(Note: if you are just wondering what I think about Reigns winning then feel free to skim down to the end where it’ll be headlined. I was going to do an individual blog on it but decided against it).
Also, I’d like to preface this by saying I was really hyped for the Rumble, it’s my second favourite PPV of the year (WrestleMania being the first of course) and I was fully up for it with my pack of 30 mini chocolate doughnuts. For anyone wondering the doughnuts get a 5/5 from me and it’s not even the best thing that happened this night. We’ll get to that later.
The New Day (Big E & Kofi Kingston) v Cesaro and Tyson Kidd (***1/2)
This was initially meant to be a 6 way elimination match with Adam Rose and Xavier Woods but Woods appears to have been injured so they changed it out for a regular tag. Usually I don’t watch the pre-show but Cesaro and Kidd, to me, are the best tag team going right now so I made it a point to tune in on the Network. Just before I start I’m definitely going to overhype this because I thought it was an excellent way to start off the show. There was some good spots with Cesaro’s uppercuts and seeing Tyson Kidd get the pin and having the team go over only made it that much sweeter. Considering they haven’t been a team for long on TV, Kidd and Cesaro have got a range of tag team moves that blend both of their styles together which really makes watching them more exciting. More than that, Kofi and Big E can really work and they also have some good team moves that compliment both members of the team. I think this is my favourite pairing from the New Day and all in all I gave this a 3 and a half star match. Saying that though I give the T-Shirts that Cesaro and Kidd wore to the ring 5 stars with the slogan "Brass Ring Club" on.
The Ascension v The New Age Outlaws (***)
This was a hell of a lot better than it could have been. Billy Gunn looked in phenomenal shape for his age and this match was quite good. The way The Ascension kept Billy in the corner and worked on him made them look even stronger. I’ve been seeing some people argue that this match should have been a squash and that The Ascension should have ran through them. I don’t really have much of an opinion on it because at the moment I have very little interest in The Ascension and seeing NAO do there stuff was fun so I think to get fans more invested in the match it needed to be longer. Anyway, this was a good match for what it was and when this was announced I definitely wasn’t looking forward to it so all in all I give it a 3 stars.
The Uso’s v The Miz & Mizdow (****)
This is a match we’ve seen, what seems to be over one hundred times but this was brilliant. It really is a testament to all four of the competitors that they can have this match so many times and always bring something new to the table. Prior, I was so sure that The Uso’s were going to win but several spots throughout the match made think that Miz and Mizdow had acquired the Tag Titles again. I think there was 2 times that the Skull Crushing Finale was kicked out of which I saw some people get mad at as it was ‘WWE weakening finishers’, but, I’ve always hated that as a finisher so I thought it was fair game. Overall, this was definitely another surprise from the undercard and another great tag match. I thought it was really enjoyable and even had a good story with Miz wrestling 90% of the match and Mizdow getting a super pop when he started to work, even more so when he got a near fall towards the end of the match. 4 out of 5 stars.
Nikki & Brie Bella v Paige and Natalya (N/A)
So, with this being a blog I believe honesty is the best policy and I went to the toilet in this match. What I was surprised at was that by the time I was finished and got back it was still going though. People who pay attention to my twitter, @curbstxmp, will know that I’m not a big Natalya fan, despite this, I do think she’s a good wrestler although overrated. However, particularly on the bits I saw she did a great job at selling the beatdown she suffered during the match. The finish came as as a surprise because Nikki won with a stiff looking forearm. I imagine this was Natalya’s idea but that’s just a guess, I suppose Nikki could have been really inspired by Wrestle Kingdom 9.
Brock Lesnar v John Cena v Seth Rollins (*****)
If you’re sitting there right now thinking “I didn’t like this match that much” then I truly and whole heartedly suggest that you shouldn’t watch wrestling anymore. This was Match of the Year candidate if I ever saw one and obviously it’s all opinion but I think this might be the best Triple Threat match I’ve ever seen. Don’t get me wrong, WM20 and Vengeance 2002 are both phenomenal but I think this is just as good, if not better. To start with, the storytelling in the match was exceptional. Seth pretty much immediately scatters from the ring playing into his heel role of being scared of Brock and as expected, Brock was booked to be an absolute monster. I saw a few complaints about Brock being surrounded by medics (in kayfabe) and how that goes against his character but I totally disagree. First of all, everybody’s human, even Brock so within the story of the match it’s took 3 AA’s, 1 curbstomp, 1 spear through the barricade AND an elbow through the announce table which would have made Shane O’Mac proud. Baring in mind that most people throughout the last 12 years have succumbed to just 1 AA, I think Brock was made to look pretty strong. Also, up to this point Brock was on fire and was the focus of the match, as he should be because of him being the biggest threat. Brock is one of the best wrestlers in the world currently because everything this guy does fits with his character and is believable, you would literally have to go back to WrestleMania 20 to find the last bad match he’s had and I know he doesn’t wrestle often but my point still stands. Once Brock was took out of the match for a while we saw Seth and Cena go back and forth for near falls and even though we’ve seen them face off fifty times in the last few months it doesn’t matter because the chemistry these two have is phenomenal. 
