Leave us your brief comments and questions coming out of the Royal Rumble.
RATE TONIGHT’S ROYAL RUMBLE
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0 voters
Jalen from Pickering,
Thank God the women are main eventing Mania, cuz the men were trash on this show. 40+ years of combined experience and Bryan and Styles thought that was the kind of match to work at that point in the show. Garbage. Balor wearing paint to face Corbin but not Lesnar, what a dumb babyface. The Memphis midcarder and Elias having a segment at 11 pm. Garbage. Your supposed big babyface Rollins sleeping for half the match. Garbage.
Luckily the women’s title matches were great and their Rumble finished strong.
4 Likes
Jake from The Windy City here:
Not a bad show tonight. Slightly liked the Women’s Rumble but disappointed in the Men’s Rumble. How many DDTs have we seen in the Rumble match alone? It used to be one of the greatest finishers in the world but now it’s used for Hot Potato like it means nothing.
Regarding Becky, I felt like she should’ve passed out rather than tapping out considering how much she’s been building up to such a strong and fearless talent.
I thought Brock really worked well with Balor. Didn’t need the beat up after the bout but they both had an above average match with Balor showing a lot of offense.
Also, I’m all in for a vegan HBK and Diesel combination. Curious to see where this Rowan thing will go.
Nia getting her comeuppance was the only big highlight for me in the men’s rumble, I believe we’ve haven’t seen anything like this since Orton attacked Stephanie a decade ago. 15 RKOs out of 20.
Jamie from Leamington UK (Where it ended at 5am!)
The story of this show was the women. Asuka, Becky, Charlotte and Ronda feel like they have the strongest buzz in the entire company. Not to mention if they can keep some of the momentum they’ve got with Alexa, Nia and Sasha. I like that both of the title matches had a different feel to them and elevated all four performers.
I really enjoyed the women’s rumble this year, especially in contrast to last year, as 2018 focussed on the past and the legends but this year felt more forward looking with a lot of NXT talent. It was great to see Rhea Ripley get some shine with three eliminations and nice moments for Candace and Kacy Catanzaro. Kairi and Io’s interaction with the Riott squad and their teaming on NXT makes me think they’ll be coming up soon. However, as a whole it did suffer from there being no believable winners outside of Charlotte and Becky.
The men’s rumble was great until the end; Lashley taking out Rollins very much telegraphed the winner and the Nia Jax spot brought the whole thing to a juddering halt and seemed really weird, after a great start with lots of clever spots and moments.
I liked that both women’s titles matches were great, but had different feels to them. AJ and Bryan never got going, I was never hooked and the Rowan inclusion seems very sudden and bizzare. Balor and Lesnar was good, but unremarkable.
It’s also interesting to see such a spotlight being put on NXT for the halftime show and many rumble entrants, given the brand barely gets a mention on the main shows. I’m sure they’ll tear the house down. Also loved the shade thrown at Maroon 5 in the advert.
Alexander from Portland
Great show. Although Rollins and Lynch were predictable winners, the rumbles were fun and well put together. Enjoyed seeing the man-on-women action with Nia, makes me question if we’ll get an intergender match at Mania. Curious to see where Lynch and Asuka head towards Mania.
Question: Considering his lackluster IC title run, feud with Rollins, and appearance tonight, what do you see for Dean Ambrose at WrestleMania? I can’t imagine him not being a part of a multiman match.
Andrew from Cape Breton
Despite the length of the show, I thought it was excellent. Great matches all night but one thing stood out to me. For the first time in ages, it felt like the WWE Title match was the buffer match in the dead spot. I thought they could have went off the air with the Women’s Royal Rumble and it would have been a satisfying finish to a show. I know there’s always questions about Wrestlemania being cut in to two parts, but I think the Royal Rumble could use that treatment as well. A highlight for me was Nia Jax taking up the monster spot as someone who everyone needs to gang up on, like Yokozuna, Diesel or Braun Strowman. I guess I wonder if this will mean more intergender wrestling in the future. Amazing show despite it’s length, both Rumble winners were the right choices, 17 out of 20.
