfering in the tag title match then they showed up in the rumble to fuck with Charlotte again. I’d have preferred Ric getting in there and eliminating Charlotte. Glad Charlotte didn’t win. I just think “oh fuck off” every time she shows up.

Nia Jax is staring to move like The Great Khali. That brawl spot with Shayna in the rumble was actually painful to watch. 

Aren't the refs supposed to carry on counting as normal, even if there’s a fuck up? The fact he stopped at 6, Kevin stood up and he started again to kill time was so awkward. Well done on them getting the guillotine choke over, but KO went through hell and that’s what finished him. But that’s how Last Man Standing matches usually go.

If Goldberg wants to wrestle anymore, he needs to stop doing the jackhammer. It looks so dangerous and I thought he was going to drop Drew on his head.

Michael Cole is awful and is one of the reasons why I stopped watching. He said something along the lines of number 3 is hard to win from or no ones won from that number. Despite Bianca Belair winning from that spot earlier on the show. And Ric Flair won it from number 3 at one of the most memorable rumbles. 

Who the fuck is Bad Bunny? Music has passed me by

 

Edited February 1, 2021 by TheBurningRed

[I Bent My Wookie]

Me, @Fog Dude and @rollthedice seemed to enjoy it, I even punched the air at Edge and Belairs win

🤣

Edited February 1, 2021 by Shy Dad

[stewdogg]

3 minutes ago, TheBurningRed said:

Michael Cole is awful and is one of the reasons why I stopped watching. He said something along the lines of number 3 is hard to win from or no ones won from that number. Despite Bianca Belair winning from that spot earlier on the show. And Ric Flair won it from number 3 at one of the most memorable rumbles. 

Yeah that was fucking ridiculous. I went straight from watching the womens rumble with Belair winning from 3, to 5 minutes later Cole saying it's the worst number cause it spends the least amount of time in the rumble. Fucking moronic, even if I hadn't skipped it's still ridiculous for the reasons you said.

Thought the womens rumble was quite good. There were a couple of spots that I personally thought looked a bit daft but it was quite an easy watch and I think it was more enjoyable than the mens. When Nia was throwing punches against Bazsler looked ridiculous, which is odd considering she'd normally be smacking people in the face, I guess she knows she'll get a right hand back from Bazsler.

I liked Charlotte's fire when Lacey came in but I wonder if she actually hurt Lacey, as the brawl got called off pretty quickly and a couple of points Lacey just seemed out of it, at one point she was supposed to be choking someone in the corner, but she had her foot on the top rope absolutely nowhere near the person but Lacey was still selling it. Jerry Lawler's commentary about the Flairs and Evans was ridiculous too, it made no sense to me, especially when the other commentators were trying to reinforce Lacey and Ric being the bad guys.

I know all of them are athletes, but Bianca Belair is next level, she really is something. I'm sure near the end she had Jax up on her shoulders and just looked amazing.

[Kfogg1991]

I'm actually so relived to read a couple of posts above saying what I was thinking after I had finished watching the PPV. 

I watched the opening match Goldberg vs Drew. I wasn't expecting them to do a title drop with Goldberg but like someone said above what's the point in bringing these guys back in for these "Big feel" Title fights only for them to have nothing to it bar spear/spear/spear - The worst looking jackhammer I've seen in a long while then the claymore to get the win. I get you can't have a 25 minute 5 star classic but when your backing yourself into a corner and determined to do these matches there has to be more you can do or just don't do them. 

Then I watched the last bit of the Owens vs Roman match the bit that tickled me more than anything was the obvious fuck up with the handcuffs because they just couldn't unlock them it took about 3 minutes and genuine awkwardness watching Heyman try and try everyway he could to unlock the cuffs to get to the finish of the match. 

Then I watched the men's rumble match. I have loved the royal rumble for what feels like an eternity now. way more than I love Wrestlemania and that's saying something. But now they have close to fucking 900 wrestlers under contract it just doesn't have the same fun/exciting feel to it now. You had 3 surprise entrants with Carlito/the hurricane/Christian which I do admit it was fucking cool to see edge and Christian reunite after all these years but the rest of it felt so off pace and sluggish. You had X amount of wrestlers enter none of them really be eliminated until they had to send out big man wrestler A to go in make a few eliminations and then get out there only for it to be rinsed and repeated. I am so fucking happy they went with Edge to win over Orton though when he turned round only for them to have done the same thing they have done 80 times with wrestler get's injured only to come back for the final swerve and win so when Edge reversed and eliminated Orton I did find myself cheering but man it just felt so paint by numbers. How can a company with so many fantastic wrestlers and almost the same amount of writers and agents constantly make everything feel so boring and dull. 

Last point I need to make is that camera they used while the wrestlers were coming down making there entrance looked fucking shocking, It looked out of focus and like the lens was dirty. every time the cut to that camera it just looked so terrible and not that of the biggest/Richest company in the world. Also they fucking used the pirate theme for last years wrestlemania and they have just rehashed it again for this year which is also a major sign that the company has stopped caring. 

2/5 for this show which is fucking really sad considering the rumble has been the most fun and exciting PPV for the company for so many years now.

[tiger_rick]

30 minutes ago, TheBurningRed said:

Michael Cole is awful and is one of the reasons why I stopped watching. He said something along the lines of number 3 is hard to win from or no ones won from that number. Despite Bianca Belair winning from that spot earlier on the show. And Ric Flair won it from number 3 at one of the most memorable rumbles. 

Yeah, I picked up that. He was saying that statistically, you last least time from number 3 on average. Without ever considering that Bianca just won from number 3. Sums him up,inorganic, preplanned shite.

