Hiya!

Recently, I’ve been feeling the doldrums when it comes to the WWE. I’m not sure what’s wrong. I used to be a very avid fan and I would watch WWE weekly without fail. Lately, however, I just haven’t been able to keep up with all the goings on in RAW and Smackdown. I just haven’t been watching WWE as frequently as before. Maybe it’s the product itself. Maybe it’s just I have too many things going on. Whatever it is, I do hope I can find something to reignite my love for WWE again.

If there is something which might be able to rekindle my excitement for the WWE, it would be the Royal Rumble. After all, it is my favorite pay-per-view the company puts out. So, I actually tuned in to watch the Royal Rumble show live on Netflix using *ahem* rather unsavory means because the Philippines still doesn’t show WWE programming on Netflix yet. As I’ve just seen the entire show, I’d like to give you my thoughts on the show and see if it did make me excited for WWE programming again.00

The first match of the night was the Women’s Royal Rumble with the winner getting a title shot against the champion of her choosing at Wrestlemania. Right of the bat, I will have to say it did take me a while to get into the match. This is partially because of the location. This year’s Royal Rumble was held at Saudi Arabia and this means the women competitors had to conform to the country’s standard. This meant dressing up in full body suits. I’m normally fine with this when it’s just a couple of female wrestlers doing it. Having 30 women in full body suits did make it difficult to easily recognize who’s who a lot of the time! It certainly didn’t help a majority of them opted to use all-black full body suits! So, there were times when I would mix up someone like Rhea Ripley with Raquel Rodriguez in the crowd.

Another thing about the location which might have affected how good this Royal Rumble is the lack of any real female WWE Legends showing up. As mentioned, this happened in Saudi Arabia and I don’t think the WWE would pay the cash to fly in talent like Trish Stratus or Lita to the country. There was a couple of surprises, like the return of Tiffany Staton from injury and Brie Bella showing up but nothing I would say was amazing.

There is one thing I cannot blame when it comes to the location and that would be how lackluster the entire Women’s Royal Rumble felt. There weren’t any real highlights I can think of. Maybe I could say moments like Alba Frye saving Chelsea Greene from elimination by sacrificing her body to become a makeshift platform, Charlotte Flair accidentally eliminating her tag partner Alexa Bliss while taking out Nia Jax and Liv Morgan intentionally dumping her fellow Judgement Day member and close friend Raquel Rodriguez to make it to the Final Three. I can’t even say Lash Legend tossing out a myriad of opponents was a big deal because, most of the time, it looked like Lash Legend eliminated them by the skin of her teeth! She was on the verge of getting eliminated herself during those moments! That’s not how to book your dominant powerhouse!

The finish came down to Liv Morgan, Sol Ruca and Tiffany Stratton. This, to me, is the only time when the Women’s Royal Rumble actually became worth watching. Liv hit double knees to the face of Tiffany, which led to Sol hitting a springboard facebuster. Ruca then went for her Sol Snatcher finisher but Liv countered it. Stratton then hit an awkward springboard dropkick to Morgan using Ruca’s back because Sol Ruca wasn’t planted firmly on the floor. Tiffany then hit her cartwheel elbow to Sol with Liv following us with a big knee. Stratton then hit a rolling senton to set Morgan up next to the fallen Ruca. Tiffany then tried to hit her Prettiest Moonsault Ever finisher to the both of them but only got Liv as Sol rolled out of the way. Both Tiffany and Liv fought in the corner which allowed Sol to hit her Sol Snatcher finisher on the both of them at the same time! Sol tried to eliminate them both at the same time but this led to the trio getting dragged over the top rope and onto the ring apron. Ruca then (stupidly) tried to hit her Sol Snatcher to Stratton but Tiffany countered by shoving Sol to the floor, eliminating her. Liv then immediately hit her Ov-Liv-Ion finisher to Tiffany, eliminating her and punching her ticket to Wrestlemania!

Like I said, besides the final moments, this year’s Women’s Royal Rumble was a bore. I didn’t mention the other technical issues, like the clock resetting to 11 seconds after a new entrant was announced, showing off some sloppy production work. The booking also wasn’t well done as I never felt the impact of some of the bigger eliminations. I mean, Becky Lynch was in the match but she hardly mattered in the grand scheme of things! It’s like all the WWE’s effort was put into the Final Three. Seeing Sol Ruca make it there was a treat and having Liv Morgan win was definitely the right call. Even with that, this was a snoozefest but the Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez storyline does make me want to see the aftermath on RAW.

The next match of the night had GUNTHER take on AJ Styles with the stipulation that, if GUNTHER wins, AJ Styles will retire. This was the one I was looking forward to as AJ Styles had announced he planned to retire in 2026… but he didn’t say when. So, would this be the match where he does even if it’s so early in the year? I had to know! The match itself was classic GUNTHER and classic AJ Styles. This meant this was classic big guy heel vs face with a lot of heart. GUNTHER beat down on AJ Styles for the majority of the match but Styles would just not give up. This also meant there weren’t any major highlights as this was the two WWE Superstars doing all their trademarks. Sure, it’s fun to see Styles connect with a springboard 450 and a Styles Clash as well as GUNTHER hit his dinosaur dropkick and kick Styles to the outside but we’ve seen in all before.

The finish came after the Phenomenal One tried to connect with his Phenomenal Forearm but the Ring General dodged it but Styles countered with a sleeper of his own. GUNTHER then grabbed the referee to block his view so he can hit a low blow to Styles to break the hold. GUNTHER hit a powerbomb for a 2-count. GUNTHER then started chopping down and beating on Styles, getting dangerously to getting disqualified. Styles then tried to rally with a flurry of blows. GUNTHER then tried to back body drop Styles out of the ring but the Phenomenal One landed on the apron. Styles went for his Phenomenal Forearm but GUNTHER grabbed him a locked in his sleeperhold. Styles tried to power out of the move but GUNTHER re-applied the sleeperhold, leading to Styles falling unconscious. GUNTHER has not only retired John Cena but AJ Styles as well.

