On Sunday. Interesting them putting the title on the line and having Reigns enter #1. Wouldn't mind hearing thoughts or predictions from @Herr Onceared @Fabio or @Rosco. @ILD is a big royal rumble fan too.
Royal Rumble
- Thread starter Aidan O' Neill
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Might watch it tomorrow with the boy. Conflicts with the second half of the NFC championship though.
Haven't watched a Rumble in a fair few years now.
Haven't watched a Rumble in a fair few years now.
I won't be watching but I imagine Triple H is the odds on favorite to take it.
Its just not the same as when Bobby the Brain and Guerrilla Monsoon were calling the Rumble.
Its just not the same as when Bobby the Brain and Guerrilla Monsoon were calling the Rumble.
Had an offer for a free month on the WWE network so thiught it'd be rude not to use it and watch the Rumble.
My money's on Reigns surviving right 'til the end only to be screwed by a surprise entrant in HHH at number 30.
Rumble's always interesting for the surprise/nostalgia entrants too.
My money's on Reigns surviving right 'til the end only to be screwed by a surprise entrant in HHH at number 30.
Rumble's always interesting for the surprise/nostalgia entrants too.
Does Bob Backlund still hold the record for longest time in the rumble? I watched that one live.
Ill be watching. I think the script for Reigns to win is too obvious given the odds and also the build to this.
I see the title changing hands and then Reigns potentially coming back at Wrestlemania.
I dont think there is too much play in having another year of insurmountable odds. I really liked the build to him winning the title and the writers did a really good job of finally getting him over with the crowd. It has been quite the resurrection given the absolute hatred he took a year ago when he won the rumble and was seen as the guy on a one way track to the top.
Its actually a really tricky situation for them with Cena out, Rollins out, Bryan out and Orton out they really dont have much other than Lesnar in the way of absolute top teir talent to justify holding the belt thats not to say they wont take it off him and I think spinning the expected win will have a good impact but if that turns into another year of him being screwed I will be really disappointed. Fact is he is probably the best all round talent right now aside from the criminally undersold Bray Wyatt.
Best guess he loses nobly near the end of the fight, or he gets screwed early and comes back in to exact revenge.
Its a weird one with no obvious play apart from overcoming the odds and winning but I dont see the legs in that. Maybe a returnee? Orton?
I see the title changing hands and then Reigns potentially coming back at Wrestlemania.
I dont think there is too much play in having another year of insurmountable odds. I really liked the build to him winning the title and the writers did a really good job of finally getting him over with the crowd. It has been quite the resurrection given the absolute hatred he took a year ago when he won the rumble and was seen as the guy on a one way track to the top.
Its actually a really tricky situation for them with Cena out, Rollins out, Bryan out and Orton out they really dont have much other than Lesnar in the way of absolute top teir talent to justify holding the belt thats not to say they wont take it off him and I think spinning the expected win will have a good impact but if that turns into another year of him being screwed I will be really disappointed. Fact is he is probably the best all round talent right now aside from the criminally undersold Bray Wyatt.
Best guess he loses nobly near the end of the fight, or he gets screwed early and comes back in to exact revenge.
Its a weird one with no obvious play apart from overcoming the odds and winning but I dont see the legs in that. Maybe a returnee? Orton?
He should be amongst the elite already. They have put him into these stupid fueds with Taker, Ambrose, Jericho etc or lumbered him back with the family.
He should be exactly like the undertaker was 20 years ago.
If they dont do something soon if I was him id fuck off out of it.
What the fuck was he doing as part of the screw reigns over party last weekend. Hes A grade talent.
Theres actually a few like that who I think are being stiffled. Probably the worst of which is Barratt who is fucking boss and treated like an also ran. Ditto Ziggler and to a lesser extent Ambrose, Del Rio and Rusev.
They need to stop focusing on who sells the most tshirts and start pushing the talent. It was their biggest mistake in the 00s with Cena and its still happening now.
He should be exactly like the undertaker was 20 years ago.
If they dont do something soon if I was him id fuck off out of it.
What the fuck was he doing as part of the screw reigns over party last weekend. Hes A grade talent.
Theres actually a few like that who I think are being stiffled. Probably the worst of which is Barratt who is fucking boss and treated like an also ran. Ditto Ziggler and to a lesser extent Ambrose, Del Rio and Rusev.
They need to stop focusing on who sells the most tshirts and start pushing the talent. It was their biggest mistake in the 00s with Cena and its still happening now.
I used to think this was real, and was a big fan as a kid. I would argue this guy is smart, that guy is strong but dumb etc....
When i learned it was all scripted, i realized how i have been had and was never able to watch it after that.
When i learned it was all scripted, i realized how i have been had and was never able to watch it after that.
There's loads that need the push, but it seems they're happy with resting on the ones that make the money, which makes sense from a business point if view, but it's so short termist
All the ones you've mentioned plus cesaro deserve much higher recognition. It's at the stage where nxt is consistently better than the main roster.
I hope Samoa Joe comes back and annihilates the rumble
It speaks volumes that fucking Triple H is the favourite with the betting companies. They need to make new stars and write better storylines for them. I really like Cesaro. It wouldn't be hard to give him a push based around his ridiculous strength. Barrett has been booked ridiculously over the years and he's a top talent. Bray Wyatt has lost most of his feuds which is fucking stupid for his character.
