It looks like all PPVs are on Saturdays going forward.
It looks like all PPVs are on Saturdays going forward.
Same could be said for Rousey but having her in the Rumble does mean they don't have to dig up Trish Stratus or whoever to fill another spot in the match.
The men's had a few things going against it that meant it was always going to struggle.
1. Everyone knew the winner after the Brock/Bobby fight
2. Lack of any legends (there were only 3 non-active wrestlers. Knoxville who announced a month ago, Bad Bunny and fucking Shane McMahon)
3. I think the show was overrunning so they had to speed the Rumble up and as such it felt very rushed in places.
Probably a few more but I'm tired.
Pretty event all round really. Two of the matches felt like filler, went on far too long and felt like standard crap RAW matches (hi Becky vs /Doudrop and Miz/Maryse vs Edge/Beth) and some shit finishes.
I did like a lot of Roman/Rollins and Brock/Bobby but ultimately they didn't work overall.
Given it's to set up for Charlotte I'd have rathered they do that another way to be honest but yeah, you don't bring Rousey back and have her not win the Rumble so that was also inevitable. I'd have rather Belair repeated though.Originally Posted by Shindig
Watched the rest (not the mixed tag, obviously.)
Reings / Rollins - Love Rollins coming with the full Shield entrance / gear to wind up Roman after the Smackdown promo. And while I wouldn't normally approve of a table powerbomb five minutes in compared to the temoplate they now have for heel Reigns I like that the whole point is Rollins was coming flying out of the gate, hit Roman with everything he has and try to counter his key moves. Not sure how I feel about the Curb Stomp being kicked out of but I guess Reigns is Brock-esque for kickouts and it was early in the match so not like they totally shat on it. Not sure how I feel about the finish because it does at least play into how much Rollins had got under Reigns' skin. I'll be interested to see what that means for Rollins now.
They could possibly turn him face for Bobbles if they wanted after that. Not like there's much competition on Raw right now. I've got a horrible feeling it'll be Edge though. Do not want.
Womans title - Not great. For a match Lynch was very obviously winning they could at least have had her taking the heat for longer chunks of the match. Lynch is starting to get into Charlotte-esque territory where people haven't seemeed to benefit much from feuding her since her return. Hopefully if it ends up Belair / Lynch at 'Mania Belair beats her clean.
Bobbo / Bork - I could probably have had a better time if I'd just watched a Youtube compilation of German suplexes.
I can't remember enjoying a Rumble less than these two. I think that might be the final nail in the coffin for the last slither of interest I retained in wrestling.
No, I did think during the Rumbles that them having the exact same tired tropes really reeks of them not having the ideas to get 60 people through two matches every year. But then they have repetitive tropes they make no effort to subvert all the time on Raw / Smackdown every single week as well so it's also possible they're just too shit / don't care / both.
Also doesn't help when a handful of semi-interesting things do happen and Kevin fucking Dunn is too busy using the wrong camera.
In the mens Rumble in particular nobody felt like they were being built up to tease them as a potential winner. Big E, if they cared about him, would have been an obvious one to have throw out a bunch of guys as a bit of polish on him following losing the title but nope, he has less eliminations than fucking Shane and gets hurled out of the Rumble (and WWE relevance, probably) in some random spot. They had the little sections of the Rumble (the Omos bit, the Jezza and Madcap working together chunk, another one I now can't remember) which felt like some actual thought had gone into them but otherwise it just felt like 29 lads killing time until Bork came out.
And the womens was even less imaginative until the decent finish and isn't helped by having the same 'legends' come out every year. Nobody gives a single fuck about Kelly Kelly or Ms. Spooky Mark, lads.
Possibly my highlight of the first four fifths of the womens Rumble was Ivory coming out in the RTC gimmick and continuing her promo even while Rhea picked her up, titled her upside down and chucked her out. What a pro.
I guess, as soon as you attach a story to someone, the crowd will just see the result as a foregone conclusion. "He's retiring after this match? Guess he's winning, then. She's been left without a title shot? Put her down in the final two against another top talent."
The Rumble should be a chance to shake things up. Have a sneaky push in there with someone going far (but not far enough), throw in a surprise winner. They don't even need to go over at Wrestlemania. Just give it the right build. It's like Formula 1. The threat of the overtake is good enough.
Rumbles are an easy home run if you book them correctly. Vince's strangehold on booking is well documented but the agents who laid out the match have a lot to answer for. Even matches like 1997 with about three decent workers on the roster were great solely because of decent booking. Brock winning wasn't the dealbreaker, as even Triple H winning 2016 was well booked around.
I've looked through the winners and the only two surprises I can think of are Edge (last year) and Shinsuke. Rock/Austin and Hogan/Warrior worked as a really good way to build up their inevitable clashes.
