It’s truly the most wonderful time of the year!!! No, not that stuff with the guy in the red suit, that’s SOOOOOOO last month… IT’S ROYAL RUMBLE SEASON!!! By a mile my favourite PPV of the year, everyone loves the rumble right? So I myself have been watching a different Rumble match each day, and I thought I would share with you all a review of one of my personal favourite rumble PPV shows from recent years. Special to me because it was a good show of course, but also because I watched the show at the home and with one of my best friends Stefan, and as kids who grew up in the Ruthless Aggression Era, we got to experience an all-timer of a return together, which is something I will never forget.
I’m not going to dwell on the kick-off show matches, WWE didn’t really care for those too much, so why should I? And anyway, this is back when WWE used to regularly do 4 hour shows, and in this one of course we have two matches that go plus an hour! So lets get into it and rewind SIX years to Philadelphia and the Royal Rumble PPV from 2018!
Our opener promised to be interesting, with a… unique… dynamic to say the least…
AJ Styles (C) defeated Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens in a 2on1 Handicap Match to retain the WWE Championship
This was in the time of SmackDown when KO was on a tear as a heel being an absolute menace, and now he had turned the uber-babyface Sami to the darkside. Zayn just wanted to help his friend, but now the two Canadians were intent on becoming “Co-WWE Champions”… Naturally, this was really fun! Zayn and Owens put the beating on Styles for pretty much the entire first half of the match, and as much as the crowd tried to get AJ into it, the 2 on 1 advantage showed to be too much early on. Styles looked to get back into it with a flurry, but Owens grabbed him off the top and slammed him down (face first) for a 2 count nearfall. Owens tried a cannonball, only for Styles to move and as a result, KO looked to re-injure his ankle he had hurt on the previous SmackDown, hence Zayn was promptly tagged in. Styles flipped Zayn off the top, but was too worn out to capitalize as Owens tagged in, Styles hit a Pele kick to Owens, Zayn came in and was thwarted from hitting a Helluva kick and then AJ got a reverse DDT, Owens came in again as Styles fought back, and we had a crazy spot where Owens flipped Styles into Zayn, who immediately got a head scissors and flipped Zayn (I did a terrible job explaining it, but its around 12:21 of the video above), Styles soon after had KO in the Calf Crusher, and he seemed close to tapping before Zayn broke it up, much to the crowd’s displeasure. Styles fought back with a clothesline to Zayn, and soon after Owens was sent into the ringpost, Sami tried for a Blue Thunder Bomb but Styles got out of it, soon after he did hit the move after some Owens assistance, but Styles kicked out of the pin. Sami got Styles up top, but Styles slipped out and Zayn went into the ring buckle, Styles then knocked Owens down and hit the Phenomenal Forearm to Zayn, but Owens broke up the pin. Sami and AJ exchanged strikes, and couldn’t get the tag… or did he? It wasn’t quite clear, anyway… Styles dumps Zayn to the outside, KO hits Styles with a superkick, then tries for the Pop-Up Powerbomb, but Styles reverses it and gets the roll up pinfall for the win. AJ retains as Owens pleads with the ref, commentary addressed but didn’t make a big deal out of the whole thing afterwards… not as much as I thought they should’ve anyway… Styles celebrates with the title as KO and Sami are left to scutter away disconsolate.
***1/2
A furious Kevin Owens and a frustrated Sami Zayn confronted SmackDown Commissioner Shane McMahon backstage. They protested at their perceived injustice in the WWE title match that had just unfolded, but when asked if he saw what had happened, Shane replied with “Yep” (Zayn’s catchphrase at that time) before smiling and walking away, leaving Owens and Zayn dumbfounded.
The Usos (C) defeated Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin in a 2 out of 3 falls match to retain the SmackDown Tag Team Championship
The crowd sadly didn’t seem to care much for this match, maybe just wanting to see the men’s Rumble match at this point who knows… But the in-ring stuff was of course good, given who was in the match. Albeit I can’t say it did much for the challengers losing 2 straight falls, but I guess if you never do it then it’s one of those where people won’t ever think it could happen, so maybe a match like this was the time to do a 2-0 match? … Anyway, Gable and Benjamin worked great together, and so the match was some good tag team ‘rasslin! It was approaching 10 minutes in when The Usos hit superkicks to both challengers, before a splash on Gable got a close nearfall. After that both Usos went to opposite corners, only for Benjamin to kick down Jey, leaving Jimmy to fight it out with Gable. Eventually they went to the corner, as Gable looked for a German Suplex Jey was able to sneak a tag, Gable tries the suplex, Jey helps his brother out of it, and a bunch of superkicks later and its 1-0 to The Usos. Second fall came only a couple of minutes later, this time after Gable kicked down Jey, Shelton tagged in and called for a double team move, but with Gable on the top Shelton got rolled up with an inside cradle, and just like that we had the second straight fall for The Usos.
