The Royal Rumble was not that bad of a show. I thought it was slightly better than last year's Rumble show overall. I don't think it was good or great and by the end of this article you are going to think I hated it, but I was entertained with this show. You are probably scratching your head at those comments, but let me explain.
I did not like the outcome of last year's Rumble and thought the match itself was very poorly booked and handled. That being said that Rumble match was historic in regards to how the fans reacted and how the WWE seemed to change after the show and never really recovered even through today. So the result and match quality were bad, but I've watched it like 6 times over the least year because it was such a moment, albeit a very bad one, for WWE. Also, the triple threat title match was one of the best matches I've seen in recent memory. That match topped the under-card matches from this year on it's own and that's something because Owens and Ambrose was very good.
Before I fully move on to this year's Rumble I want to put a period at the end of last year's event by sharing my belief on something that I think many overlooked. I think indirectly the Rock was responsible for the disaster that the Rumble match became. Hear me out before jumping to conclusions. I think the Rumble last year was supposed to come down to Roman and Bryan. That was the story WWE was telling in the weeks leading up to the event.
They had Bryan and Roman appearing to be the only two likely guys to win. They wanted to make Bray strong for Taker, play out the Miz/Sandow angle, and set their WM main event. I think they were certainly looking to get Reigns over, but I'm not sold they had 100% ruled out Bryan to win the Rumble. What I think happened during the week leading up to the match was that the Rock told them he would be in Philly and could appear if needed.
The WWE didn't know prior to that in my opinion because if they did they would have hyped it. They would never miss a chance to hype the Rock and considering all he did was a run in, why wouldn't you hype him to be there. He also tweeted out that he was in town, which was a give away he was there and why people were chanting for him before he came out. I think they found out late and that swayed things in Roman's favor. They dreamed up a scenario where bullet proof Rock would get Roman over.
When they thought it out they realized Bryan couldn't figure in the finish if Rock was going to be involved, so they decided to get him out early to make way for Roman and setup the odds against him so it would made sense that the Rock would come down. The Rock would not come down and help him beat Bryan. That wouldn't work.
So with that being said the WWE decided to get rid of Bryan and they wanted to have Bray do it to help boost Bray for the his Taker match. The problem with everything they did was they didn't think out how the crowd would really react. The crowd had no problem giving Roman the business while cheering the Rock because they were a smart crowd.
One thing I really need to clarify and put to bed is the idea that you can't please the fans today. Many people pointed out that fans cheered Roman the year before and booed him the next. Let me explain something that people tend to ignore the 2014 Rumble backlash was all about the fact that WWE told a story about Daniel Bryan, for 5 months, being the underdog against the Authority. They then didn't even enter him in the Rumble. Hence the backlash.
In 2015 they told the story of Bryan coming back to win the Rumble and claim the title he never lost back. They also tried to tell the story of a rising star in Roman Reigns. The problem was that Reigns botched his entire promo program in the weeks leading up to the event and fans clearly thought he wasn't ready. So once you eliminate Bryan that early you did nothing, but incite the fans to crap on Roman. It was never about Roman either year, it was always about Bryan. You can please the fans, but you have to tell them a story that makes sense!
For those who try to say that Bryan wasn't that popular, go watch WM30 and see how that crowd pops for him and think about how Roman's pops have been the past few months. There's a massive grand canyon sized gap between the two.
Also, to clarify the crowd for the Rumble no matter where it is held is always going to be a smart crowd. The fans that live and breathe wrestling like to travel for the Rumble. So it doesn't matter where the Rumble is. When you add Philly to the equation it ups the ante a bit as that town tends to be a bit more critical.
So last night and the two years before was not a local crowd, it was more of a smart Rumble crowd. WWE needs to realize this.
In any event to cap this all off, I think if WWE had let it get down to Roman and Bryan last year and Roman won you still would have gotten a negative reaction for Roman, but not near as close as they got for what they did. The Rock decision blew up in their face because they overreacted to having him and what he could do. Smart fans are not going to just accept a guy because the Rock said so.
So moving on to this year. I thought overall this was a better show. The undercard was very solid and they finally embraced Charlotte and Sasha although the moment felt a little forced. The Ambrose and Owens match was very good, but I wish the feud had some serious heat. Owens and Ambrose seemed to be the big winners on the night with Owens engaging with Zayn and Styles, while Ambrose then made it down to the final two of the Rumble match.
