WWE Royal Rumble 2022

[Angle_fan]

It's easy to forget just how great Seth Rollins is sometimes. Last night he reminded us how great he is. I'm all for him holding one of the top belts again as Seth Freakin Rollins. I think the Fiend is long enough behind him now.

[TildeGuy~!]

Rollins/Reigns was great until the finish, I get it leads to a rematch but Reigns is going over due to the Lesnar feud so it was pointless.

Womens Rumble was just not good although I preferred it to the mens, I’m not a fan of Sasha but rushing her back just to have her eliminated early by Queen Zelina was just odd booking.

Drew returning in the Rumble was probably the biggest surprise considering there was rumours he could potentially miss Mania but he was in there just to continue his feud with Corbin and Moss, Speaking of Madcapp Moss which agent had the idea of him eliminating Styles!?  Fucking Hell.  Considering the Rumble was full of Midcarders did they seriously not have any room for Cesaro and Finn in there? 

Maryse was great. 

Edited January 30, 2022 by TildeGuy~!

[Cannibal Man]

Loved that period of the Rumble with Omos and all the shitheads trying to get him out. All the no names dressed like complete perverts doing spots to ambient noise from the crowd. All for that. That weird Ted Arcidi guy absolutely nobody reacted to? more of him, should have had him gorilla press somebody for his entire alotted time out there.

[Vamp]

17 minutes ago, TildeGuy~! said:

Rollins/Reigns was great until the finish, I get it leads to a rematch but Reigns is going over due to the Lesnar feud so it was pointless.

I mean, that's booking. You book a match to lead to another match, you book a feud to lead to another feud, you put a guy over to feud with another guy you've put over, rinse and repeat. What else are they gonna do? You could hotshot a challenge but they're still losing to get to what they perceive to be the money match. 

I don't think Roman vs Brock should be the money match, but I don't think they do either. They'd rather it be Brock's rhyming couplet. 

 

[Pinc]

Michael Cole’s Rumble commentary is becoming a signature part of his brand for all the wrong reasons. The constant feigned surprise/elation at every single entrant is exhausting and impedes the story of the match by trying to present everything at the same fever pitch. Diminishing the genuine big deals/actual surprises.

[DavidB6937]

Stuff like this makes everything feel more important. They do so many things like this online or in their documentaries. It should be so easy to make audiences want to support people. Yet somehow they just don't translate that to their weekly shows.

 

[TildeGuy~!]

When Logan came out the first thing I thought was how long would it take for Liv Morgan to cry.

[Statto]

44 minutes ago, TildeGuy~! said:

Considering the Rumble was full of Midcarders did they seriously not have any room for Cesaro and Finn in there? 

Cesaro went over Rollins clean at Mania last year, then main evented the following PPV against Reigns. 9 months later, can't even get in the Rumble.

[TildeGuy~!]

Forgot to add but Johnny Knoxville throws a better forearm then half that roster.

[Jazzy G]

1 hour ago, DavidB6937 said:

Stuff like this makes everything feel more important. They do so many things like this online or in their documentaries. It should be so easy to make audiences want to support people. Yet somehow they just don't translate that to their weekly shows.

 

They'll be feuding soon. 

2 hours ago, TildeGuy~! said:

Womens Rumble was just not good although I preferred it to the mens, I’m not a fan of Sasha but rushing her back just to have her eliminated early by Queen Zelina was just odd booking.

I wonder whether they're going to try and set up Sasha & Bayley Vs Zelina and Carmella for Mania. 

[Jonny Vegas]

In an industry absolutely stuffed full of people with fragile ego's coupled with taking themselves way too seriously, Ronda Rousey may be at the absolute top of the pile.

Her first time around she felt like a megastar in WWE but in my opinion it was clear there were serious issues with her not being willing to do business, never more clearly highlighted than when she dropped the title to Becky Lynch with her shoulder clearly up.

I don't think she is whatsoever tailored to handle anything other than adulation from the fanbase, particularly when she's taking time away from her family and newborn child to be there so I would be astonished if she lasts past the RAW after Mania.

A horrible dusty finish there because she's too insecure to be seen to lose in a pretend fight then she will fuck off either for good or until she needs another payday.

[Liam O'Rourke]

She's not losing to Charlotte...she's in for a year and  change, so my expectation is she wins the belt there and holds it most of 2022. 

Edited January 31, 2022 by Liam O'Rourke

[The King Of Swing]

The real question is how long until the fans turn on Ronda and she has a sulk on twitter? 

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

Ronda already seems put off that it wasn't 100% cheers from the audience. I thought she got a great reaction, with around 90% cheering her, but she's focused on the 10% booing. Her post-match interview came across incredibly irritable. I know she does the "bad bitch" mean mug, but she seemed shitty from her entrance to when she was almost in the back celebrating her win. She allowed herself the smallest smile when they gave her a pop in the entrance way.