I've been listening to a pod this morning where they were all pleased Drew won and were into the finish because of the fear of Goldberg winning. Is that the point? Are they now booking towards people who think like that? Do they have any fans who don't think like that? What a worrying thought.

[DavidB6937]

It was okay. Nothing more than that.  They tried but it was never going to be spectacular in this climate.

[Jazzy G]

29 minutes ago, TheBurningRed said:

Michael Cole is awful and is one of the reasons why I stopped watching. He said something along the lines of number 3 is hard to win from

 

It's definitely not fair to Flair. Or Bel Air

I think he said in terms of numbers in spite of Flair's win its the number that has had its competitors spend the lowest amount of time in the Rumble cumulatively. It's some unnecessary bollocks, all it would have taken was for Cole to say "it's a tough place to come out, but Ric Flair won from here, as did Bianca Bel Air earlier tonight."

[garynysmon]

6 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

I've been listening to a pod this morning where they were all pleased Drew won and were into the finish because of the fear of Goldberg winning. Is that the point? Are they now booking towards people who think like that? Do they have any fans who don't think like that? What a worrying thought.

The fear of Goldberg winning was total pantomime villain stuff. I think the internet would have exploded had he won.

In fairness though, they seem to know how to book a heel.

Hulk Hogan big boot and axe bomber to pin Drew McIntyre in 10 seconds at Wrestlemania? Nuclear heat.

Edited February 1, 2021 by garynysmon

[stewdogg]

16 minutes ago, Kfogg1991 said:

Last point I need to make is that camera they used while the wrestlers were coming down making there entrance looked fucking shocking, It looked out of focus and like the lens was dirty. every time the cut to that camera it just looked so terrible and not that of the biggest/Richest company in the world. Also they fucking used the pirate theme for last years wrestlemania and they have just rehashed it again for this year which is also a major sign that the company has stopped caring. 

Isn't that the 8k camera? The one where it focuses heavily on the person and the background is slightly out of focus to emphasise the wrestler?

[SaitoRyo]

Carlito, one of the shaggers of the past 20 or so years, making his return the same night that there are 30 women backstage for the Rumble, sporting that physique? 

He's played an absolute blinder. 

[Nick James]

Whilst I didn't love it, I didn't hate it either.

Sasha Banks saving Carmella from near breaking her neck was terrifying.

Christians return was a high point, you could see Edge trying his hardest not to smile when Christian was walking down the ramp, such a shame this wasn't in front of fans. Soon as Daniel Bryan was dumped, i was convinced it was going to be Rollins or Strowman which I had no time for, then when Edge 'won' I punched the air. I was quickly deflated by Orton reappearing which kind of put a bit of a dampener on the win. It felt more like a 'Shit, we've left Randy too late'. 

Carlito looks stacked, the shape of his life. 

Biggest moan for me, is another of the worst spots in the Rumble with Naomi landing on the floor on her back with her feet in the air. I absolutely hate that spot with a passion. Another thing about Naomi, i just dont get the hype around her. Shes very sloppy in ring and still seems green to me, even though shes been with the company for years. 

[Dazz]

Re: the points on the 8k camera. I quite like it. It doesn’t owe itself well to the quick entrances of the rumble match but the shot of Roman and Heyman was badass

[FLips]

Me and a mate watched the Goldberg match and both Rumbles over Discord this morning and knowing nothing about any storylines or current goings on in WWE, the biggest pops of the night for us were Jillian Hall putting on a career performance 11 years after she left, and Kane coming out to make sure that useless prick Ziggler fell another year short of his record. The rest was very meh.

The Goldberg match was what you expected it to be. Slow, plodding, nothing but finishers. 

The women's rumble was the better of the two rumbles as they had some genuine surprises, some sensible booking and Charlotte didn't win. Nia Jax though yet again showed why she's utterly clueless and useless by immediately turning on her tag partner the first chance she got, then turning back on Tamina almost immediately, and then turning on Baszler immediately after that. She had two alliances and fucked them both within 5 minutes. Really stupid. 
Glad to see Alexa Bliss get yeeted out before any of her Wyatt shite too.
Having Natalya at 30 as a legit number 30 was shocking as well. When you have the likes of Victoria and Mickie James in there, or even NXT stars, they stuck to their guns and sent Natalya out. We had no interest in who won but it was nice to see it wasn't Charlotte.

The men's rumble was crap. Just plodded along forever and only had Carlito and Christian as a surprise that I remember and we only finished watching 15 minutes ago. Seeing Christian back and not having him and Edge immediately turn on each other was fresh, but things like having Dominik Mysterio get eliminated before his Dad even enters the match makes no sense, and having Orton wait for 9/10s of the rumble in the back only to lose anyway made him look like the biggest idiot on the planet.

The constant piped in noise was obnoxious. It was like watching Smackdown on Sky One back in 2002. A constant dull screeching, out of time YES chants, a "This is awesome" chant for nothing in the women's rumble piped in. It was shocking. Watching fans clearly being told to thumbs down all thumbs downing in unison. Completely un-natural.

The 8K camera is crap too. They were using it for people who just ran past it, but not using it for people who stop and pose. It looks gross and makes me slightly motion sick.

I skipped last year's rumble and this year's rumble isn't sucking me back in. Real vanilla.

Edited February 1, 2021 by FelatioLips

[Nexus]

I really enjoyed the ending sequence to the Women's rumble. I would've been happy with either of the two winning - but they seem to be behind Belair with the documentary about her opening up about her depression/ED as well. 

 

No idea why Edge needed to win the Rumble. Really crap end, tbh.

 

Glad there was no Fiend antics from either Alexa or Wyatt. 

 

Why weren't the rest of Retribution out helping Ali? Or at least why didn't they come up and avenge his elimination?