WWE Royal Rumble 2018

WWE Royal Rumble 2018

Philadelphia, PA - January 2018

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into the show, Brock Lesnar held the Universal Championship, AJ Styles was the WWE Champion, the Miz was Intercontinental Champion, and the US Championship was held by Bobby Roode. The RAW Tag Team Champions were Jason Jordan and Seth Rollins, while SmackDown's Tag Champs were the Usos. Alexa Bliss held the RAW Women's Championship and Charlotte holds the gold for SmackDown. With Enzo Amore fired a week before the show, the Cruiserweight Championship was vacant.

COMMENTATORS: Byron Saxton, Corey Graves, Michael Cole (and more)

The 2018 Royal Rumble kicked off with AJ Styles defending his WWE Championship against the team of Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens. 2-on-1 handicap matches are not ultra-rare, but one would be hard-pressed to name 5 that really stand the test of time. Austin had one against Big Show and Flair that was kind of fun. Shawn Michaels teamed up with God once against the McMahons. Uh…? To their credit, these three really paid attention to the details in the layout as Zayn and Owens worked like two partners with the shared goal of wresting the championship away from Styles, who, in turn, wrestled like he was in survival mode, showing more caution than he typically would at times. There was a great Calf Crusher sequence on Owens and a really good into-the-post bump (something I’d usually call overused) by the big man as well. Not to be outdone on offense, Owens connected with a superkick that led to a Blue Thunder Bomb in a great 1-2 combo spot. The finish came rather unexpectedly and sudden – which is not a complaint as not every match needs to end with a traditional “finisher." Good not great match. I'm not sure where they go from here with Owens/Zayn as this loss really makes them seem incompetent and I'm not sure where else they can go in their feud with Shane McMahon. (3/5)

In a move almost as shocking as Styles’ roll-up win, the WWE opted to put on the SmackDown Tag Team Championship match next – The Usos defending against Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin. My notes for this one contain the word “bizarre” multiple times. Why was this match second? Surely the Philly crowd would’ve been more interested if this had gone first (as Gable has a relatively sizable “smart” fan base). The Usos cut a promo and while, against the New Day, they proved they could hold their own, the crowd just wanted to them to get on with it. Again, kinda bizarre choice to have the Usos, a team with a good-not-great rep for mic work, get stick time on the 2nd biggest show of the year. As the match progressed, Benjamin worked subtly heel while Jimmy Uso played the babyface-in-peril, suffering serious leg damage early and selling it from that point on. Oh, I forgot to mention that this match was 2-out-of-3 falls, a major miscalculation in that it made the match seem like it would automatically be long and drawn out (which it really wasn’t) before the bell even rang, basically irritating the crowd to the point of disinterest before the bell even rang. Every big spot was left room to breathe, but there didn’t seem to be much logic behind anything they did – for example, Gable going to the top rope for a moonsault to the floor seemingly just for the sake of it (and Jay Uso showing up to help catch him for even less reason). The first fall was good, but the second almost seemed like a legit botch by Gable (not getting into the ring on time to break up the pin). Awkward at times, no face/heel dynamic, no development of any character (even the Usos, who deserve a spotlight match but weren’t really spotlighted), indifferent crowd - this was a bad match with good athletics. (1.5/5)

The surprises continued with the next match – the Men’s Royal Rumble. I was not expecting this to go on third and I don’t think the crowd was either. Rather than write up all my thoughts in one paragraph, I’m gonna do the bullet thing…

- Great open with Finn Balor and the massively over Rusev. The “Rusev Day” chants were deafening on TV so I’m guessing they were even louder in person. I’m not sure what the plan is for Rusev going into Mania, but the WWE is letting money burn by not pushing the guy.

- Rhyno has never been “small,” but he looked extra wide here.

- I absolutely loved Baron Corbin’s post-elimination tantrum. I know most fans despise the guy and think he can’t work, but if you actually look back, he’s been involved in some good matches and moments over the past 18 months or so.

- Loved Elias’ entrance, loved the Heath Slater comedy, and liked Almas getting an opportunity to show what he could do. Didn’t particularly like the order of appearances as the entrances of guys like Nakamura, Wyatt, and even “Woken” Matt Hardy didn’t really “pop.”

- Slater eliminating Sheamus was one of the best pay-off moments in Rumble history. 

- Did you hear the boos for Apollo Crews? Was he not an RoH guy at one point? I think the fans just wanted some surprises by this point and Crews is just cold as hell.

- Tremendous Kofi Kingston spot leading to the elimination of Jinder. The New Day/Jinder & The Singhs program makes sense, but one has to wonder if they’ll ever actually elevate Kofi or Big E into the title picture.

- Aside from his spot-calling towards the end of the match, I thought John Cena was AWESOME. He knew the Philly crowd was going to be vehemently against him and he played into every jeer, eliminating crowd favorites like Elias and Helms with glee. 

