2018 Mens Royal Rumble Highlights

Hello everyone and welcome back to Talk Wrestling World, I hope you are all well and good and have had an awesome start to the week! So of course, this past weekend was a pretty epic one for us wrestling fans. Saturday night saw the stars of NXT Takeover Philadelphia in yet another brilliant showing and then on Sunday night the two thousand and eighteen Royal Rumble pay per view took place and boy was it an interesting and exciting night! I've said it before and I will say it again, the Royal Rumble pay per view is my favourite PPV of the year and with both the men's and the historic first ever women's Royal Rumble delivering I have hardly anything to complain  about and I have to say I'm a very happy little fan! I've already mentioned that over the next few days I will be focusing on reviewing the Royal Rumble pay per view as a whole. We kick started things off yesterday taking a look at the PPV as a whole and the overall highlights and talking point, however, today it's time to focus our attention solely on the Mens Royal Rumble match. Tomorrow we will be closing things off by touching on the historic women's Royal Rumble match. We have plenty to talk about today so let's not waste any more time!  As always, any recent blog posts will be linked bellow and finally, you can get involved and tell me what you thought of the Royal Rumble pay per view by leaving a comment bellow or by dropping me a tweet over at @TezangiVictoria.

The Road to Redemption for Finn Balor Continues

In previous blog posts over the past few months, I've touched on the fact that things haven't gone the way we all expected things to go for former NXT champion Finn Balor. Upon his return from injury, it was evident the WWE had lost a little bit of faith with his booking not touching the surface of what we had seen previously. However, reuniting Balor with Anderson Gallows has given him the edge and direction he so desperately needed and things have been looking up. This past Sunday, things only got better for Balow when he quite clearly had the best all-around performance of the night and the men's Rumble match. Kickstarting at number two Balor lasted almost a full hour remaining down to the final four. While he didn't walk out the victor his performance was enough to reinforce him as a serious top contender. He once again feels like a main event star and indications he's on his way back to the Universal Championship picture are evident. Balor was a true standout of the night from showcasing his incredible in-ring skills, his agility, ability to tell a store and pure liability. The announce team did a fantastic job reminding everyone of just how strong Finn's performance was and with such a  dominant and impressive performance in the Rumble match things can only look to be getting even better for Balor and it's about damn time he was put back at the top with this Rumble match being exactly what he needed.

Rey Mysterio's Return

The personal highlight for me in this match had to be the shock return of Rey Mysterio. In the build-up to the men's Royal Rumble match names such including the likes of Batista, EC3, Bobby Lashley, and even the Rock were amongst those whom fans believed could make a surprise return and while Mysterio was also one of those stars in the conversation he was the one of the bunch I least expected to surprise us all as an entrant. When his music hit, however, I marked out literally like I was ten years old again. I remember watching Rey with my Granddad as a kid and I'm pretty sure the excitement around him as a character, wrestler, and talent in the WWE is something that will never fade for me. The reaction he picked up was amazing to see considering what the live crowded sounded like during his previous Rumble entrance. Yet another standout performer of the night Mysterio looked fantastic and in better shape than ever before. Now, as I write this there isn't any word on whether or not Rey is back for good or if this was a one-off thing but I honestly am hoping to see him back for good. Both the cruiserweight's division and Smackdown LIVE could do with his presence and seriously benefit from it not to mention the WWE as a whole would feel even more exciting with the king of Lucha Libre gracing the stage once again. If you would like to see a post focusing on Rey's return do let me know!

A lack of Surprise Entrants

Okay, so while we did just dedicate an entire paragraph to discussing Rey Mysterio's shock return I have to say that even though I really enjoyed the Rumble match as a whole the one that was missing was, of course, more surprise entrants. For me, two just isn't enough and I was sat there left waiting for something bigger to happen. Now, as I keep saying, the match itself was strong and easily one of if not the best of the past five years I had to mention in today's blog post that considering we have new stars signed including the likes of War Machine, Richocet, and EC3 I was surprised to see none of them make an appearance. Adam Cole and Andrade Cien Almas made for interesting choices as entrants especially when you keep in mind it was more so the likes of Aleister Black or Kassius Ohno would have made more sense with both men edging closer to a main roster call-up than these two, however, the pop they both got from the crowd spoke volumes. The picks of surprise and NXT entrants were interesting but in the end, it did work and made for a very very strong Rumble match.

Entertainment found in Strong Storytelling
Throughout today's blog post I have touched on the fact that the two thousand and eighteen Royal Rumble was one of the best of the past five years despite the lack of surprise entrants and this is mainly because of how well every superstar was used, the little stories told and of course the end result. Lets first focus on Baron Corbin. Being the worlds biggest Baron Corbin fan I was super pissed when he had one of the earliest elimination but in all honesty, I saw it coming. From the moment his music hit Corbin was on fire taking everyone out insight and fitting in a couple of eliminations. However, his crazy speed and momentum worked against him and was shocking eliminated within less than five minutes of being in the Rumble. However, he wasn't going to walk out that easy. Attacking everyone around him Corbin left the ring pretty much empty before the next entrant's music could hit and honestly I loved the idea. Taking out Heath Slater on the way to the back Corbin established himself as one heck of a dominant star. His attack on the talent around him showed him to be more aggressive and dominant than we have seen him in a very very long time if ever and it's that attitude that needs to stick.

We then had the small case of humor. This is the type of match you can totally fit in some comedy and the WWE done it will here. From Heath Slater struggling to even make it to the ring with every superstar attacking him a little before entering themselves. We had Sheamus then being eliminated in less than three seconds by Slater after he assisted him into the ring in the first place and of course Elias who's little kick to Slater and sing-song session left me genuinely laughing at my screen. I also really liked Sami Zayn stealing Tye Dillinger's spot in the Rumble and literally without a care in the world competing in a match he technically wasn't even apart of.

And the final part of this section of the post has to touch on the final six superstars left in the rumble. On one side we had the guys I grew up watching in Randy Orton, John Cena, and Rey Mysterio and on the other side we have the guys of today, Finn Balor, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Roman Reigns which honestly was super interesting and fun to watch. As someone that has loved watching all six of these superstars throughout their careers, it was a pretty special moment to see the clash of generations here for a short while.

The perfect end Result

Finally, after far too long we had a Royal Rumble ending that worked, pleased fans, and was damn right satisfying, to say the least. The final moments between Roman Reigns and Shinsuke Nakamura genuinely had me on the edge of my seat. The intensity was so strong and everyone in the arena was loud and up on their feet as they waited to see who would walk out the victor. The pair actually worked very very well together to the point where singles match between the two is something I can now see being something I could really enjoy. The way in which those last six elimination were done left us desperate for something different and that something different was Nakamura walking out the winner. Every hardcore fan wants to see Shinsuke vs AJ Styles and that's exactly what we're getting. The crowd were hot Nakamura the moment his music hit and after a rough run since joining the main roster this is exactly what he needed and I cannot wait for Mania! Not to mention Reigns benefited ten time greater from losing the Rumble than he would have winning it.

And that was the two thousand and eighteen mens Royal Rumble! In tomorrow's post we will be focusing on the women's Rumble so make sure to check back here at the same time for that! As always, any recent blog posts will be linked bellow and finally, you can get involved and tell me what you thought of the Royal Rumble pay per view by leaving a comment bellow or by dropping me a tweet over at @TezangiVictoria.


Recent Blog Posts:
NXT Takeover: Philadelphia Review and Reactions
2018 WWE Royal Rumble PPV Highlights