Bolo from Southampton, UK
I thought overall it was a great show. Becky entering the Rumble was predictable but it came off of her losing a great match to Asuka when they could have easily done a screwy finish to the match and left Asuka look like a weak champ, because Becky’s feud is with Ronda/Charlotte, not Asuka. Men’s Rumble was significant only for Mia Jax’s involvement - are the E testing the PG waters ahead of the new TV deals? Stinker of the night was AJ vs Daniel Bryan - Rowans involvement was out of the blue and made Bryan look weak, and the match came off boring after a hot series of matches. Overall a good show though with solid matches and lots of builds towards future feuds.
Warren from Ottawa
How necessary are Jobbers in a Rumble? Do we need comedy shit from guys like No Way Jose or should those spots go to better wrestlers who might have to do double duty like Rusev or more NXT guys?
Good show, not great… the women’s matches were both good, and their rumble was a lot of fun. We knew Becky would get in there somehow, but that was what the audience wanted, so it worked out fine. Weird ending to the world title match…AJ vs Bryan at a big event should be a classic, I guess we’ll have to wait to see why they shoehorned Rowan in. Universal title match was good, I thought Balor looked great in it. Men’s rumble had some fun moments, but even though they tried to tease Andrade or Ziggler, you knew the eventual winner was out on the floor. Kind of predictable, but I guess we knew where they were going. Still nice to see guys like Mustafa Ali get some attention…ok show, 15/20.
Joey from Queens,
Overall the show was pretty fun, I was slightly dissapointed at the quantity of suprise entrants outside of NXT in both rumbles, but never would I guess in the year of our Lord 2019 would we see J-E-Double F J-A-Double R-E-Double T in a WWE ring. I’m not prithie to the circumstances of how the WWE and Jarrett made up but if i had to guess it goes to show you the ability to Triple H to play nice and mend bridges. Maybe CM Punk in 2020? A man can dream.
For the matches themselves I enjoyed them for the most part and while the winners were predictible, they still were able to put on two pretty good matches that kept me engaged throughout. As for the other matches, which to be honest dragged the PPV a bit for me. The only one that really left an imprit on me personally was the WWE Championship match, of all people who would be in line for a main event run I doubt I woulda guessed Rowan, he has all the Vince McMahon traits so he has that going for him.
Overall Grade: 14/20
They seem to shy away from a ring with more than 7-8 workers at a time during Rumbles now, so the jobbers work for me.
Tyler from Orlando,
I thought last year’s rumble event as a whole was better, I didn’t think this was a bad show just not great.
Women’s rumble was pretty sloppy, AJ/Daniel was disappointing to be honest with a strange finish. Wonder what happens to Luke Harper now that the Bludgeon Brothers aren’t a thing anymore. Both rumbles had the right people win them, I predicted both correct so I’ll take my million dollar cash price via pay pal guys. Jk thanks for all you 2 do.
1 Like
Lara from Vancouver
Pretty damn good show.
Asuka was made a star again with a clean submission win via a gorgeous Last Chancery Asuka Lock
Becky looked smart tapping as passing out would have lessened her chances of being cleared to compete in the Rumble
Also Becky taking a spot in the Rumble via an honorable replacement rather than an attack was great. Nice to have continuity between pre show and main show too.
Charlotte looked like a crazed monster heel which will and can now easily lawyer her way into the Mania Main Event, and her current persona will add a great dynamic to it.
Balor took it to Brock and I feel we could see a swerve and Rollins challenges Bryan and we get Demon vs Beast on the Raw side.
Banks and Ronda delivered. Banks looked great and Ronda beatable. A needed twist going into Mania
Bryan having an eco Planeteers cult is great. The match was great too. Rowan wearing a Charles Manson shirt was a nice touch.
Could have done without Nia eliminating Ali but that’s a nitpick
Everything delivered tonight. Even Miz celebrating genuinely with Shane was sweet
All in all great show
1 Like
Omri in Mexico,
First time watching a royal rumble show live, and it was absolutely, completely fine.
Nothing except Becky’s win was memorable in any way, and the both rumble matches were pretty boring for the most part. the thing that was glaring for me was the overuse of every single rumble trope there is in both matches: someone not getting into the ring, someone hiding under the ring, someone being taken out of the match without being eliminated, someone being taken out before the match and gets his place taken, an incredible Kofi style non-elimination. And I’m sure there’s more that I missed.