I watch bits and pieces of raw and smackdown but nxt seems to be very a lot more consistent. I hope Samoa Joe is in the rumble or maybe Finn Balor. Rumours that aj styles could debut too. That'd be awesome.
Yeah, it would be difficult to see what they'd do with Balor initially at least.
Glad I didn't stay up for that.
Called that one. Guess it wasnt too surprising.
Just seemed they were building that way and as they'd kept HHH off TV for a month it was likely he'd be back...a little too predictable really.
As none of HHH, Vince or Stephanie will allow Reigns a rematch (or will grant one and screw him again) I wouldn't be surprised to see one of Shane or Linda McMahon return and force the match to take place at the request of the "Board of Directors" at Wrestlemania with a guest referee (possibly Austin) to keep everything fair.
Apart from that though I don't think it was too bad a Rumble match. AJ got a great reaction and stayed in a while but think they should've swopped his role with Jericho's. For a 48 year old part timer i think he was afforded far too much time when that could've been utilised by a newer/more up and coming person
It was a pretty good match overall. Agree with you about Jericho - although it was good to see him given a strong role, it didn't seem to serve any longterm purpose.
Was good to see a clean finish to the match as well.
Was good to see a clean finish to the match as well.
TBH I think that's been their problem for a long time and doesn't seem likely to be changing anytime soon
I saw bits and pieces today. I think they made jericho look strong so he can put someone (possibly ambrose) over at wrestlemania, but he was in there a very long time. Decent amount for styles. I really hope they do something with him. He's awesome. I read all his t-shirts sold out already so that might help.
I used to love pro wrestling when I was younger. When I grew up I kinda grew out of it. Now my young son watches it, so I see a lot of it again, and yeah, I do like watching it again. Didn't see the Rumble, but that's a fucking farce of a result, and the script was pretty shit too, ie keeping Reigns in until the end. Has it always been this badly scripted? Or is it just a case of when you become older and wiser you see it for what it really is?
It's probably a bit of both. The way Hulk Hogan was booked in the 80's and early 90's wouldn't work these days, but they were often on the ball in the late 90's and early 00's. They made the guys at the bottom and middle of the card relevant and important (which they are doing a bit lately, but haven't done well in years) and they went with crowd sentiment with regard to pushes. It looks like they're looking for their next Hogan or Cena, while forgetting that their best time was between those eras where they did admittedly have a huge star in Stone Cold Steve Austin, but also had a ridiculous amount of well established stars that were a credible threat to him.
The attitude era was the perfect example of how you 'Do' wrestling.
You had Stone Cold, Mankind, Kurt Angle, Triple H, The Rock, Undertaker all vying in and around the title, you had amazing factions like DX, The brood, the ministry, you had your wildcards like Kane and the Big Show and then you had strong mid tier talent like Shamrock, Val Venis, Al Snow, Hardcore Holly, Eddie Guerrero, Benoit, Chris Jericho, and it that wasnt enough you had a brilliant tag division with Edge and Christian, The new age outlaws, The dudleys, the Hardys, APA.
The annoying thing is that the talent is as good if not better now its just missmanaged so badly.
Its been the roman reigns show for so long its become cliche.
It needs a rethink.
Reigns should have turned heel long ago. Fastlane was pretty dire.
Wrestlemania has a lot of work to do.
It's crazy that they are relying on triple h as champion when he wrestles on average about twice a year. He's not a marquee wrestler at the level of the real top guys either. Reigns is going to get booed the fuck out of the building at wrestlemania. Shane O'Mac vs the Undertaker is a weird one too.
Managing that list of wrestlers is a bit like managing Barcelona. It was always going to be ridiculously good.
But looking back, it's completely the opposite of how you do wrestling. They turned it into a soap opera, and then you are under constant pressure to keep inventing bigger and better storylines. Easy enough when you have The Rock delivering the lines. Now, not so much. Thanks to their lack of foresight, it's impossible to go back to the old simple to write storylines of two people actually trying to hurt each other. They've completely lost that market share to UFC. Once they decided to become a soap opera instead, that can't be undone. It was a bloody good soap when it lasted, but unless the script is being performed by Barcelona, it's no longer going to be remotely interesting. The attitude era killed their business model.
One of the best examples of how attitude era worked was two very undercard guys Jesse James and Billy Gunn were teamed up and told forget your crap gimmicks and go out their and be dickheads and they got themselves over huge as heels and eventually faces. That kind of thing doesn't happen now.
It's written by soap opera writers now who are afraid to challenge Vince on anything. They also don't build non main-event matches either. Ziggler and Owens have faced each other several times in the last two months on raw and smackdown. Why is their match on ppv anyway special then? I don't care what anyone says they originally didn't plan the Daniel Bryan title win two years until the fans repeatedly pissed all over Batista. It was the easiest story ever to write.
It's written by soap opera writers now who are afraid to challenge Vince on anything. They also don't build non main-event matches either. Ziggler and Owens have faced each other several times in the last two months on raw and smackdown. Why is their match on ppv anyway special then? I don't care what anyone says they originally didn't plan the Daniel Bryan title win two years until the fans repeatedly pissed all over Batista. It was the easiest story ever to write.