Ay Ee Dub Ay Ee Dub
I'm a twit
Yeah, I'd love them to have a proper surprise one year. As you said in your next post they don't actually do surprise winners (or winners who aren't established stars) very often. But given how much they bang on about how in the Rumble anything can happen it'd be nice to see it. Problem being, as it always is (and why we're apparently getting Shane matches at EC and Mania), is that WWE don't build anybody so you think they're a potential future top guy. Like, Big E's title win wasn't off the back of some sustained midcard build. He had an unmemorable midcard title reign, was lost in the mix a bit and then they put MITB on him. If you look at the roster there's not a younger, midcard guy they've done enough with that them winning a Rumble wouldn't be totally jarring. Theory, maybe, but having a heel win and not annoy the fans is tricky. Though I suppose if they weren't having Bork win you could've not had the mens go last then you build up Theory as a talented dickhead with ideas above his station before eventually a babyface champion shuts him up at Mania.
Same problem they're going to have making anybody care about whoever's facing Lashley at Mania. Assuming they don't go heel vs. heel who're the faces on Raw? They could be turning Rollins after the ending of the Reigns match but that'd seem a shame given his heel stuff is good right now. Unless they've decided the Miz hasn't lost enough yet I've got a horrible feeling he's gonna lose it to fucking Edge, which just takes us back to the 'they refuse to build young stars' thing again.
They've just got no confidence in their roster. Probably explains why they bring so many people in as well.
The surprise win often makes the star. They're such a corporate machine now that they'll make money regardless, so it's a bit confusing why they don't take the plunge more often. If it fails, so fuck, because the dollars keep rolling in.
Doesn't help they keep burying/releasing the good workers.
There's definitely been other surprise winners, they just don't look like surprises out of context. Cena in 08 for example, nobody would have predicted that because he was meant to be injured for 12 months and returned in 4.
But I've always said they need to have a proper jobber win it, even if he doesn't make it to mania. If the rumble was "real" it would happen fairly often just because of the amount of luck/lack of any real ability needed to win it. The final 4 becoming a staple is such a bad move as it seems to make the bookers think the most obvious 4 winners need to be there for it.
I didn't mind the Women's Rumble (I've been calling for RTC Ivory since the first one) and Ronda was a somewhat surprise, albeit the dirt sheets had nailed it before hand unfortunately (I tried to avoid any rumble spoilers, but that one was everywhere). I think everyone saw Lesnar coming for months, and the booking of the WWE Title match made it 100% nailed on, meaning I couldn't watch the match without skipping through it. I don't need to watch the Street Profits being thrown around by Ridge Holland (whatever one of those is) and Corbin's lackey for 10 minutes when I know Brock is killing whoever is left.
But all in all I just think the Rumble isn't special anymore and hasn't been for a number of years. I can't remember what year it was but there was 1 I stayed up for that had 0 surprise entrants and I thought that was as low as the Rumble could get, but it hasn't really got any better since, 2020 men's aside.
Last edited by Browning; 31-01-2022 at 12:03 PM.
I remember the one you mean, Browning, where there were no surprises. Just a sea of jobbers. 2017 or '18, maybe?
The Rumble is definitely tired though, as much as I (in theory) love a Rumble. Same goes for their other standard PPVs really. There's probably an argument for having the Rumble, Chamber*, MITB and KOTR (in this alternate reality where WWE aren't idiots I'd be treating KOTR seriously again) on some sort of rotation. The Rumble would feel more like a novelty again rather than an hour of the same tropes if it was only every two or three years and you could book a chunk of the year around whatever one it is, whether you have King of the Ring take place over weeks/months so each round can involve some feuds or give them time to think of something interesting to do with MITB, whatever it might be.
But this year's both had it extra tough because for both I was just waiting for the obvious winner to appear.
* At least with this year's being in Saudi it'll mean it's ages since I last saw a Chamber whenever I next watch one.
Best in the World.
Just occurred to me we didn't even get any NXT in the Rumbles.
But then it would've just ended with Gunther the Submarine Fancier being eliminated by an already-gassed Shane so that's probably for the best.
This certainly explains why Drew fucking McIntyre was made to sell the beetroot-coloured twat's 'offence.'
I'm surprised they haven't decided to have someone from NXT win it yet and then using that to move them to the main roster.
Don't think that's ever happening now though.
Von Wagner vs. Roman Reigns is the Mania main event we needed.
He could have done THE POINT with his forehead.
I maintain Keith Lee should have been the surprise entrant and winner.
They'd have only ruined it by having him lose to Lesnar with a single F5 at 'Mania or something.
Or lose the title shot somehow to somebody shit or old.
Or just put the sign on there.
Last edited by Ian; 31-01-2022 at 03:47 PM.
Some Youtubers I'm now catching up on seem to have loved the womens Rumble. I do not understand why. I hope they're just remembering a strong home straight and not pretending the rest of it was actually good.
