I'm not sure about Strowman winning the battle royal, as much like with Rusev he's just being built up for this Fastlane match. We'll see but I can see another power spot Cesaro win-tease, then Sheamus throwing him out to do the breakup. Or something like that, besides Strowman winning. Hell that battle royal's never went as predicted, has it??
Anyway, I replied to the Controversial Opinion thread with this piece, and figured it belonged here instead...
The sad part of PartTimerMania over here is that, in theory, it's being booked correctly.
I'm totally fine with them USING the part-timers, but on a show where the current talent that desperately need the spotlight don't wind up totally overshadowed. Don't do it like WM32 and have the entire male roster - sans Baron Corbin - look like shit.
This is set up perfectly for that. You have Brock vs Goldberg to make posters, draw eyeballs, get Sportscenter plugs and Twitter buzz... and also Rollins and Reigns beating up Undertaker and HHH.
That's great if Rollins is healthy + their plans to be the top face. It's a great time and a good story to get him over to that level, and this feud has given him an edge to him for two weeks before Kneegate happened...
...But it all feels so blah despite that. Part of it's the injury, part of it is just... Roman Reigns, but... Many of us watched Raw and Smackdown throughout 2016 and got invested in the characters, we've watched many of these guys go through some real growth and development through NXT up to the main roster, many of us hardcores feel like a mom watching her kids... And at the Rumble to see so many of the guys we've been watching get thrown out like a sack of garbage because the only people who mattered were Goldberg/Lesnar/Taker/Roman and Strowman to a lesser degree.
Like, take Kevin Owens. A guy who had ALL the hype in the world coming in, everyone knew he was simply too good to fail (if Vince could see past his look), he comes in and day 1 he's destroying his best friend in a viscious beating after the happiest moment of his life all the way to beating Cena and being handed a title and... you know the story. We've all been kinda frustrated with yet another WWE heel title reign where the champ is a worthless impotent loser (except this time it's too entertaining to boo) but now, 2 weeks before Fast Lane, they finally try with KO to make him a serious threat. Owens destroys Jericho in a sadistic assault, picks the bones of Zayn after Joe lays him out, has that light dimmed as he's coming across as this cold, heartless, ruthless person and everyone's so happy to see Kevin Owens FINALLY used correctly after all this time... just so he can get fed to Goldberg at Fast Lane.
It's not that it's even "bad booking"... it just feels like ever since I started watching his WWE career start in December 2014, it's all been a waste my time following him and becoming a fan who loves to hate Kevin Owens, if all this time it was just for Oldberg to kill him and back to the midcard with ya. :downer:
4: