2023 Royal Rumble

[uklaw]

As per PWInsider, Graves and Cole were legitimately not clued in that Pat McAfee was going to appear. 

To be fair, Graves adapted quite quickly, and got ‘in character’ with his reaction.

Michael Cole, on the other hand, couldn’t gimmick his reaction. At least we know that when Cole said McAfee is his favourite broadcast partner, he wasn’t fibbing 🤣

What I found amusing was it seemed that McAfee hadn’t watched much of the product while he was off.

Edited January 29, 2023 by uklaw

[Devon Malcolm]

Couldn't have been any clearer that McMahon isn't back behind creative when Cole made that comment about being told to watch his monitor for 20 years and McAfee made that "What a manoeuvre!" joke.

[J. Edwards]

Thought it was absolute madness opening with the mens rumble but in hindsight it was the right decision. Gunther was the absolute star and is going to be a main eventer soon in a Rumble that really plodded for me. Someone mentioned it earlier and said rumbled are becoming very formulaic and paint by numbers. New entry comes down, hits a few big moves and we await the next entrant to do the same. Some nice spots and the right winner but we all knew that anyway.

Bray v Knight was awful. Bizarre to see spooky Bray performing in a completely over sponsored match under bizarre lights. His Fiend run was hampered by these strange light matches and can’t see how he or creative has learned anything from the past mistakes. Ending was ok and intrigued where it goes next.

Bianca v Alexa wasn’t great either. I don’t buy Alexa as a credible threat to anyone. Her offence is weak and contrived and runs the ropes like shes not wanting to break a nail. Not interested in the spooky stuff one bit and looking forward to Bianca moving onto a more hard hitting opponent to bring out the best in her.

Women’s rumble just highlighted how little people care about the womens division right now. Bar Becky, Asuka and Rhea there was little reaction. Don’t know if its WWE’s fault for barely highlighting a lot of these women on weekly tv or that the majority of them are just rubbish im not sure. I get the impression a lot of the women are happy to just be employed so they have a platform to boost their instagram numbers and have no interest in actually getting better at wrestling but thats just my opinion. Definitely the right winner and a match with Rhea v Charlotte or Biana will be a belter.

The main event was great wasnt it. Absolutely phenomenal storytelling from start to the ending that had us all sitting up shouting “hit him” at our tv’s. Sami is going to come out white hot from this as is Roman who further enhanced his mega heel status. The best thing about this is no one has a clue where its going. If Jey joined the attack i would have put money on Sami/Owens v Usos at Mania but that swerve by Jey was perfection and has thrown the whole angle up the air again. Fantastic work by all involved.

For me personally it has to result in a Sami title shot at Mania. I have no idea how they get there but Roman holding two belts is the perfect vehicle to head towards that destination so am eager to see how it plays out. One of my favourite “wrestlemania seasons” for a long time.

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

38 minutes ago, uklaw said:

What I found amusing was it seemed that McAfee hadn’t watched much of the product while he was off.

McAfee hasn't really had time to watch much of the current product. Between College Gameday which is huge, his own show and him and his wife going through IVF I'd be surprised if he has much time to watch anything. Love him or hate him, and I love him, he lives his life at full speed all the time. 

[uklaw]

1 hour ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

McAfee hasn't really had time to watch much of the current product. Between College Gameday which is huge, his own show and him and his wife going through IVF I'd be surprised if he has much time to watch anything. Love him or hate him, and I love him, he lives his life at full speed all the time. 

It wasn’t intended to be a knock on him, more an observation. He was still arguably the best voice on the air last night, so no foul. 

[Jonny Vegas]

One of the things that struck me about the womens Rumble was some of the comments from the commentary team.

As others have said it did feel as for large periods as though the notion was just to get through of it but there was a chance to really give a spotlight to some of the women from NXT however there were comments such as "we could really do with someone from NXT to tell us more about who these women are" and "hey do you think Booker T knows who Indi Hartwell is?". It was absolutely baffling.

Is that the second year in a row that Kofi had bollocksed his big Rumble spot? Him and Woods coming our early and close to each other had me convinced that Big E was coming back and then very disappointed when he wasn't.

