5 Things WWE Got Wrong with This Years Royal Rumble Match
A Lack of Surprises
It will come as no surprise that the first thing we have to talk about in today's blog post is the lack of surprises in this year's Royal Rumble Match. In the weeks building up to the pay per view, I mentioned several times the fact that one of the main reasons I love the Rumble is the unpredictability and the fact we are pretty much guaranteed to get a number of surprise entrants. Recent rumble matches have seen the likes of Rusev, Bubba Ray, Sami Zayn, Diesel, and the Boogy Man make an appearance at one of the biggest pay per views of the year. In twenty seventeen the rumours as to who would be surprising us all and making their way into this year's Rumble were bigger than ever. Names such as Samoa Joe, a returning Finn Balor and even this year's first Hall of Fame inductee, Kurt Angle. I, myself, wrote a full blog post listing five superstars I would love to see a return at this year's Rumble and while some were quite a long shot I expected at least one of the names to make an appearance. In the weeks leading up to the pay per view, the WWE took a different approach to the rumble, revealing ninety percent of the superstars who would be competing in the rumble (something I will talk about in more detail later on) and come Sunday there were about eight spaces left and most fans, including myself, did believe that those eight spaces were something to be excited about. Who were the names taking those spots set to be? The speculation was huge and it was fun being a part of the discussion and predictions.However, come the Royal Rumble, the lack of surprises would be the biggest disappointment of the night. I will give it to the WWE, they gave us one thing we all wanted...Tye Dillinger. Most people I spoke to weeks before the Rumble shared that they would love to see Tye enter the rumble at of course number ten and I myself tweeted out on Sunday that I would be very very unhappy if they didn't go ahead with the move. It made perfect sense and its what the fans wanted and in the end, I'm so so glad they gave it to us. It was a true mark out moment for me as a big NXT and Tye Dillinger fan and come the end of the night it was one of the things I enjoyed the most about the Rumble. However, it was literally the only surprise entrant we got and I cannot tell you how massively disappointed I was. There were so many names I wanted to see pop out from behind that curtain and the WWE completely let us down. A lot of people was expecting to see the first ever WWE Unite Kingdom Champion, young, Tyle Bate as an entrant. The British Star was filmed at Saturday's takeover show on the night and a video was uploaded of him arriving at the venue and so many, including myself tuned into the Royal Rumble expecting him to make an appearance. Why they choose not to, I have no idea. It would have done wonders in giving Bate my exposed on a show that wasn't strictly broadcast only on the network and helped do the exact same thing for the UK championship and building the popularity of that scene. He was there in the country and I really do believe they missed out on a huge opportunity. Another big mistake they made was with Samoa Joe. As you all know by now, the former NXT champion made his RAW debut this past Monday, however, the majority of fans were expecting his arrival to take place at the Rumble and the fact he didn't was one of the biggest disappointments of the night. There were also no returns from the Likes of Finn Balor and no hall of Famer/legends who made a surprise appearance also. Now, this year's Rumble was pushed as one of the most stacked and unpredictable in recent memory and while it was so, one of the things that makes the Rumble such a huge success is the element of surprise and that just wasn't here in this year's match. You can put in the biggest names known to mankind but once you take away that one thing that makes something original you're setting yourself up for disaster and that's exactly what happened on Sunday.
Very Little Storytelling
There is no denying that this year's Royal Rumble was stacked! We had some huge names going into the Rumble match from current superstars such as Cesaro, Baron Corbin and Braun Stowman, so past winners such as Sheamus and Randy Orton and of course huge huge legends and some of the biggest names ever to step foot in the WWE such as Brock Lesnar, Golberg. and of course, the Undertaker. We had superstars going in this match that had so much history and so the potential Storytelling they could have done here was insane, however, yet again this is something that fell completely flat. We just didn't get enough. This year's Rumble felt so much more rushed than I was expecting it to be. The order certain superstars came out made no sense and they failed to keep the stories running to keep this Rumble match even more entertaining. Take Sami Zayn for an example. He is the ultimate underdog. No one has his determination and that's something they really could have sold here. Now, I do believe that he is someone we will see as a Rumble winner sooner or later, it's something they have to do and what I'm about to say sure could be saved for his winning year but why not have him enter at number one. It made no sense what so ever to show him picking the number eight spot backstage earlier on but it would have made perfect sense if he got the number one spot. Seeing him in the rumble right near to the end would have been fantastic and if they decided to go with a different winner an all round ending he and Strowman in the final few men would have been fantastic and just would have told a brilliant story. How amazing would it have been for the WWE to spend an entire year building a huge story up for Zayn and Mania? Instead, we just got nothing. I would have loved to have seen more between him and some of the bigger talents espcially Strowman. Close moments of him being eliminated would have been great also. We then have to touch on the three big names who were in this year's Rumble, Brock Lesnar, Goldberg, and the Undertaker. Again, no story. I understand what they did with Lesnar and Goldberg and that worked for their Mania story but it wasn't shot well at all and again it was such a letdown. Taker didn't have anything in this match. Finally, I know I'm going to moan about Reigns a lot in this post so I'll try and hold back here, but that ending could have ben done so much better. Why have Reigns down to the final two? It made no sense what so ever. Personally, I would have love to have seen Bray Wyatt in that main event at Mania. There's history between Roman and Bray and instead of rushing the ending have something actually go down here have Reigns eliminated and right at the end we have an epic moment between Orton and his new leader which results in Bray telling Randy to eliminate himself. Ah, thinking about it that really would have been amazing!Who Got the Monster Push?