This year's show was better than last year's show because of the booking of the Rumble was done much better and for the most part that's what this PPV is all about. The thing that I think a lot of people will have missed is that the WWE did not waste entrants on any legacy guys. This Rumble had surprise entrants, but no plus 50 year old legends and despite the fact that the oldest entrant won ( or close to it) the Rumble was more focused on current roster guys, which was a good thing.
AJ Style's got off to a hot start. They did a good job with Styles keeping him in for a long time and building a feud with Owen's, possibly. Putting him early kept him strong and he got an entrance with nothing to distract the crowd since only Roman was in at that time. That being said I think they will 100% botch AJ Styles in WWE. There's almost no chance they will get him right given their current track record.
Sami Zayn was a great surprise as well and in a way probably would have been the biggest surprise entrant story if not for AJ. He got a monster pop as well and had support for as long as he lasted. I think the WWE has to notice that Zayn is like Daniel Bryan 2.0, which is a good and bad thing. There's absolutely no reason that Zayn should not be on the main roster after that appearance. He earned the demotion, lol.
Chris Jericho and Dean Ambrose both had very good showings. If they want to do something with Jericho and HHH at Fastlane it wouldn't be the worst thing and last night helped that a lot. Ambrose is now extremely viable as IC Champ after his big win and Rumble finish. What they should probably do is give Ambrose a live mic in the middle of the ring tonight and let him get all the way over by cutting a promo, but instead look for them to rip the title away from him for no good reason.
The R-Truth moment was classic and well done. He added value and has been hilarious the last few months and on a whole much better than Santino when he was in the same spot. Big Show and Kane didn't overstay their welcome, but I wish Mark Henry could have after winning his way in.
I just have to say overall they did a good job of pushing new talent in this rumble and letting those guys shine. I say that knowing that the person who was responsible for holding back so many came out of retirement to win. More on that in a moment. I just felt like the Rumble was far more fresh than the last two years and set a new tone for 2016, I hope.
Yet after all that there was plenty of bad. It wasn't 2015 bad, but the result was a major mistake in my mind. First the handling of Roman Reigns did this guy zero favors and in some ways he did things to hurt himself whether he meant to or not. Where do I begin with this mess?
First Roman gets yanked out by the LON and beaten to a pulp. Why not toss him back in and have him eliminated? Why would you just leave him laying? That made zero sense. I hate when people do things that are completely illogical, and while I understand it's all a work I just see this for what it is lazy booking. If Roman wasn't going to win anyway that would have been a better way to screw him, but I realize they wanted to have that stare down with HHH and thought that was going to be a big moment in their history, it wasn't.
The next issue was it bought no sympathy for Roman that he left for about 15 minutes and went to the back to rest. That didn't make him seem like a hero at all. Why not just leave him laying and execute that beat down a little later in the match and work to a comeback? To leave the match felt really hollow and hurt his character even more. How could they think that was a smart move?
I honestly think they wanted Roman out of the scene when all those entrants came out to much bigger pops. Also they thought if Roman's tossing guys out people the crowd likes it will only hurt him more. Wait, I really hope they weren't thinking this because if they were that should tell them all they need to know about what people think of Roman. If you are worried about saving a guy you want people to like from being booed then he's not a guy people really like.
So, with that being said Kevin Owens entered the ring after having taking an epic bump earlier in the night in a grueling match and he was selling his injury big time. As was Ambrose when he came out later, but you know who wasn't? Roman Reigns! He came back to the ring better than he started the match. You would too if you got to hang out back stage while everyone else was working and drink a Gatorade.
Reigns should not have come back acting like that beat down had no effect. It made him come off like Cena 2.0 and not the Rock 2.0 they want him to be. Really I think he's becoming Roman 1.0, which is an entirely worse thing than being Cena 2.0. Soon we will be begging for Cena to come back given how lackluster Roman has been.
So Reigns comes back as a house of fire and earns himself more hate. What WWE hoped would happen next was HHH would come out and he and Roman would have this stare off that would create a WM prep moment for the ages. This would be something that we would remember and tell our Grandkids about. Yet, it didn't come off like that at all. Instead fans were sort of happy to see HHH and really didn't have anymore reason to like Roman and if anything had grown more disdain for him after what had all gone down.
