Of all the pay-per-view events of the year, the Royal Rumble is still my favorite. More than Wrestlemania, and definitely more than Summer Slam, Survivor Series and all of the other tier-2 shows that permeate the rest of the calendar throughout the year. It’s one of the only shows with gimmick event(s) that haven’t been mutated or removed outright too much, like Survivor Series, which does basically one elimination match per gender a year, as opposed to the old days where every single match was a 4 vs. 4 elimination match.
In fact, the Royal Rumble has only gotten better in time, mostly on account of the fact that they do a women’s Rumble as well, which means fans get two Royal Rumbles on the same night. So needless to say, I was looking forward to this year’s Rumble, as I do just about every other year, because it’s the one show of the year where a fun gimmick event still happens, and the predictability of storylines can actually take a little bit of a backseat to some highly-improvised battle royal-ing.
At first, I was a little disappointed that the women’s tag team championship match was denigrated to the pre-show that few people actually watch, but from the standpoint that three of the competitors in the match would be pulling double-duty and showing up in the women’s rumble later that night, it makes sense to have them go early, so they can recoup and rest before coming out again later on. As much as I don’t particularly care for Baszler and Jax as champions, it too also makes sense to put the belts on them, because it sticks them in hold, and out of any potentially meaningful singles storylines, although that’s not that fair to Baszler, whom I think has a lot of potential to be untapped, but I’m very much lukewarm on Jax. Plus, it frees Charlotte up to do bigger and badder things, although she has to get through this cringey storyline with Lacey Evans kayfabe-banging Ric Flair first.
Good on the show for having Goldberg vs. Drew McIntyre start the official show off. As much as fans are perplexed and disgusted with Goldberg’s frequent cameos, I have to imagine that the talent probably loves working programs with him. When they get to their inevitable matches, they’re basically guaranteed a 4-minute spot-fest, a quick decision, and they can be out the door and asleep in their own beds by 10:30, which is ultimately what a lot of the more family-oriented performers really want.
I feel kind of bad for Kevin Owens, because I’m really high on him, but he was undoubtedly used as a stop-gap feud for Roman Reigns, to help hold him over until Wrestlemania. But I think there was no doubt that he was going to go over, because as much as I like him, I can’t possibly see any ways Creative would have anything for him for Wrestlemania, while Reigns is still doing the lord’s work as the Head of the Table, and there’s still so much more potential to be tapped into before taking the strap off him. Frankly, I could see him as champion for a whole other year if he keeps this persona going.
Most importantly though, were the men’s and women’s rumbles. As I’ve stated lately, I’ve often times been way more interested in anything involving the women, and frankly, I had no real idea what was going to happen with the women’s rumble. The obvious favorite was probably Charlotte, although one of my friends suspected a returning Becky Lynch, but my prediction was the possessed Alexa Bliss, so she could then go onto a program with likely, Asuka at Wrestlemania, and be paired up with a returning Fiend to rise to some power couple storyline or something.
And as high as I am on Bianca Belair, I didn’t think she was quite ready to get the rub, and win the Royal Rumble. Don’t get me wrong, I’m fine with the outcome, but when it narrowed down to Belair and Rhea Ripley, I figured Ripley was going to get the win, en route to a demotion to the main roster, as well as to reward her for her stalwart work in NXT.
I’m a big fan of Belair, but in all honesty, I’m dubious to whether or not it’s the right time to push her to the main event scene already. As freakishly athletic as she is, I feel that she’s still green as baby shit on the mic, and I have a hard time believing she’ll be able to carry her end on the mic, leading up to Wrestlemania, where she’ll very likely go after Sasha Banks, in what will undoubtedly be a potential show-stealer. But with no mic skills, I don’t think she’d be Women’s champion material, and she could just continue on her journey as a runner-up, as she did all through NXT.
Regardless, as dubious to a Belair push as I am, I’m dumbfounded by the decision to have Edge win the men’s rumble. I wouldn’t have thought for a second that Edge was going to win, especially since he was literally entered a week prior to the rumble. I feel like this is one of those instances where the WWE is just continuing on his intended push from a year prior, much as they are going to hold Wrestlemania at Raymond James as intended a year ago, and are just conveniently re-writing the narrative to pick up from where it left off a year ago.
But yeah, Edge winning the Rumble. I will give credit to that that was unpredicted, as there were a litany of guys I would’ve figured would win the Rumble before him. I had Daniel Bryan winning it, because the program that he could have had with Roman Reigns, would have been able to re-build the underdog Bryan storyline all over again, all while Reigns would be able to gaslight and spew bullshit about respect and family for months on end in the process. And as much as I dislike the guy, Randy Orton would’ve been a good pick, just so he could muddy up the history books as another guy to win three rumbles along with Stone Cold Steve Austin, and the booking did a good job of making it look like that might happen before Edge threw him over. And a returning Seth Rollins seemed like a good pick as well, since he’s one of the best workers in the company, and it would be best for business to insert one of those guys into the World title picture, against his former Shield brother.
Whatever though, the 2021 Rumble wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t the worst either. The cards have been put in place for the road to Wrestlemania, and it’s up to Creative to shuffle the rest of the deck up to make it entertaining, although I’m sure it’ll come with its own litanies of head-scratchers.
