Dr. Alan Grant’s Royal Rumble Adventures

[JLM]

BREAKNG: In the women's Rumble I heard one, three or possibly none of the performers were reportedly furious backstage after at least two but possibly up to five of the other performers stayed or did not stay at ringside for too long after being eliminated. There was a disagreement in Gorilla about it and a pen was knocked off a desk. A senior source added that it may also have been a pencil. It's also possible the pen or pencil may  have only rolled to the edge of the desk. 

The Priest/Drew thing looks fine anyway. If anything it feels more authentic in the chaos of a Rumble for the individual fights to cross over and bump into each other. Looked less rehearsed. 

 

[d-d-d-dAz]

1 minute ago, JLM said:

BREAKNG: In the women's Rumble I heard one, three or possibly none of the performers were reportedly furious backstage after at least two but possibly up to five of the other performers stayed or did not stay at ringside for too long after being eliminated. There was a disagreement in Gorilla about it and a pen was knocked off a desk. A senior source added that it may also have been a pencil. It's also possible the pen or pencil may  have only rolled to the edge of the desk. 

The Priest/Drew thing looks fine anyway. If anything it feels more authentic in the chaos of a Rumble for the individual fights to cross over and bump into each other. Looked less rehearsed. 

 

I bet Triple H has a special pen with his name on.

[Dr. Alan Grant]

I hope they had those winning t-shirts ready to go for each person in the Rumble just in case. Somewhere out there is a Royal Rumble Winner Otis t-shirt destined to end up on eBay. 

[Egg Shen]

1 hour ago, RedTwoster said:

I don’t think pushing 40 could really be considered ‘old’ in wrestling anymore 

"Plenty of fire in this youngster"

[d-d-d-dAz]

It is interesting how much longer people are staying physically able to compete. You've got people like AJ, Punk and Cena who are mid-late 40s, LA Knight/Priest in their 40s and your Cody's, Jey Uso's etc in their late 30s.

I presume it's a combination of factors; more advanced sports science, better nutrition, fewer drugs, less booze, better training etc

But, it does create an interesting problem for young wrestlers; there's probably never been a time where it's less likely that someone in their 20s could break through at the top level.

I quite like watching a sport where the big names are all older than me, though, so I'm all for it.

[Rockbus2]

Feel like you can't win on here. If someone expected wins they should put someone new over and if they put someone new over they're shit. I proper popped for the Jey win and can easily see him closing one of the nights. 

[d-d-d-dAz]

25 minutes ago, Rockbus2 said:

Feel like you can't win on here. If someone expected wins they should put someone new over and if they put someone new over they're shit. I proper popped for the Jey win and can easily see him closing one of the nights. 

I think we've had a pretty even split of people defending the Jey Uso decision, and others who are incorrect.

I'd be amazed if he closed the show, though. Part of the reason his win is so impressive is how many red hot stars they've currently got, but the flipside of that is they're going to probably feel the need to close the nights with the bigger names.

[Devon Malcolm]

Shout-out to the guy with the 'Meltzer Fears Facts' sign. One that becomes more pertinent after today's events. And John Cougar Mellencamp for looking like he'd only just woken up. He was pictured after the tag match though, so fair enough.

Women's Rumble

A lot going on in this, most of it being kip-ups. There's always one spot in the Rumble every year that everyone does - last year it was that step-up kick to the head over the top rope. This year it was kip-ups. Next year it will sling blades, won't it.

Lyra's wardrobe malfunction was unfortunate. Not as unfortunate as Natalya getting a big pop. Did they think Bret was coming out? That first bit of music always confuses me. Chelsea was very funny. Jordynne Grace looked amazing. Giulia isn't ready. Vaquer is. Glad for Roxanne getting such a prominent early push. The greatest of all time won. Pleased for her she got such a good reception even when people were disappointed Roxanne didn't win. Quite liked this.

Tag match

No.

Ladder match

I mean, it was a ladder match so it had the usual spots and some horrible spots I never want to see again. The ending was really good though and Cody standing over Owens and Zayn at the end was a great moment. Wouldn't be against them having a triple threat but fuck knows what they're doing.