***
Next up is what you all came for…
So now go and get some form of snack and/or beverage of choice, get really comfy, and sit back for the next (just over an) hour, because this next one… is something…
Shinsuke Nakamura won the Men’s Royal Rumble Match
Honestly, this match was so wonderful! I wont go into every entrant and elimination, but if you want a great rumble, you could do a lot worse than this one. We start with Aiden English introducing Rusev at peak ‘RUSEV DAY’ era, Balor is number 2 and ends up as the iron man, Rhyno at 3 gets the big pop in Philly as an ECW legend, Corbin comes in, goes out after 1 minute, and then plays spoiler to everyone in, Elias comes in and tries to do his gimmick, soon interrupted by then NXT Champion Andrade who gets a big pop, a few more come in, Sheamus on his birthday lasts 2 seconds, after they had Heath Slater finish his run of being stopped from actually getting in, by then getting an elimination of a former rumble winner in Sheamus. Shinsuke Nakamura enters at number 14 to a huge pop, the ‘Kofi spot’ of the year was Woods laying on the floor to stop Kofi’s foot from touching the floor, and Big E getting a plate of pancakes to stop the other foot hitting the floor, Woods and Big E then got together to give Kofi an ‘alley oop’ to flip him over the ropes and over Jinder Mahal, Kofi then kicked Jinder out and Big E and woods threw pancakes at him, only for Andrade to hit him with the DDT and throw Kingston out the other side immediately after. In the midst of their feud, WOKEN Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt bizarrely teamed up to eliminate Rusev (which the crowd did not like), John Cena came in at number 20 and got a typical Cena reaction from the crowd, he got Elias out right away, and then The Hurricane came in number 21, and lasted 45 seconds after doing a spot with Cena, but still was our SUPERHERO… Number 23 was ADAM COLE from NXT which got another big reaction, Randy Orton was next out, and he got Andrade out (Andrade lasting an impressive 29 minutes). And number 27… was one of my all-time favourite Royal Rumble returns…
Me and Stefan were Ruthless Aggression kids, so seeing Rey come back and being together for it… what a moment! And what a pop he got, what amazing shape he looked in, and it’s no shock to me that within the year, Rey would be back with WWE full time. After this, Roman Reigns was number 28 (he was not so popular with the Philly crowd), Goldust 29 and at number 30… was Dolph Ziggler (who to recap, had won the US title after weeks of coming out as a different legend, he immediately vacated the US Title, ‘left WWE’ and then here he was)… and his big return lasted… 2 minutes and 1 second… garbage… That left us with a final 6 that pitted 3 legends against 3 stars of today’s WWE…
This eventually broke down, and we had Roman get out Orton (a reverse of the finish to the previous year’s Rumble), and then Finn got out Rey, and Cena threw out Finn. Final 3 for me was the two nightmare winners and my dream winner going in… and it worked out to PERFECTION… Cena got hit with a knee before Nakamura put him on the apron and after a brief exchange, one big knee later and Cena went crashing to the floor. Roman and Nakamura left as the final 2.
This was a fun finishing sequence, that had the crowd enthralled. In the end, they got what they wanted… As eventually Roman tried to throw Nakamura out, but Shinsuke used the ropes to power out, both men ran the ropes before Shinsuke hit the big knee before Roman could get the spear, then with Reigns dazed Shinsuke tossed him out… and the CROWD GOES WILD!
This was one of the all-time great Royal Rumble matches.
****3/4
Sheamus & Cesaro defeated Seth Rollins & Jason Jordan (C) to win the Raw Tag Team Championship
This this match was very much ‘after the lord mayor’s show’. Crowd didn’t care, and the match was fine, 4 great wrestlers but they were doing the story where Jordan couldn’t wrestle (we would later found out sadly why), so it was essentially Sheamus and Cesaro against Seth in a handicap match. Rollins and Jordan had only won the titles a month earlier on the Christmas Day (yes, they did a LIVE Raw on Christmas Day in 2017… my god…), but in this match they had Jordan take a bump after being thrown into the ring post by Cesaro, and so he couldn’t do anything. At one point he was tagged in, and basically immediately tagged out, and it led to Sheamus and Cesaro combining for their finish, and the pin. This was fine, but again it had little to no heat, not sure if the match or the fact it came after the men’s rumble was the cause, but we had new tag champions here.
**3/4
Now it was time for MONSTER SMASH!!!
