Royal Rumble Review

Last Saturday was the Royal Rumble in the Alamo dome in San Antonio, Texas and this was one good show. I tried to take a different approach to watching the show by simply watching it and experiencing the show as is like some of my fellow friends who have been doing this for a while.

The Men’s Royal Rumble: The men’s royal rumble normally is later in the show, but it started the show last weekend and did not disappoint. Not a lot of surprises entrants other than Booker T but there were some fun returns like Johnny Gargano, Omos and Logan Paul spiced up the match, but the breakout performance went to Gunther who was #1 and lasted until the end with a returning Cody Rhodes at #30.

Logan Paul had a viral moment colliding with Ricochet mid air and shockingly eliminating Seth Rollins towards the end, but Cody and Gunther had a great mini match at the end that led to Rhodes winning the rumble and punching his ticket to Hollywood in April.

The Pitch-Black Match: This match was a classic example of great advertising by Mountain Dew but the long awaited in ring return of Bray Wyatt happened here with the rising star LA Knight (YEAH!), the match was relatively short and a bit underwhelming despite the victory for Wyatt.

However the post-match situation might have soured the Wyatt experience with Uncle Howdy going for elbow drop off of a platform that did not look the greatest. This match hopefully will elevate Knight going forward but when it comes to Bray Wyatt it opens the door for critics and detractors to bash the return of Bray Wyatt but I will hold out to see what is to come for him at Wrestlemania.

Raw Women’s Championship: Alexa Bliss faced Bianca Belair for the Raw women’s championship, and this wasn’t too compelling, another short match where it was a now standard Bianca Belair match who left victorious completely destroying Bliss. Post-match there was a video of sorts indicating a likely reunion with Bliss, Wyatt, and all that comes with that which again leaves with a wait and see approach.

Women’s Royal Rumble: This women’s royal rumble may be one of the better ones since they started doing one in 2018, Rhea Ripley started the match #1 and was in for a long night. We had some impressive outings from some of the NXT women such as Zoe Stark, Indi Hartwell, and NXT women’s champion Roxanne Perez.

A returning Piper Niven no more Doudrop  had a solid outing and Asuka returning with a familiar look and new attitude to go with her impressive performance being the final 3 along with Ripley and Liv Morgan was #2 but in the end with accidental misting from Asuka to Morgan, Ripley survived a close elimination from Morgan to pull out the victory.

With this win Ripley became the first woman to do such a feat with the record time of 1 hour and 1 minute with 7 eliminations establishing what some have seen since her joining Judgement Day that Ripley is a main event star and has shot at redemption at Wrestlemania and hopefully bring championship gold to the Judgement Day.

Roman Reigns vs. Kevin Owens (Undisputed Universal Championship: The best was last as the match between Roman Reigns and Kevin Owens happened, but the bigger story was what will happen with Sami Zayn at the end of the night. The match was good for Owens and Reigns never disappoint but all eyes were on Zayn, his reactions and emotions throughout the match. As the match was ending Reigns started a crazed attack on Owens including throwing his head into the edge of steps but the tribal chief retains his title, but the night was not over.

The rest of the Bloodline came to the ring and were supposed celebrate Zayn’s final test, but Reigns had other plans as he wanted the Usos to beat down Owens ending with a vicious attack and barrage of Superkicks to a handcuffed Kevin Owens which should be enough but not for Reigns as he wanted to end it with a chair shot until Zayn steps in to stop the attack. Zayn tries reasoning with Reigns to not do it which led to Reigns demanding Zayn hit Owens with the chair despite Zayn’s disapproval, after series being talked down to, bullied and force to do the act Zayn finally did it… By hitting Reigns in the back ala Seth Rollins when he broke up the Shield.

Jey Uso completely shocked by the act did nothing while Jimmy Uso and Solo Siakoa begin to beat up Zayn while Reigns is emotional about what had just happened, the bloodline look at Jey to take part in the attack but he instead rolls out of the ring and precedes to walk back which upsets Reigns into a rage destroying Zayn with the chair leaving him and Owens lifeless in the ring while the bloodline leaves in anger and disgust ending the show but leaving big questions going forward with the family.

Overall, the show was good again one of the better Rumble shows since either 2018 or 2020, the road to Wrestlemania has officially begun and it is already shaping up to be an exciting road trip to Hollywood with a detour in Montreal for the Elimination Chamber.