Men's Rumble

Well I've seen enough of Penta. He's shite. AEW are still stupid for letting him go but he was crap in this and for a high flyer he never does any high flying moves. At least Ricochet would bust out some nice looking spots. Having Strowman in this match was stupid after Jacob Fatu murdered him. I was a bit disappointed in his usage in this match, it stalled his momentum a bit and he should have been more pissed off to be eliminated. Fair play to Speed for taking those bumps but he's also a Ronaldo fan so I hope he's properly injured. Or so I've heard. I'd heard of him yesterday but I turned 20 today and now I don't know who I'm talking about. Let's do Roman and Bron soon. And Bron and Jacob. Punk, Rollins, Cena and Roman all just stood there. McIntyre and Logan Paul also in the picture. Just pure showing off. Nice surprise ending. No idea what happens next. Jey's "oh shit" when he eliminated Cena was superb. He seems a good lad.

Good Wrestling show.

Edited February 2, 2025 by Devon Malcolm

[FLips]

It doesn’t take too much backtracking to find the seeds being sown for a Jey win anyway. I think it was only this last Smackdown after his loss at SNME he was still saying he knows he can beat Gunther.
Also they don’t get Michael Cole up on the announce desk yeeting for the fun of it, in hindsight it’s easy to see all the “manufactured” ways they’ve gotten Jey to this level alongside the organic ones.

He’s not main eventing Night 2 by default if he challenges Gunther anyway but it’s easy to see this main event Night 1. Going off air with the whole building yeeting is a way better end to anything Charlotte can put on.

[gmoney]

I thought this was one of the most enjoyable men's rumbles I can remember. Stacked with proper stars with intriguing stories going on, and down to the last 6 or so I genuinely thought any of them could probably win it, except Jay Uso who I didn't think they would pull the trigger on. That made it all the more exciting when they actually did. My jaw was on the floor at the end, and it was so nice to see someone new get a big nod. He's not exactly my favourite wrestler, but I trust them at the moment to come up with an interesting story between now and Mania. 

Rest of the show was pretty decent, some horrendous bumps in that ladder match though, the one on the ladder on it's side goes in the folder of absolute dipshit bumps. 

[nfc90210]

45 minutes ago, Egg Shen said:

"Plenty of fire in this youngster"

Gong slightly off-topic, but I realised recently that Gorilla Monsoon was much younger than I thought. He was only 62 when he died in 1999.

 

So, when he's commentating on the 1993 Rumble he's only 5 years older than Rey Misterio is now. 

Edited February 2, 2025 by nfc90210

[Statto]

Just a random minor thought, but one of my highlights of the night was when they showed a clip of that place in Dallas (I think) where people were watching the Rumble on one of those screens that's supposed to make it feel like you're there, and Cole claimed they "all went nuts" for Nikki Bella - over a clip of a bored looking man & a woman shaking her head in disappointment (presumably hoping for Becky or AJ). 

[Doog]

9 minutes ago, Statto said:

Just a random minor thought, but one of my highlights of the night was when they showed a clip of that place in Dallas (I think) where people were watching the Rumble on one of those screens that's supposed to make it feel like you're there, and Cole claimed they "all went nuts" for Nikki Bella - over a clip of a bored looking man & a woman shaking her head in disappointment (presumably hoping for Becky or AJ). 

Yeah that was hilarious (Mcaffee also quipped something along the lines of "they all look like they're having a great time" in a clear shot at it) so least there was some self awareness.

Edited February 2, 2025 by Doog

[RedTwoster]

10 minutes ago, Statto said:

Just a random minor thought, but one of my highlights of the night was when they showed a clip of that place in Dallas (I think) where people were watching the Rumble on one of those screens that's supposed to make it feel like you're there, and Cole claimed they "all went nuts" for Nikki Bella - over a clip of a bored looking man & a woman shaking her head in disappointment (presumably hoping for Becky or AJ). 

I thought Cole was really poor last night, and I’m saying that as someone who generally thinks he’s decent.

Edited February 2, 2025 by RedTwoster

[JLM]

I do think it was a very smart move to have Nikki take the bullet as a mildly disappointing but at least somewhat surprising number 30. Spared any of their regularly featured talent the "oh, it's just you" reaction and the people were at least moderately pleased to see her. What a trooper.