Official Royal Rumble Thread: 1/24/2016

I honestly thought we'd see Taker tonight. Didn't think he'd win or anything. But I thought maybe a Rumble appearance to set up a WM match.

Um... no.

LMAO anyone watching WWE 24? Was that Bill MattelDesignTeam yelling?!?

Better Rumble than ones in recent years, but still had a lot to improve upon. Just a couple of my notes below.

— Ambrose/Owens was a pretty good last man standing match, but at moments seemed like nothing more than a spotfest.
— Usos/New Day has been done to death, please move on. Wyatt's vs. New Day, Ascension vs. New Day, Social Outcasts vs. New Day. I don't care, anything but Usos vs. New Day. Was a boring match except for the ending.
— Kalisto/Del Rio was decent, glad to see Kalisto win the title again, wonder why they had Del Rio take it back just to lose it to him again.
— Divas match was Match of the Night IMO. Becky and Charlotte did a great job, and would love to see more of that feud (Hopefully into Fast Lane, right before Sasha enters for Wrestlemania)
— Royal Rumble match was better than 2014 and 2015, but thats not really saying much.
— AJ Styles debut was awesome, the crowd really seems into him from the start. However as previously noted he basically got zero offense and eliminated midway. Would have been in my final four (or at least final six).
— Seems to be heading towards a Wyatt/Lesnar match at Mania, Im ok with that given the amount of injuries to the roster.
— Jericho was basically non-integral to the match at all and still made it to the final six, could have booked him better, or someone who's gonna be around, like AJ, could have used it more.
— Glad to see they seem to be heading towards Zayn/Owens, that would be a great match at Mania.
— Wyatt/Triple H could be a great feud down the road. Felt like the crowd was really into that moment in the Rumble.
— If someone could explain to me why Sheamus keeps getting booked as strong as he is, i'd be much obliged.
— Was really hoping Dean would turn heel and have Triple H hand him the belt at the end, doubly screwing Reigns. Im ok with the Triple H win though. Unfortunately it already spoils the outcome of the main event of Mania, Triple H losing to Reigns.



So if I had to guess Mania based off tonight

Reigns vs. Triple H — WWE Title
Lesnar vs. Wyatt
Owens vs. Zayn
Ambrose vs. Jericho — IC Title
Charlotte vs. Sasha (vs. Becky?) — Divas Title
Undertaker vs. ? (Would be awesome for it to be AJ, fear for my life it will be Braun Strowman)

I usually hate the humorous moments they try to fit into the rumble but R-Truth climbing the ladder to find nothing hanging above the ring while everyone else watched with their WTF faces was really, really funny.

Now that I've cooled off and reflected on the WHOLE PPV,

Every Mid-card match was a 3.5 star match or more. Every outcome was best for business.

The first 75% of the rumble was phenomenal

Then things started to go downhill. How Styles was booked in the rumble was not the best. He got little offense in and got a Bryan elimination. I didn't think he should've won, but maybe in the final 4. Also, Bray should've won. His random Sheamus elimination was garbage.

Overall it was an 8/10 show. Good job, WWE. You continue to muck up the main event and title picture with Reigns fueds, but mad the midcarders shine.

I wonder if the celebration tomorrow night will rival that of when Vince and Shane beat God and HBK?

It's absolutely true. Go back and look at everyone he ever dropped the title to.

As a guy who's been watching AJ Styles since I saw in WCW in 2001, and then followed his entire TNA run. I never thought I'd see him in the WWE. So it's like a dream come true. And then he squared off with Jericho, and that's always been a dream match of mine. I hope we get to see that at least once. Simply phenomenal!