This was a phenomenal match. While I did say they didn’t do anything out of the ordinary for them, both AJ Styles and GUNTHER told an incredible story in that ring. Lots of high drama all around. I do wish there were less near falls but I understand it’s to enhance the excitement and make fans think the ending could come from nowhere. This was a good way for Styles to go out and it also made GUNTHER look very strong.

The next match of the night saw Drew McIntyre defend the biggest prize on Smackdown, the Undisputed WWE Championship, against Sami Zayn. This is a match I wasn’t too excited about as there was no way they were going to have Sami Zayn all of a sudden get pushed to the championship picture this close to Wrestlemania. Even so, I was fully expecting a very entertaining match, which I got. Highlights include Sami connecting with a sunset flip powerbomb from the top turnbuckle, McIntrye hitting white noise on Zayn from the 2nd turnbuckle, Drew performing a trio of Futureshock DDTs on Sami, Zayn managing to put his foot on the lower rope after getting hit by McIntyre’s Claymore finisher, Sami getting a near fall after a Helluva Kick while Drew was chastising the official and the Scottish Warrior powerbombing Sami Zayn through the announcer’s table.

The finish came after the aforementioned powerbomb through the announcer’s table. Drew berated Sami but Zayn then tossed McIntyre to the corner with an exploder suplex. Zayn then went for another Helluva Kick but McIntyre countered with a Claymore. Drew could’ve gone for the pin but he wanted to punish Sami. So, the Scottish Warrior waited for Zayn to get up so he can hit him with another Claymore. Drew got the pinfall victory afterwards and retain his Undisputed WWE Championship.

I can’t really say this was an exceptional match but I can say it was fun to watch. I will say, however, there wasn’t any point when I thought Sami Zayn might actually win it because of how the entire match flowed. Still, this was good for what it was.

The final match of the night was the Men’s Royal Rumble with, like with the Women’s side of things, the winner getting to choose which Champion he faces at Wrestlemania. This was pretty hit-or-miss as there were some creative moments as well as a whole lot of nothing happening throughout. It started off intriguing, with Bron Breakker getting jumped by a hooded individual and taken out with a curb stomp. This led to the main roster debuting Oba Femi eliminating him immediately.

Speaking of Oba Femi, he had an incredible showing here, eliminating a lot of entrants early on, which was both a good thing and a bad thing. It was good as it made him look like a powerhouse and a strong contender. It was bad as it made some other strong WWE Superstars, like Rusev, Solo Sikoa and Matt Cardona, look like jobbers since Oba Femi got rid of them in quick succession. I get the need to push the debuting Oba Femi but it feels sad it had to come at the expense of these guys.

Unlike the Women’s Royal Rumble, there were a few surprise entrants in the Men’s Royal Rumble… but there weren’t exactly top tier. The surprise entrants mostly consisted of the guys from AAA, like Mr. Iguana and La Parka. The most interesting surprise entrant was El Grande Americano. Well, the thing that made it surprising is that there were two versions of El Grande Americano in the Royal Rumble! I really want to see what’s going to happen here in the future. I honestly hope they become a tag team for some reason.

Another highlight would be, despite not being in the Royal Rumble himself, Drew McIntyre still had to get involved just to eliminate Cody Rhodes. This does strongly hint that Cody Rhodes is now the odd-on favorite to win Elimination Chamber so he can face off against Drew McIntyre for the Undisputed WWE Championship at Wrestlemania. While this was a cheap way to get heat, I do like a continuation of the storyline.

There were some incredibly dumb moments as well, such as Jey Uso‘s extremely extended entrance. It was so long and so distracting that we only got a glimpse of Cody Rhodes and LA Knight teaming up to toss Brock Lesnar over the top rope! I also didn’t like how Cody Rhodes was the one who eliminated LA Knight with very little fanfare.

The Final Four came down to Randy Orton, Roman Reigns, Logan Paul and GUNTHER. Logan Paul tried to connect with a buckshot lariat to Reigns but Reigns countered with a superman punch. Reigns then dumps Paul to the outside, eliminating The Maverick. Orton then hit an RKO to Reigns but GUNTHER then toss Orton over the top rope while the Viper was distracted. The Ring General locks in a sleeper but the Original Tribal Chief fights out of it. GUNTHER then tries to powerbomb Reigns to the outside but Reigns reverses it into a back body drop. This sends GUNTHER to the ring apron. Roman tries a superman punch but GUNTHER counters it with a punch of his own. GUNTHER then climbs back in and locks in a sleeperhold again. Reigns gets out of it by sending GUNTHER’s head into the top turnbuckle. Reigns then hits a spear and tosses GUNTHER over the top rope to win the Men’s Royal Rumble and punches his ticket to Wrestlemania!

This was just an okay Men’s Royal Rumble. The lack of any WWE Legends kind of hurt the overall experience as that’s part of the fun of every Royal Rumble. There was also a severe lack of stunts this time around, which was disappointing as well. Having Roman Reigns win may seem like a very safe choice but, after having Jey Uso win last year (and we all know how that turned out!), we do want a little safe now. Still, there were enough highlights to keep this from being a really boring Royal Rumble.

All-in-all, this year’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view was just okay. It didn’t really re-ignite my passion for the WWE product but it did leave me curious as to the future, especially at Wrestlemania. Who knows? Maybe the upcoming Elimination Chamber will fan that ember of my fandom to a burning flame? Time will tell.

Byee!

What did you think of this year’s Royal Rumble show? Let me know in the comments section below!