Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/01/29/royal-rumble-2018-post-show-with-john-pollock-wai-ting-and-jason-agnew/
Subscribe to POST Wrestling
iTunes & iOS | Android | Google Play | Stitcher | TuneIn | Mac & PC | RSS
POST Wrestling Forum
https://forum.postwrestling.com
Support our Patreon - The POST Wrestling Café
http://www.patreon.com/POSTwrestling
Thoughts on the Rumble PPV:
What did we get instead? Balor club returned and pushed strong on tv. Finn gets the ironman push in the rumble. Fans are going to be ticked off about that one. I demand my mediocre match with a predictable loss to Lesnar! That’s how you get Finn over!
(yes this entry was a sarcastic joke but its also a commentary on how people put far too much weight on the outcome of a single match. See also: DX going over at Raw 25 against the Revival)
Ziggler was wasted in his role which is a real shame. I genuinely want to cheer for the guy and his performance was underwhelming and didn’t seem to tell a story. Cena and Elias was also a joke for a feud that is supposed to gain steam.
Uso’s match:
Unexpected but well booked outcome. It was VERY refreshing to see a 2 falls to 0 outcome. They put on a great show on the first match that the second ending in something simple like it did was actually believable. I also feel that the Uso’s are above Chad/Benjamin’s level given the epic feud with The New Day. Uso’s are giving the title some credibility and it just wasn’t the time to drop them to a team that hasn’t truly been established. You could give Rusev the tag belts at WM against the Uso’s while building up Rusev Day and that would feel a lot more meaningful.
AJ Match:
Worse than their Smackdown matches. This whole thing has been a complete mess.
AJ has been a consistently losing champion so him actually winning at Rumble made no sense. You have an incredibly weak booked champion losing to your top heels who now look like chumps against them. Your champion belt looks weak now too. Everyone in this feud was taken down a notch. Horrendous. That’s all without getting into this Kammy garbage which went over as well as suckering suckatash.
I know AJ is phenominal but Mahal has been a far better champion by comparison so far and that’s sad. Thankfully people forget stuff and respect AJ as a performer and even though the belt is utterly meaningless right now people don’t care because AJ vs Nakamura will supposedly be good? I have my doubts because WWE forces Nakamura to wrestle at 40% his potential at all times. Hopefully WM changes this.
Braun must be a monster with a glass jaw because his out of ring persona is completely different than his in ring one. You don’t build him up to look like he should squash Lesnar a-la Goldberg Summerslam and then deliver this match. It just hurts Braun’s character. They really needed to go the extra mile to make anyone believe Braun couldn’t win this match and that did not happen. Fail!
The show as a whole was rather good. I have a lot of nitpicks mentioned above and some are really damaging to the characters/booking but overall this was fun to sit through.
Excellent for a WWE show. Mediocre to Poor by the standards set by New Japan and NXT.
Regarding Ronda:
I’m VERY interested to see how WWE books her and what fans expect from her. This show touches on that slightly at the end.
My concern for Ronda is that she feels like Asuka but legitimate. I think it would be wise to keep these two apart. Move one over to another brand (Asuka most likely) and then you don’t have this act dominating one show.
Ronda can be a striker submission machine. Tapping out people and more importantly KNOCKING THEM OUT. WWE doesn’t do the knock out finish all that often and here you have a legit performer who can bring that back. At any time you can just eat a strike that forces the ref to call off the match.
Build Asuka on Smackdown as champion after she defeats Charlotte at WM 2018 and set up long term for Ronda vs Asuka, battle of the undefeated woman at WM 2019. Honestly, I’d headline wrestlemania 2019 with that match to make history. I really don’t think you could ever top it in terms of the biggest female star in history against the woman who has utterly shattered Goldbergs undefeated streak.
So, if its true they’re setting up for Rousey-Rock vs Steph and HHH, I dont care who you are, thats a huge match!
And Nakamura-Styles? They’ve got me excited for Wrestlemania based on 2 matches! Cant remember the last time that happened!
I was happy to read Ronda’s statement that his was not a publicity stunt or a cash grab for, but that it is a priority that she is taking seriously. If WWE follow suit, that just means another potential great talent in the women’s division, and there is nothing wrong with that. We shall, of course, see.
Jason Agnew’s constant nitpicking and sourpuss attitude really took me out of the review show.
Agnew hating because his t-shirt idea got nixed and taken away from him.
Yeh I understand being annoyed, as it probably took money away from him that he would have earned in tshirt sales.
But dude, separate the review from you being pissed off at WWE and Ronda!