The WWE usually doesn't mess up big moments, but for the third straight year in the Rumble they did. So from there Roman ends up out 3rd in very anti-climatic fashion and of course does nothing to help his friend Dean Ambrose. Let's face it, if you wanted to get some love for Roman why not let him try to help Ambrose and have the LON save HHH, which would have really gotten some heat off Roman and on HHH. Duh! That or let Dean win the belt last night and get stamped as the rare double Champion. All the Authority did was screw Roman the entire build to this match. Why not get back at them and screw them worse by letting Ambrose win the belt even for a month?
Yet the WWE is beyond illogical so of course that didn't happen. HHH goes on to win over Ambrose and the reason was not to elevate Ambrose, but to instead help gain some heat for HHH beating the real fan favorite Ambrose. Yet you're getting heat on a feud between HHH and Roman Reigns that nobody cares about. So what's the point of any of it?
The biggest botch by WWE is ever thinking that Roman and HHH is a good idea for the main event of WM32. I thought the idea was so bad that they would not even think about doing it, but clearly they believe otherwise. As I write this things could change and HHH could prove to be the right decision if they go a different direction, but as it currently stands it's a monster dud if they go forward with HHH and Roman and I think they will.
My reasons are simple and I previously shared them in my last blog, so this is not sour grapes. The whole reason they are doing HHH versus Roman is because WWE thinks that Roman will get over because of the absolute hate the smart fans have for HHH for all he has done to bury guys over the years. I don't need to expound on HHH and his history. So I think the WWE believes that hey if we put HHH out there to take one for the team fans will like Roman. Again if that's your logic Roman is not your GUY!!!! I don't think they are getting that concept. I think WWE thought that Roman's biggest step forward was the night he beat up HHH. I think they misunderstood why fans reacted positively to that moment.
Instead fans will be confused as hell on what to root for and will likely root for HHH, which is a mess. Do you really want that mixed bag at the top of your show? Then you have the match quality issue. There is just no way HHH and Roman are going to do anything all that great in the ring. I consider the WWE lucky that they got something passable last year. I have little hope 47 year old HHH who hobbled through a match with Sting last year can do anything that will prevent people from chanting boring. They guys both need a better dance partner.
It's also the most predictable outcome in a very long time. There is zero chance that HHH leaves WM32 as champion. If he did the internet might break. So I think Roman has to win, but people will spend the entire match hoping HHH will win because they don't want Roman. So in essence the WWE has created a no win situation for itself in front of the biggest smart crowd of the year. That's not the fans fault that this happen. The WWE chooses who gets to be in these matches and in this case they chose to bad options hoping it would force us to like the other one. That should really send alarm bells off in the writers heads. (Are you guys sensing the trend with this article.)
As I said earlier on a night where the next generation got a lot of love, the WWE put the title on the most overrated Superstar of all time. The next few weeks will reveal a lot of things like the status of Daniel Bryan, and what the main event is and what happened last night be flipped around to not be that bad. It's hard to pass judgment now, but I will say this.
For as much as people say that it's all Vince and Vince is screwing everything up, you're wrong. Vince might have final say and it might be his vision, but HHH is doing very little to stop him especially when it feeds his own ego. If two people in this world have Vince's ear it's Stephanie and HHH. I understand that Vince can be stubborn, but I also believe Steph and HHH could talk sense to him if they believed what he was doing was wrong, but in this case they don't.
If HHH can't see what I listed above as the possible result of a Roman HHH match at WM32 and how that will bomb then he's an accomplice to this whole charade. HHH knows all this, but he does zero it would appear to stop it. It's like that part in the movie Casino where Dinero says that the slots manager was in on a bunch of jackpots hitting close together or too stupid to see what was going on. HHH is either feeding his massive ego or too dumb to see that him at 47 is not a good idea for the main event of WM and no amount of trying is going to get Roman over at this point with any crowd especially that one.
HHH has to see the ratings and see that people are tired of the Authority, aren't really into Reigns, and aren't over the moon to see him wrestle anymore. If he can't see that then he's not capable of running the WWE one day. He and Steph should have stood up to Vince and said they do not agree and would not support this booking. That the safe thing to do was to put Brock in the main event and find him the best possible opponent. That putting Roman and HHH down the card was also safer. If you support that card with some good matches then WM32 will be pretty good.
That's what I believe to be true in my opinion, but seriously how does that not smack anyone who has been following this product for a long time as the truth. There's no way HHH and Roman at the top of WM32 is going to work out for the WWE the way they want it. Roman is not ready to be a star and they have so botched this guy's push I'm not sure he will ever be. HHH didn't have any tread left on his tires at WM25, what makes them think he has any left for WM32, 7 full years later!