What I loved about this match was that the focus of it was on Seth and Brock. Cena played his usual golden babyface role but other than spearing Lesnar through the barricade. However, he was involved in arguably the most impressive spot of the night. After the near falls between Seth and Cena, Cena kicked out of the curbstomp and Seth looked stunned before looking at the turnbuckle. At this point, having seen some of his work as Tyler Black, I had a feeling he was going for it but it was still in the back of my head that WWE wouldn’t let him. Anyway, Seth climbed to the top and hit the Phoenix Splash on Cena which got a mad pop and some WWE-only fans were saying on Twitter that they had never seen anything like it. Perhaps, what makes it more phenomenal is that Seth isn’t that small of a guy and he’s ripped too which makes it look even more impressive. To me, this was the most impressive match of the night but the way it was booked was even better. With the PPV being set in Philadelphia, the fans as expected were chanting for Lesnar and Seth and booing Cena. That being said, Lesnar played the heel role perfectly here and jumped into the ring and german suplexed Seth as soon as he connected with the Phoenix Splash giving the crowd no time to rest.
The exchange continued from there and it was just phenomenal. If you haven’t seen this match then you really need to see it. In my opinion, it was perfectly booked with the perfect competitors. This was better than Tanahashi and Okada and in my opinion on par with Nakamura and Ibushi from WK9 which most are regarding as 2 Match of the Year candidates. WATCH THIS MATCH 5 out of 5 stars.
Just for reference sake I think it’d be good to point out that up to this point I was thinking the PPV was a 7.5/10. However that drastically changed.
When it Reigns it Pours - The Royal Rumble Match (*3/4)
So, from one of the best booked matches I’ve seen recently to probably the worst booked match I’ve seen in a LONG time. I’m not going to go through the Rumble one-by-one of who got eliminated I’m just going to give you my thoughts on what this disaster was. Prior to making my points I want to point out that I actually don’t dislike Reigns, I think he definitely has potential and for the most part I quite like him. I think it’s only fair to mention the things I did like about the match and I’ll try and leave it with a positive note at the end at what could potentially happen in the future. I’ll run through the positives first because they are few and far between in this match.
First great surprise of the night was Bubba Ray Dudley returning which was great to see, especially because they used R-Truth as a makeshift D-Von hitting the “WHAZZZAAAAPPPP” and then hitting the 3D. I hope that WWE will sign him to a permanent deal because this guy could bring something to the company which at the minute is lacking heels severely. Another great positive of the night for me was the run that Bray Wyatt had although this leads to a negative we’ll get into soon. He was the longest staying member of the Rumble with 40 minutes and he even had time to cut a promo in the ring which made this guy look dominant. With that, brought along a spot with The Boogeyman which again was really fun as, like most, I was a big mark for The Boogeyman when I was younger. Another thing that was great to see was DDP coming out and hitting Diamond Cutter after Diamond Cutter and that’s not a bad thing, that’s a good thing.
Okay, so that’s the positives out the way. The real trouble with this hit when Daniel Bryan was eliminated from the match after 10 minutes which killed the crowd dead. To be fair, they gave his elimination to Bray who definitely needed the heat but all in all in resulted to the fans beginning to just ruin the rest of the match and perhaps, because of the ending, justifiably. The idea behind this from WWE was to obviously have Bryan go out earlier in the match in the hope that the crowd would have moved on by the end. I think this idea is ridiculous, it was obvious to everyone that the crowd was going to be dead and rebelling as soon as he was eliminated and that’s what happened. What I really don’t understand is that, if WWE didn’t want to put him over and knowing what happened last year then, why bring him back for the Rumble at all? Why not base the main event of Fast Lane around Daniel Bryan’s first match back? Anyway, there’s definitely an argument that would say if Bryan wasn’t in the Rumble it still would have been terrible.