I enjoyed it a lot more than the men's, but I wouldn't say it was good.
If you take into account the relevant situations they did a lot better than the blokes though. They struggle to cobble together 30 women (especially after all the releases) so they shouldn't even be comparable, and yet they are.
Some of the eliminations still look like shit though. This is why Women's Battle Royals before they got a rumble allowed for elimination through the ropes.
I totally forgot it but I also enjoyed the Nikki / Molly bit, that was fun.
Ivory and the whole Right to Censor thing was by far the best thing of the whole PPV.
It was fucking cringe. They're a PG show, which has been a huge reason on why it's dogshit these days, what the fuck is there to censor?
Reigns v Rollins was the best thing they had, proper storytelling.
It was good up until the absolute dog shit ending where Little Naitch literally put Seth on the ropes. That ruined it completely.
You are a proper bore, sometimes.
Also I'm not sure them being PG would even make the top 10 of reasons why the product is where it is.
Just seen that Riddle was supposedly scheduled to win the rumble until they went with Brock. What the fuck....
Brock now in the CHAMBER
Bork must win EVERYTHING.
Him just getting a shot for the other title than the one he's already declared for just adds to the argument that him winning the Rumble was fucking stupid (and boring.)
Brocky 2 Belts
Honestly, I maintain that people seething whenever Lesnar wins is more entertaining than the show will ever be. Keep on trolling Vince.
In reality, him being in the chamber is shite booking. This leaves them with 3 options:
1) Unify the titles
2) Have Brock job clean right before Mania.
3) Have Roman screw Brock for 2 straight PPVs....
All of those options are shit. Stop booking yourself into corners for fuck sake.
Unifying the titles would be a good idea given they're incapable of building up challengers for one belt let alone two, therefore we can rule that one out. Unless they do the Keith Lee thing of giving somebody two belts then immediately losing one.
That saaaaaid it'd take both world titles off TV for a bit which is shit, and therefore makes it a little more likely. Hm.
I don't feel like they'll go title vs. title but Lesnar is clearly going to be the last out of his chamber and I don't see how or why they would have him be screwed from that position, or what Reigns would gain out of taking away his own chance of potentially unifying the belts.
Who knows man, they don't think about anything beyond "What would get the most reaction?" or "What does the Crown Prince want?"
It wouldn't necessarily take both belts off TV assuming Roman won at Mania, which it almost feels like he'd have to.
I've just seen the 2 longest lasting women were Bianca (47:30) and Liv Morgan (37:20). That's a hell of a long time for 2 women who, between them, did fuck all in the entire match. I honestly would have predicted Liv was no more than 10-15 minutes.
Did Morgan even eliminate anybody? Because yeah, I was aware during the match Belair had been in for ages (and was doing very little) but I didn't even notice Morgan had stuck about that long.
I'm working on the assumption that Brock beats Roman but... yeah I dunno if that's how it'll go regardless of what belts are on the line. On the one hand I reckon they'd rather not have Brock lose to him twice on the spin, but then I wouldn't be having Brock as the guy to end this title reign either.
Who even knows. I suspect Lesnar doesn't take the title in the Chamber because as you say having him then lose it again before Wrestlemania would be some dumb shit. But how they go about having him not win the Chamber I don't know because he sure as shit ain't being pinned without there being some shenanigans.
Liv didn't eliminate anyone, and Bianca only got Nattie. I did also notice as it was going on that Tamina didn't get any notable eliminations (she may have got 1 or 2 I didn't notice, but easily could be 0) but she definitely saved about 12 people from being eliminated by attacking the person who was about to throw them out for no reason.
Still, at least the Bella Twins got over.
Edit- just checked, 0 for Tamina as well.
I didn't spot the Tamina thing but I've heard a few pods talking about it.
Danhausen vs The Ass Boys (Gunn Club) needs to be prime time AEW. So funny.
I'm a twit
I don't get Danhausen at all.
So apparently Shane was pitching that he and Seth start some shit in the Rumble, Shane would then be in the chamber so he could continue the Seth feud (I assume Shane was going to be eliminating him from both)and then pay off in a Seth vs. Shane Mania match, where Shane would presumably outwrestle him for 15 minutes.
Just give up, you dork.
EDIT: Oh and he wanted the WWE title to be involved. You can fucking guarantee Shane was pitching for him to be WWE champion.
I bet Pritchard was well up for it too (until Vince said he wasn't and Pritchard 180'd), the shit cunt.
Last edited by Ian; 01-02-2022 at 06:22 PM.
There’s no shame in being out wrestled at WRESTLEMANIA by The Best in the World.
I was stunned when I saw that Shane wasn't in the Elimination Chamber match.
I'm not going to be happy now if Wrestlemania night 2 doesn't end with the glorious image of new world champ Shane being hoisted aloft by Pete Gas and Rodney.
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