- Adam Cole came in at #23 and looked at least 3-4 inches shorter than Seth Rollins, who, according to Wikipedia, he is the same height as. I don’t buy it. Cole is going to be hard to buy as a main eventer if even Finn Balor is towering over him.

- The RKO onto Almas was a good spot. 

- Titus O’Neill was in this match. Seems like a wasted spot when you consider the WWE didn’t bother to highlight a single 205 Live guy.

- MYSTERIO IS BACK! The biggest return of the match and one that I almost wish the WWE would’ve just pulled the trigger on as, if they had had him come in at 30, I think the crowd would’ve loved to see him come out the victor and challenge AJ Styles. Is Mysterio/Styles one of the bigger “dream matches” the WWE could run in 2018?

- Reigns came out at 28 and proceeded to be involved in two eliminations I really liked – The Miz’s and Seth Rollins’. Like Cena, Reigns was booed mercilessly.

- Ziggler came out at #30 to a nothing response. I think the crowd wanted Taker, but weren’t going to shit on the match when you still had Nakamura, Finn Balor, and Mysterio in the ring. Ziggler being gone for 6 weeks was just not long enough for anyone to care about his return.

- Great visual of the final 6 – the Old Guard of Cena, Orton, and Mysterio staring down the next generation of superstars (Nakamura, Balor, and Reigns).

- I liked Orton and Mysterio’s respective eliminations and the way things boiled down to Cena and Reigns battling each other and Balor and Nakamura revisiting their feud from Japan.

- The fans were clearly for Nakamura and his victory was well-earned, though I do wish they would’ve come up with something a little bit more fast-paced and brief to get Cena and Reigns out of the match. I’m not surprised the critical reception of this Rumble has been overwhelmingly positive despite only featuring one really huge surprise (Mysterio) because it feels like the first Rumble in years where the guy most fans wanted to win actually did win.

- Rating battle royals is difficult but I think I’ve figured out the scale I’m going to use. If you look at the 95’ Rumble as one of the genres low points and the 92’ edition as the best edition ever, you at least have some parameters to work with. This one definitely leaned closer to the latter. (3.5/5)

Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan defended the RAW Tag Team Championships against The Bar next. Like the SmackDown tag match, this one was just misplaced on the card and drew very little interest from the crowd. I liked the story of the match and Rollins was made to look tough, but that doesn’t change the fact that it was filler match and booking 3 out of 4 of the guys involved in this match to make appearances in the previous match (where both Rollins and Cesaro had extended minutes) made it impossible to care about. I also would’ve preferred this one shortened by 3-4 minutes to really play up how exhausted and spent Rollins should’ve been coming into this defense. (1.5/5)

The WWE Universal Championship was up next, Brock Lesnar defending the gold against Kane and Braun Strowman in a No DQ Triple Threat match. I didn’t know this was being fought under No DQ rules until the “plunda” showed up, which certainly helped what could’ve been a slow, plodding mess of a match. Incredibly stiff shots exchanged between Brock and Braun, with many witnesses believing Braun mistakenly caught Brock with a knee to the jaw and Brock stiffed him with a punch to the skull in retaliation. I’m not sure what was a “shoot” and what wasn’t, but the physicality definitely helped get the relatively lukewarm crowd into things. This match featured one of the worse miscues of the night by Michael Cole (overall, tonight’s commentary was atrocious all around, with Lawler making several bad calls during the Men’s Rumble and Stephanie adding absolutely nothing to the women’s edition). Great sequence that saw Lesnar hit two German Suplexes on Strowman only to get powerslammed through a table. In a cool callback to the SummerSlam multi-man, Lesnar buried Strowman under a table only for Strowman to climb out of the wreckage like an unkillable monster. The finish protected Braun as Kane (predictably) got pinned after doing very little in the match. I’d say this was funner and better than I expected it to be, but still far from a “must watch” and definitely a “lesser” match in the post-2012 run of Brock Lesnar. (3/5)

Main event time – the first-ever Women’s Royal Rumble match! Like I did for the men’s version, I’m just going to shoot out some bullets…

- Great idea to have Lynch and Sasha at #1 and #2. Loved Sasha’s Wonder Woman-inspired gear.

- Not so great idea to have Sara Logan and Maddy Rose coming in soon after. As we’d soon find out, this match was loaded with returning talents and having two relative unknowns come in to near-silence as Stephanie McMahon struggled to say anything important or relevant about them had me worried.

- Speaking of Steph, she has none of her father’s charisma as a commentator. Hearing her trying to call this match made me think she’s definitely a sports-entertainment fan more than a wrestling fan.

- I never thought I’d be so happy to see Lita in the ring. Lita was a tremendous character, but even in this limited role she was unable to perform even the basics as well as any of the recent NXT call-ups.

- Woah, Steph just name-checked the 9^th Wonder of the World, Chyna. This match really is full of surprises.

