Well this was an interesting adventure.
Skipped the preshow but saw the clips in the Rumble match of Charlotte destroying both girls and needing Liberty Belle to interfere twice to win. And, that's why I skipped the preshow. At least Ric Flair's weirdly able to pull this off, idk it just makes me laugh.
Mcintyre and Goldberg... okay, confession, I'm actually a fan of Oldberg, ha. If they want to throw a Goldberg squash in a PPV card and let him kill The Miz or somebody I'd want to watch it that much more, but I don't care about him in a title match. Sometimes (vs Brock) his finisher spam sprints are really fun, this wasn't one of those. It was just choppy and Drew leaning so far down to hit that random Spear was good. At least he retained. Next
After she really impressed me at TLC, Carmella's performance had a step back here. Her and Sasha had a pretty good match here, but not much to add outside of DON'T KILL YOURSELF
Women's rumble... During the first 25 entrants, all I could say is wow. They've stockpiled SO MUCH TALENT here. There's awesome athletes/wrestlers like Bayley, Naomi, Bianca. So many improving talents like Mandy and Lacey. Everyone who entered I was either happy to see or they used well. Popped for Victoria and Rhea especially. Even just as someone who watches strictly PPV's the 24/7 thing was fun. I feel like it really started to fall apart in the end though, Nia's quick turn on Tamina, Nia's brawl with Shayna where they used camera cuts to avoid showing any strikes, Nia and Shayna just seeming like an awful team and total waste of Shayna, Lana seeming totally underconfident with everything she did, Alexa Bliss's awful gimmick (though Rhea slamming her was awesome), Natalya wasting #30, Charlotte Flair having to be superhuman... Still, when it came down to Rhea and Bianca it all became worth it. That exchange in the end was SO MUCH FUN and it had me on the edge of my seat, by the end I was jumping up and down. Bianca vs Sasha at Mania, sign me up, and the promo afterwards was really emotional. Fun stuff here, and also Nia Jax.
My feed cut out during Reigns vs Owens but this feud has been awesome at getting Owens over in defeat as this desperate scrappy dad. More stuff like this, WWE, please.
As for the men's royal rumble... it was a mixed bag. There were a lot of guys from the ex-NXT graveyard I was kinda sad to see here, as half the match I just want to see in AEW/NJPW. Wasted re-signings like Hardy and Morrison. But the match was still fun all things considered. A few guys like Lashley and Big E looked absolutely dominant here. The Omos thing was trash. Christian's return was AWESOME, and I didn't recognize half the theme music in the match - seriously wtf was that with Rollins - and Bryan had some awesome exchanges with guys amongst the standard punch/kick stuff. Thought it was a Bryan/Sheamus or bust year, but when we got down to the final 4 (5) and both of those were gone, my head was kinda swimming with ideas about matches. Rollins vs Reigns is long overdue but both heels. Strowman's unlikely but revisiting that feud is at least fun. Edge and Drew could be fun since Orton's stuck dealing with Bray Wyatt's carnival of suckage and Christian...sorry bro lol. Edge winning... made it exciting at least? And he's still a full-timer and seems like he can still go. I almost want to dislike this more than I do because it's another guy from the late 90's in a big spot, but... No matter which guy he faces it's a fresh matchup? Still I wonder who the other title's challenger would be, and how that would be a better use of the Rumble. Shoulda been Bryan.
8/10 says I.