Bray Wyatt sponsored by Mtn Dew utterly ridiculous. 

The two rumble winners were the right winners and I really hope after all this great work they dont ruin however they end things with Sami/The Bloodline.

[buba3d]

I  would have loved to have been in that arena just to feel what that atmosphere was like in those last 10 or so minutes, that pop when sami hit roman with the chair sounded incredible, the the sheer heartbreak when jimmy and solo attacked sami, the gasps and shock when jey walked out and then to top it all off, the fuck you roman chants.

[Statto]

6 hours ago, uklaw said:

It wasn’t intended to be a knock on him, more an observation. He was still arguably the best voice on the air last night, so no foul. 

Whilst I don't doubt there was a large element of truth to McAfee being a bit out of touch with the current product,  I do wonder if it was also intentional to have him play the role of "What's this guy's story?" as they know they have a lot of fans who tune out over the autumn/winter and turn back up again for Mania season (or indeed only watch Mania season to begin with).

That's basically the role he's been doing on Gameday, thinking about it. Bringing new eyes to that product due to his personal popularity, and then asking questions/soliciting opinions from the long standing panelists on behalf of that new audience (whilst them also being semi-genuine questions for himself about a segment of the sport he admitted himself when he got the gig he didn't know a massive amount about any more). Although he's nominally an analyst, much of the time he's been more of a co-host. Like everything McAfee, some have loved it and others hated it.

[air_raid]

On 1/29/2023 at 7:45 AM, air_raid said:

With 30 numbers to choose from, the surprise guy winning from 30 has been done far too often.

Just to follow this up, I thought I’d look at how unimaginative Rumble booking has become over the last decade compared to the 10 years previous in terms of relying on repeat tropes of surprise/return and/or winning at 30 or from number 1 and repeat winners instead of taking a punt on someone new.

2004 - Chris Benoit (won from #1)

2005 - Batista (won from #28)

2006 - Rey Misterio (won from #2)

2007 - Undertaker (won from #30)

2008 - John Cena (won from #30, surprise return)

2009 - Randy Orton (won from #8)

2010 - Edge (won from #29, surprise return)

2011 - Alberto Del Rio (won from #38*)

2012 - Sheamus (won from #22)

2013 - John Cena (won from #19, second win)

So, a fair few tropes are used here but virtually every one is forgivable - many are introduced for the first time such as someone actually winning from 30 (Taker) then Cena as surprise return winner. They put Edge at 29 likely to avoid such a direct comparison and a fresh newly heel Batista at 30 cast massive doubt as to if Edge would be winning. Benoit winning from #1 wasn’t bad because they’d not done it since Shawn (which was a truncated Rumble anyway), there was a good storyline to support it, and it was far from obvious as many of us expected Goldberg to be winning. In winning a second Rumble Cena became the first repeat winner since the dominance of Steve Austin over a decade earlier. So nothing especially repetitive or uninspiring really, unless you count how boring 2011 was and how bereft of stars 2012 was. But strap yourself in. Women included for trope equality.

2014 - Batista (won from #28, return, second win)

2015 - Roman Reigns (won from #19)

2016 - Triple H (won from #30, surprise, second win)

2017 - Randy Orton (won from #23, second win)

2018 - Shinsuke Nakamura (won from #14)

Asuka (won from #25)

2019 - Seth Rollins (won from #10)

Becky Lynch (won from #28, surprise)

2020 - Drew McIntyre (won from #16)

Charlotte (won from #17)

2021 - Edge (won from #1, return, second win)

Bianca Belair (won from #3)

2022 - Brock Lesnar (won from #30, surprise, second win)

Ronda Rousey (won from #28, surprise return)

2023 - Cody Rhodes (won from #30, return)

Rhea Ripley (won from #1)

….. Look at the state of that. Never been clearer that they’re running out of ideas how to tell stories with the match. I’m going to forgive them Triple H because with the added twists of the belt at stake and Roman at #1, it was a great story even if plenty of us guessed they might go that way, and a beautiful piece of villainy which could only have been improved on if they clock had mysteriously started counting down again and Hunter entered at #31 for his own amusement.

Look, I get it, circumstances around injury allowing for a Rumble comeback, great. Wanting somebody unexpected for whatever reason to show up/insert themselves, fine. Doing it at #30 for the pop kills it for me because they’re number 30 because that’s how the writers wanted it, not because I suspend my disbelief that they happened to draw that number. 30 used to be reserved for some gimp with no chance of winning like Warlord or the bad Crush, not a lame “Are you ready for the big surprise, wink wink” deus ex machina. People getting in the Rumble who shouldn’t be needs to get in the bin too. At least Becky got a story out of it, but last year Lesnar was just entered because…. he wanted to be?? Shite. Winning from number 1 has been done to death as well considering how many have done it compared to number 26 or 27, it needs a rest. Why can’t an “iron man” display to win come from 4 or 5? No, it has to be one because that’s most impressive. Except again, it’s not, because it just hammers home that so many wrestlers have won from that spot because you wrote it like that and not because I believe the story of their stamina and guts.

Call me crazy but I’d much rather them just write a story to go into the Rumble rather than bank everything on a surprise at number 30 or a lazy endurance triumph on the night. And there are plenty you can do! Have a popular long reigning Intercontinental champ announce that it’s time he went for the big one so his fans get behind him, but make sure it’s not obvious because there’s a recently deposed champ going in, plus that guy that won a contenders match but hasn’t had his shot yet. Or have a dominant heel group have verbal fallings out going in over who they want to win, so the intrigue is about watching them finally implode - alternatively have a guy convinced his group of lieutenants will help him win, oblivious to the plotting behind his back, and on the night drama unfolds as one emerges from the pack to outsmart the self righteous prick and win the whole thing, as a brand new hero.

Fucking hell, it’s a match with 30 wrestlers in, the scenarios are endless, why do we keep seeing the same ones??

Edited January 30, 2023 by air_raid

[The Dart]

Cody wasn’t a surprise entry.   Can’t be a direct comparison to Lesnar last year.

[FUM]

Lesnar last year was the first ever to lose his Championship that night then win the Rumble so I don’t see how it can be compared to others either if it is literally a “first time” whether it feels samey or not.

[Supremo]

I thought Cody at number thirty was really clever. For at least five to ten years, almost more than anything else, booking The Rumble has become about managing fan’s ridiculous expectations and sense of entitlement. Look at the reaction poor Rey Mysterio got that year, simply for who he wasn’t.

Announcing Cody ahead of time, but then leaving him until last, it put to bed any mad fantasies people had involving Stone Cold, The Rock, CM Punk, etc. You know who’s coming, so calm the fuck down and enjoy.

[LaGoosh]

I always had this fantasy booking idea that a few weeks before the Rumble you would have two guys wrestle, the winner gets the number 30 slot and the loser gets the number 1 slot.

Gives you a fun little story before the Rumble and also removes fan expectations for a surprise entrant at 30.

[DavidB6937]

15 minutes ago, Supremo said:

I thought Cody at number thirty was really clever. For at least five to ten years, almost more than anything else, booking The Rumble has become about managing fan’s ridiculous expectations and sense of entitlement. Look at the reaction poor Rey Mysterio got that year, simply for who he wasn’t.

Announcing Cody ahead of time, but then leaving him until last, it put to bed any mad fantasies people had involving Stone Cold, The Rock, CM Punk, etc. You know who’s coming, so calm the fuck down and enjoy.

I'd have to agree on this. I remember the number of years I've sat there hoping for someone great for number 30 just because.. fuck knows why but it's one of those weird things you get hyped up for. But then just before they come out I remember who hasn't appeared out of the ones previously announced and it's usually someone a bit shit. So at least with Cody it was a pretty cool moment and I was glad to see him back.

On a completely separate point I actually actively avoid looking at the graphics for the Rumble match line ups now. Sounds a bit stupid but I actually like going in blind as much as possible and it makes things a lot more fun, even if it might not be Jay White or whoever else the Internet thinks is turning up.

[Supremo]

Should’ve been Boss Man’s year.