And what of Brock Lesnar the guy they have spent the last few weeks drawing the life out of? They turned this man face because they couldn't fight it, but then the big feud he had in 2015 was a mess of trying to figure out who the good guy and bad guy is. Since bringing him back they have done nothing logical with him. Heyman acted as if Brock should not be in the Rumble, which was true, but then suddenly relented and put him in with no swerves attached. It makes Heyman and Brock look dumb and only further contributes to the WWE marginalizing their biggest draw.
The Rumble last night did not help. They basically setup a Bray Brock match at WM32 and who the hell wants to see that? Beyond that what good does that do anyone? Does Bray the guy who lost to the Undertaker beat Brock the guy that beat him basically three times in the last two years??? How could that be the case and why would we care? Does Brock beating Bray do anything for either guy? It only really further buries Bray.
What I really couldn't understand was Bray using his guys to get rid of Brock, but then dismissing them before finishing the match. It's bad WWE logic at work again. Everyone is just stupid enough not to get themselves where they need to be. Why not at least then have Brock get back in the ring and eliminate Bray and a few other people. That would have at least explained away that little plot hole. Has Brock gone soft???
A Brock versus Bray, or any Wyatt for that matter, match at WM32 is a waste. An unlit candle puts off more heat than that feud. Bray is how Vince views the modern heel. He's intrigued by him, but has no clue that he needs to win more than he loses to be relevant, but in Vince's eyes you just need to beat up the Dudley's to get some juice back. I like Bray, but they need to bury him alive and bring him back 6 months later before he can get any heat back. The guy is just dead as a door nail right now. So, how would Brock beating this guy get him hot? Remember him the guy that ended the streak.
I've said that I think the Rumble might prove to be not that bad if things play out differently than they appear right now. I don't think they will deviate very much, but there is still hope if Daniel Bryan somehow got into that title match. I'm not the biggest Bryan fan, as I always like to note, but I would bet all my money that his return and entry into the title match would be a monster draw for WM32. If that match were against HHH then that could be the a perfect ending to the Authority angle and send people home truly happy for the first time since Survivor Series 2014 and even that didn't last very long.
I just don't see it happening. The way last night went I felt like the WWE just doesn't understand it's real booking problems and their perception of things is always twisted to fit what they want things to be. Decisions were made in that Rumble to protect Roman from getting booed and they had no sense to stop themselves and say wait this is not how things should work.
They put their title belt on a 47 year old that has terrible hamstrings who is partially retired while they avoided similar decisions with other guys the past few years for the same reasons. HHH is as big an injury risk as Daniel Bryan is.
It could all get really bad for WWE if they do next what I think they are going to do. I think Daniel Bryan is coming back, but not for a main event match at WM32, but a match on that show against Nakamura. I think they believe that if they give that match to the hardcore fans they will help to fill Dallas and maybe get some of the hate off of HHH versus Roman. They are partially right, but what they are failing to realize again is that bringing back Bryan will only suck all the attention off over everyone and put it on him. That will only sink Roman further and cause that Roman/HHH match to come under criticism.
At this point you have to questioning whether I think anything they do is the right thing. It's not what I want or think should happen that is important. I'm just telling you all what I see and how I think it will affect their business. What I'm actually driving at is until the WWE starts booking better and stops making decisions around trying to fool their fans into doing what they want it's going to be a bad product and it's only going to get worse. What matters is that they keep it fun and fresh, and be creative with their decisions. When the Las Vegas odds makers nail the winner of the Rumble how out of the box are you really thinking.
Fans matter and the WWE needs to realize that. Stone Cold told Vince that he realized that Vince had no magic wand and couldn't make someone over and Vince agreed. Stone Cold is right when he says that, but the problem is Vince was lying when he agreed. He absolutely believes he can decide who's on top and who is not. The John Cena era gave him the guts to believe that was true because fans didn't cut and run from the WWE, but that was just Vince not realizing how much equity he had with fans.
Recent ratings figures suggest that Vince has burned up all that equity up and he better start working to fix that. If the WWE doesn't proceed correctly from the Rumble last night I think the post WM32 ratings could be dangerously bad and from there they might start begging CM Punk to come back. It will be interesting to watch to say the least.
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