The women’s title matches were both good and the men’s were disappointing for different reasons. Non-demon Balor is a geek whose finisher doesn’t even necessitate a kick-out and can be totally ignored in order to get to the finish.
The Bryan A.J. match was fine but not anywhere close to great.
I wasn’t bored to sleep or enraged with stupidity throughout the whole show and that gives it 2 points by itself on the “out of ten” scale.
11 vintage Coles calling vintage moves out of 20
1 Like
Christian from Mustang, Oklahoma. I have a hard time coming with anything really that bad about this show, it was a great show in WWE standards. The Rumble winners were somewhat predictable but that’s not always a bad thing in my eyes. I’m interested in seeing what they do with what looks to be like a new stable with Bryan. Who would you guys see fitting in with them? Show gets a 17/20 for me.
Average show with thumbs in the middle pointing slightly up. Missed the pre-show, but from what I’ve been hearing, I should check out the Cruiserweight match.
Becky/Asuka was very good - probably my MOTN.
Shane+Miz/BAR was, in fact, a match. Unremarkable other than Shane’s punches, which were comically worse than normal.
Sasha/Ronda was the only other match I’d consider to be good.
Women’s Rumble was totally saved by Becky. Lacey Evans looked really bad here, or at least the one I’ve paid the most attention to as she was #1.
Bryan/AJ was a disappointment, and was topped off with a bad finish. I guess this is the “let’s just see where this goes, guys” angle of the show.
Would have loved to see Brock/Finn go longer than it did. As strong as Finn might’ve looked, I’m of the opinion that it was negated by a tap on the first Kimura. I wished he’d be able to survive or break at least one of them.
Men’s Rumble was a little above average and felt fairly uneventful outside of JJ, Seth winning (classic Vince - gotta beat the giant), and Nia Jax taking #30. I hated the Nia entrance at first, but I turned a corner along with the crowd when Orton was setting up an RKO, so good job WWE.
Favorite commentary moment - They talked about how Crews eliminated 8 people a year ago in a battle royal… and said he has momentum. The big mo.
1 Like
Dave from Sydney
The women stole the show this year and I really enjoyed the women’s rumble match relying on the new era rather then the older generation for the pops.
Daniel and AJ were in a hell of a spot, however they still put on a sensational match. Eric Rowan joining Bryan in what could be a new straight edge society of sorts could be very interesting.
Nia in the men’s felt like more of a burial rather then a woman being as strong as the men, although she did get an elimination.
Poor Dawson on the kick off involved in some the dumbest booking they have done in recent times.
The cruiseweight was also fantastic too
Other than the finish to the women’s Rumble and the Bryan-AJ match, I thought it was a pretty bad show.
Asuka-Becky never got out of first gear. I expected them to tear the house down. I didn’t watch The Bar-Miz and Shane because Shane is unwatchable. I thought Ronda-Sasha was sloppy. Most of the women’s Rumble was sloppy. It only got interesting when Becky came out.
I felt bad for Bryan and AJ having to follow Becky. It started off slowly, but they started telling a great story with Bryan’s left leg being injured and him trying to wrestle a ground game. I was really enjoying the match until Rowan came out. WTF?? I do NOT want AJ to feud with Rowan!
I didn’t watch Lesnar-Balor. The show was too long, and I needed a break.
I stopped watching the men’s Rumble when Jarrett came out. The show is already long enough. Why do shit like this? I turned it back on a few minutes later, and I watched until Nia came out. That was an immediate “change the channel” moment for me.
Now that we have women’s and men’s Rumbles, there’s no excuse to mix up the genders. If Nia can get in the men’s Rumble, why not put Strowman in the women’s Rumble? He can eliminate them all and get a shot at the women’s world title.
I give it 10/20 for Becky’s appearance in the Rumble and the Bryan-AJ match. I’m probably being generous.
Wonderful show in my opinion, there was no bad matches, the NXT folks were treated as credible opponents which I loved. The ending of the Men’s rumble was different but I really liked that they weren’t afraid to have inter-gender interactions and what that may lead to. Wrestlemania is looking to be a good-great show from what I can tell and cant wait to see how it turns out!