Brock Lesnar (C) (with Paul Heyman) defeated Braun Strowman & Kane in a triple threat match to retain the Universal Championship
OK… Should Kane be anywhere near the main event scene at this time? Absolutely not. Was this a classic? Nope. Was it FUN AS FUCK to see 3 massive monsters beat the shit out of each other for 10 minutes? Yes of course it was! Brock was always winning of course he was, but this was a fun watch, if you accepted going in it was gonna be strikes, weapons, and big moves only. This match is probably most remembered for the opening moments, where a knee from Braun went a little too hard for Lesnar’s liking, and he returned fire with LEGIT punches to the face (which visibly staggered Strowman) as Brock… politely… told him to “SLOW THE FUCK DOWN”… In hindsight we should maybe be grateful the match went on as planned without Brock genuinely ending the life of Strowman… For the finish of this carnage, Kane tried for a Tombstone to Brock, only for him to slide out and shove Kane into Braun, this knocked him from the apron… And then Brock finished things with an F5 onto a chair to pin Kane for the win. This was the obvious finish going in, and at that time possibly the right one. It’s a shame they never struck why the iron was hot with Braun, and his championship run came in the early days of the ‘no fans era’ some years later…
**3/4
Then it was time for the main event.
A truly historic moment in WWE history, and one that created a tonne of excitement, maybe a watershed moment for the women in WWE… to be followed by another after the match itself… but lets get onto the match first shall we…
Asuka won the Women’s Royal Rumble Match
This was as much a rumble, as it was a celebration of WWE Women’s wrestling down the years. Lots of fun returns, and a couple from NXT too. Tonnes of fun face to faces too, this really was a crowd pleaser match. A super strong start with Sasha at 1 and Becky number 2, Sarah Logan and Mandy Rose of Absolution (remember them?), number 4 was our first return, LITA! She soon played the hits and also eliminated Mandy Rose fairly quickly, Kairi Sane of NXT was next… which myself watching at the time was overjoyed at… but she was only in as a late replacement for the injured Alicia Fox… and as a result lasted less than 5 minutes before Dana Brooke eliminated her (she did hit the elbow off the top and went flying into Lita in the corner which was cool to see). Torrie Wilson was number 9 which… pleased some… Molly Holly was another legend who came in, as was Michelle McCool who had quite the performance with 5 ELIMINATIONS; that of Sonya Deville, Liv Morgan, Molly Holly, Lana and she joined in the elimination of Vickie Guerrero, who in turn came in and did her “EXCUSE ME!” gimmick, and was almost immediately eliminated by 4 of the competitors. Good fun. We had some other surprises from Kelly Kelly and Jacqueline, and also Becky Lynch was eliminated by Ruby Riott, a 30 minute run for her from number 2. Nia Jax came in at number 22 and went on a tear, getting 4 eliminations in no time at all really. Jax went to try and get Naomi out as well, as she smashed her from the apron and Naomi fell into the arms of a group of women on the outside… and then from there found her way onto the crowd barrier… Whilst she was out there number 23 entered, the NXT Women’s Champion Ember Moon, but she saved herself from being eliminated by Jax… just as Naomi was walking along the barrier like a tight rope, she made her way all the way round to the announce desks, and from there dragged a chair with her feet towards the ring steps and once there simply used the ring steps to get back into the ring… only to jump off the top, right into the arms of Nia Jax, who promptly chucked her out of the ring… There’s your women’s ‘Kofi’ spot of the rumble then. 24 was Beth Phoenix who went face to face with Jax, before we got her reuniting with Natalya soon after, which was nice… whilst it lasted as Natlaya eliminated Beth! Then the game changed… number 25 was ASUKA! Soon after I got a moment that warmed my heart as former NXT rivals Asuka and Ember Moon came face to face once more, Mickie James was 26, Nikki Bella was 27, a saviour came just in time… as Nikki was getting beat down… Brie Bella entered the match at number 28. 29 was Bayley… and of course number 30 simply had to be Trish Stratus. She went on a tear before we got a face-to-face with her old rival Mickie James, soon after the women decided it was time to get on and eliminate Nia Jax! Sasha eliminated Bayley, because of course she did… Trish eliminated Natalya, Trish and Sasha went at it (damn that we never got that match by the way) with Banks eliminating Stratus, we then had the frankly preposterous booking of The Bellas eliminating Sasha Banks (surely it was not obvious who was winning?) after 54 minutes from number 1 in an amazing performance. Soon we had Nikki do the spot where she betrays her sister, before logic prevails and Asuka gets rid of Nikki to win the match. This was a good rumble and a great start for the women, bravo to them.
***1/2
But of course we were NOT DONE… as our women’s champions from Raw and SmackDown (in Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair) entered the ring, with Rumble winner Asuka between them, seemingly giving us a physical glimpse at the decision The Empress of Tomorrow now had to make… suddenly… it happened… and women’s wrestling changed forever…
Ronda Rousey had arrived in WWE. She was on her way to WrestleMania. And at that stage, that was as much as we knew. The show went off the air with Ronda taking in the reception from the crowd, pointing at the Mania sign (again) and Michael Cole alerting us to ‘breaking news’ on social media regarding the matter…
This was a lovely WWE PPV, which did a great job in presenting two exciting Rumble matches, and setting up the building blocks for the road to WrestleMania. Fingers crossed the 2024 show sets the excitement levels to even bigger heights. We can only hope.
Josh.