- Good spotlight moment for Kairi Sane.

- Tamina out in all white looking all wrong.

- Torrie Wilson showed up and got a huge response from the crowd.

- What is Liv Morgan? She almost came off like a white, blonde-haired Sasha Banks who borrowed Carmella’s pants.

- Molly Holly at 12! They should’ve had her come out in her Mighty Molly to play off of Hurricane Helms’ appearance in the earlier show, but whatever.

- Lana came out to a huge “Rusev Day” chant. Fans’ chanting for the husbands of certain performers has been criticized by some, but in this case, I thought it was kinda cool as Lana looked like she was really proud of how over he is.  

- Michelle McCool came out next (to an “Undertaker” chant). No Layla was a disappointment as I was a decent-sized LayCool fan for a while there.

- Anyone catch the way McCool “buried” 4 women in rapid succession? Delicious meta wrestling right there.

- VICKIE GUERRERO at 16! Her screaming was incredibly irritating, but at least she didn’t last too long.

- Kelly Kelly, Jacqueline, and Beth Phoenix would show up over the next few minutes. Now it makes sense why the men’s Rumble seemed to lack surprises. Really smart booking by the WWE as even acts like Kelly Kelly, who did nothing of merit during the brief time she was in the company, got nostalgia pops just for showing up.

- Loved Naomi’s ridiculous non-elimination (and then actual elimination soon after). I expect the women to have more Rumbles in the future so it will be cool to see Naomi in the “Kofi role” on the women’s side of things.

- Great moment between Phoenix and Nia Jax.

- I came around quite a bit on Nikki Bella over the years, praising her for some of her 2015/16 work on this very blog. Brie has always been the lesser worker, but it was nice to see them both on the show just for the reactions they got (a loud “John Cena Sucks” one and a brief “Yes!” chant that evaporated as soon as Brie and Nikki started raising their arms).

- Bayley came out at #29 to not much of a reaction. I’ve seen lots of people read too much into that. To me, the non-reaction had more to do with the anticipation for #30 more than it had to do Bayley not being particularly over.

- TRISH is #30! Great pay-off that the crowd flipped floor – possibly because it meant the likelihood of Stephanie McMahon inserting herself into the finish was now considerably less likely. I loved the interplay between Trish and former rival Mickie James, but I also popped for Trish and Sasha’s moment. Really cool.

- Loved Nikki Bella’s elimination of Brie Bella. I think Bryan Alvarez reported that this will be used as a storyline for Total Bellas, which seems really stupid as I thought these shows didn’t keep kayfabe, but whatever – Nikki is the worker of the pair and knows what it takes to win. Brie doesn’t.

- Though the result was never really in question, I did like the final two being Asuka, the obvious “future” of the RAW brand, and Nikki Bella, who, deserved or not, really represented the “end of the Divas Era” the way Guns n’ Roses represented the end of the “hair metal” days of the 80s (despite not really being “hair metal” at all, putting out Use Your Illusion in 91’, and then touring the world to massive crowds through 93’). The execution of the final elimination was imperfect (as most everything is when a Bella is involved) but it was another crowd-pleasing moment and, ultimately, that was the biggest takeaway from the result.

- The “wrestling” was sloppier, the eliminations often less fluid, and the fact that various women took noticeable “breaks” during the match all worked against it, but the novelty of this being the first women’s Rumble and the staggering number of awesome returns had me interested from roughly the 5^th spot all the way to the conclusion. (3.5/5)

- Buhbuhbuhbuh-boooonus moment with Ronda Rousey showing up to the familiar sound of Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation.” Rousey couldn’t keep herself from grinning ear to ear during the segment, but hey, the crowd was right there with her and its not that absurd for her to strut down the ring with a smile when you consider that cocky, arrogant ass-kicker was kind of her gimmick for a long, long time. Great moment with Asuka not shaking her hand too. (+1)

Royal Rumble 2018 featured a fair amount of risks, but remarkably, many of them paid off. They started the show with a guaranteed crowd-pleaser, essentially sacrificing both tag matches by putting them in the unenviable position of having to follow an AJ Styles match and the Men’s Rumble respectively. Fortunately, the overachieving Lesnar/Strowman/Kane match and the Women’s Rumble were able to lift the spirits of the crowd back up. I’ve read a number of reviews that called this the best Rumble show in years and I’d have to agree – proving that, as good as your title matches may be, the selling point of this show is its namesake match and that is the match that needs to send the crowd home happy for the show to be considered successful. I’m psyched for WrestleMania after tonight’s show, something I haven’t said for the past couple of years after a Rumble. With a Kwang Score of 2.83-out-of-5, it’d be a waste of your time to watch everything on this show, but if you skip the tag bouts (and maybe even the opener), you’ll be thoroughly entertained…

FINAL RATING – Watch It…With Remote in Hand