In every Royal Rumble, there is always that one big, monster talent who takes the spotlight and makes some kind of big impact. The WWE are always looking to create big standout Royal Rumble competitors. We have Kane being arguably the best all round Royal Rumble performer of all time. A few years back we saw Roman Reigns beat Kane's record of single eliminations in a single Royal Rumble match and there have ben other standouts here and there. This year fans weren't sure who was going to get that monster Royal Rumble push this year with two names being in the hat, Braun Strowman and Baron Corbin. Both on different brands, both getting a push pretty much from the start of the brand split and so both men really want to stand out in the match and it seems the WWE couldn't decide on who to make look strong. They tried to make it work and make them both look strong but it just didn't work and it was confusing. Strowman looked dominate throughout the match prior to Corbin coming in. He had several eliminations and was the Monster of the Rumble squaring up to other fellow big superstars. However, once Corbin's music hit it wasn't long before the lone wolf was eliminating Strowman. It all just didn't work and it didn't make any sense. It just felt messy and they could have done it better. It wouldn't have gone down well with fans but after costing him the WWE Universal title earlier on in the night, instead of Reigns having to piss everyone off and come out as the final entrant why not have had him just make an appearance out of nowhere and eliminate Strowman. It would have a gotten a far better reaction from the crowd and it wouldn't have completely destroyed his momentum. A staredown between Strowman and Corbin the moment Baron entered would have been great also. The staredown between the RAW big guy and the Smackdown LIVE big guy. And finally just make Corbin look stronger. Have him have a moment with one of the bigger all time greats, someone like Taker, just something. Him eliminating someone like the dead man would have been fantastic and helped him massively.Royal Rumble announcements in the Build up to the Match
As I have already touched on, this year the WWE took a slightly different approach when it came to the Rumble as they announced most of the men competing in this year's Rumble in the weeks building up to the pay per view. At first, it was fun and I kind of liked it but the more they did the less I began to like it. Again, it took away from the surprise element. It meant that when the Rumble came around we weren't surprised by anything and that typical Rumble feel was lost. I didn't enjoy it as much and resulted in being one of the downfalls of the night. I commend the WWE for doing something different and trying it out but it just wasn't a success. Maybe if the other entrants were a surprise then this would have worked far better and maybe that is where the blame should be held. What was so sad is that they really did have all the ingredients for an epic Royal Rumble match, this could have so easily had been one of the best of all time and they missed out on a huge opportunity.Roman Reigns....Roman Bloody Reigns....
Where do I even begin? I honestly am just getting to the point of giving up. As we all sat on the edge of our seats waiting to see who the number thirty entrant would be the majority of fans believed or at least hoped for a name such as Samoa Joe or Finn Balor and as we all got excited the WWE decided to completely troll the fans and have Roman freaking Reigns as the final entrant... I cannot describe the kind of disappointment and anger I felt in this moment. It was honestly one of the worse decisions the WWE have made. It made no sense what so ever and a part of me believes this was done simply to piss off the fans. I do not understand how anyone could have believed this was a good idea. I've already mentioned what I believe they should have done with Reigns and I do think that would have worked much much better. Also, it made no sense to put him in this match after losing his title match and not AJ after losing his. It's something I have been moaning about these past few days.The worse thing, this wasn't the only bad decision they made with Reigns. .Having him eliminate Chris Jericho at least made sense but to take out the Undertaker as well... this is the guy you're trying to put over, the man you want us all to love and you choose to have him eliminate one of the biggest names in Wrestling history. I cannot understand this logic what so ever. And then it actually made no sense what so ever to have him in the final two. Again it felt like a desperate attempt to actually piss off fans. Anyone and I mean anyone can see that everything the WWE are doing with Reigns is wrong. It's as though they have completely no idea what to do with him what so ever and the creative team seem to be completely oblivious to the fans reaction and what the right thing to do is. This year's Royal Rumble match proved that exactly. Sure the whole thing made us all far happier Orton won the Rumble but if that's the way you have to go about in doing so then don't you have a big problem on your hands?I really wanted to get this post done for you guys. Like I said in my highlights post this year's Rumble Pay per view itself I thought was strong but the Rumble match was a huge letdown. As always you can let me know what YOU thought by leaving a comment bellow or by tweeting me at @TezangiVictoria.
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