[air_raid]

14 hours ago, Infinity Land said:

No NXT participants for either Rumble seems a bit weird this year. I know it has been downgraded but they could have debuted someone as promoted to RAW/Smackdown.

I’ll be honest, I think I prefer it. The worst “smart” side of me comes out because I know that most of them aren’t promoted but just making up the numbers and have zero chance of winning. I know, I know, Koko B Ware wasn’t winning in 1990 either. But sometimes the awareness of booking and the hierarchy of wrestlers’ standings is too engrained to ignore, and NXT wrestlers making up the numbers “just because it’s the Rumble” is another one of those stale tropes that means nothings special, nothings really a surprise any more, and highlights how threadbare the main rosters are. I know it’s daft but I loved the Iiconics debut on Raw after WrestleMania one year and even though THAT show has become predetermined to surprise you with surprises you expect, it still felt more organic coming out of nowhere to do something interesting rather than when an onscreen clock counts down from 10, racing down to the ring to become a face in the crowd in a multi person match they have no chance of winning and will be forgotten within a month.

13 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

Did Rousey have any other really good matches in her first WWE run after the tag with Angle vs Triple H and Stephanie at Mania?

12 hours ago, Merzbow said:

She got a good match out of Nia Jax and had a banger with Charlotte, I think she was pretty decent overall.

I thought her match with Sasha at the Rumble was really good. There were a couple of wonky spots but it told a really great story, but I think it was overlooked because that was when everyone thought Sasha was rubbish compared to now when she’s nominated for wrestler of the year.

12 hours ago, The King Of Swing said:

turned up to 11 and without any natural charm.

I’ve snipped, but that’s the whole presentation in a nutshell. Everything’s overproduced and overscripted and rammed down our throats (oo-er) with zero subtlety.

The repetition of NXT debuts isn’t even the worst case of the boring recycle jobs. And I’m not talking about Kofi near miss rubbish either. The “person that loses undercard title match enters Rumble anyway” thing was done before as long ago as 2011 when both Ziggler and Orton failed their challenges but made up the numbers anyway, the year they had the audacity to try and do 40 and bored shit out of us all. However, said wrestler being made a big deal of and then winning as a big shock, was fun when Lynch did it. Recycling that moment with Brock Lesnar, the last man on Earth that needs to win a Rumble to create worth in his WrestleMania match, was unimaginative beyond belief.

The other thing is the repeat winners. When Austin’s dominance ended after winning 2001, it was 12 years until they ran another second-time winner. Cena won his second one in 2013 to precipitate his rematch with The Rock. OK, fine. The year after, Dave Batista won another. I suppose he had been away for ages, although Daniel Bryan was fairly obviously ready. Then Triple H won another. Getting tenuous, but it was great for the story they were going with. Then Orton won another, which is where the wheels really fall off. Then Edge won his second - even, his second as a surprise return from injury - and now Brocks won it again. The least in need man since Hulk Hogan 30+ years past to win a Rumble and yet one of an increasingly small number of men on the roster apparently with enough star power to win it. All they’re doing with these consistent repeat wins of the legendary but aging wrestlers that lit up 2000-2005 is highlight how the rest of the guys underneath that should have been built up within the last ten years aren’t perceived as good enough. Of ten winners since 2012, only four - Roman, Nakamura, Rollins and Drew - had made their main roster debuts more recently than 2002. What does that tell you? Probably nothing you didn’t already know. That they’re stuck in the past, that they have failed to create enough new stars, that they’re afraid to take risks and try something new, more often than not.

Funny thing, the feeling of repetition and staleness pervaded our consciousness to the point where pre-heel turn for Reigns, a fair few Rumbles in a row were greeted with predictions of “It’ll probably just be Reigns AGAIN, yawn” when actually, despite being runner-up a fair few times, he only won one of them. So even when things ARENT being done to death, it feels like they are. Which is the last thing they’d want and that we’d want as fans during what used to be the most exciting part of the WWE year.

EDIT

Not to go overboard with a dissection that might already be TL:DR but reading my entries for the Rumble lottery thread it reminded me that I made sure to take 1 and 30, because they’ve become incredibly lazy in recent years so instead of booking a surprise return winner at number 25 or 28, they’re more likely to just to it at 30 despite avoiding winners at 30 for many years because it was too obvious. Furthermore instead of your “iron man” being numbers 2-5 as they did several times in the past, they’re more likely to just do it at number 1. Lo and behold, AJ was number 1 and was the “iron man” and Lesnar was number 30 as a surprise and won, because they lack even the imagination to use any of the other 28 numbers available to do something interesting.

At least it wasn’t as bad as last year when Edge came back from injury at number 1 (!!!) and won it (!!!!) and was the longest entrant surviving iron man from number 1 (!!!!) as a surprise return (!!!!!) iron man (!!!!!!!) from NUMBER 1(!!!!)!!!!!! Oh my!

 

 

In 1992, Ric Flair won from number 3.

Edited January 31, 2022 by air_raid