Although this was definitely the start of the downfall, to me, the true negative in the whole thing was the overuse of Kane and Big Show and having them eliminate Ziggler, Bray and Ryback as if they were nothing. If Kane and Big Show hadn’t been in the company for over 15 years then maybe this would be okay to build heel heat but Kane seems to have X-Pac heat as nobody likes to see him and putting Big Show over all of these guys does nothing. Especially, having these in the final 5 as if they are the 2 biggest heels in the company other than Brock and Seth is horrible. What was even worse of the booking was that Bray stopped in for all of that time only to get KO’d by Big Show and tossed over the ropes like he didn’t matter. How can you build stars when you continuously place Big Show and Kane in top positions on the card? What irks me even more is how little Kane has done since Team Hell No split up. You can argue that he was involved in the main event last year but it’s well documented that the feud between him and Bryan for the World Title is one of the worst in recent memory. There was no need for Kane to be anywhere near the final 5, not even in storyline, and if they wanted him to break HBK’s record then they should have had him come out earlier and eliminate Fandango or Truth or Kofi. Big Show I can understand being in the final 5 because he’s had this ongoing presence in the build up to the Rumble but it just shows how poor the booking is when you’re still pushing this guy as a main heel on your roster.
I’ve just touched on it but the problem I had with booking was mostly because it was so convoluted. For instance, they have Dolph Ziggler, who is known for being able to work at fast paces for a long time, get eliminated 2 minutes into entering the match despite having a storyline build up to the show. For a second as he was walking to the ring I thought this is what the swerve was going to be and that Dolph was going to overcome odds and win but sadly not. Ziggler is the antithesis of WWE missing the concept of the story that they’d built. Ziggler and Ryback both had a story going into the match that they were returning from being fired and they did nothing with it. Another of WWE’s shortcomings in this match.This is one of the reasons that I think Roman Reigns winning felt even more forced because to contrast Ziggler, Bryan and Ryback, he didn’t have a story. Reigns’ story going into the Rumble was that he’d feuded with Big Show and the only noteworthy thing he’d said about the Rumble was when he returned and said he was going to enter. I just think that WWE should be going what the better story is and I think we can all agree that a guy who has been out injured for 9 months in Daniel Bryan or someone who was Kayfabe fired in Dolph Ziggler is a better story than what Roman Reigns’ run up to the Rumble had to offer.
Another thing that annoyed me was their usage of The Rock. It was almost patronising the way they used The Rock to try and suddenly get Reigns over and get them cheering. I’m thankful that it didn’t work because I feel like that isn’t the way that someone should get over. I’m a big fan of The Rock as well so it was good to see him but for WWE to think that it would make the crowd suddenly change their reaction to Reigns really appeared naive. However, them bringing in The Rock symbolises that they must have known that the reaction to Reigns wasn’t going to be stellar to say the least.
Other than that I think the most annoying thing about the result of the match is that Roman Reigns isn’t even the most over babyface. This isn’t the ‘IWC’ acting out against WWE and it can be argued that there is 3 babyfaces ahead of him in terms of who is more over. First, you’ve got Daniel Bryan which is probably the most over guy on the show. You’ve then got Cena which is irrelevant because he shouldn’t be winning a Royal Rumble and he competed in the title match. Then you have Dolph Ziggler who, when Bryan was away, was easily the number 2 face in the company. On top of this, there is the fact that Reigns’ promo ability still lacks and his ability in the ring leaves room for improvement although I do think he has the ability to have a good match. I just think going into WrestleMania which is meant to be your biggest show of the year it should be the biggest heel against the biggest babyface which would mean Daniel Bryan facing Brock Lesnar. The main criticism of Reigns winning is of course it supports the idea that WWE doesn’t listen to their fan base and that is the problem. The key difference between last year and this year is that last year the fans ONLY wanted Daniel Bryan to win the Rumble and anyone else would have suffered the same fate as Batista but this year the fan mentality seemed to be anyone BUT Reigns. Therefore, this isn’t a case of people wanting their favourite wrestler to win the Rumble.
The guy is obviously talented, that is clear, for his size he is very athletic but there was just people ahead of him who were more deserving. Just to be clear I think his booking has made this more annoying for the fans too, I think that WWE trying to make him into the next Cena is ridiculous, the guy looks and feels like he should be portrayed as a badass and they’re attempting the opposite with the fairy tale and looney tunes promos. Moreover, throughout wrestling history it’s always someone who goes against the grain and the people who try to continue seem to fail. They attempted a similar thing with Sheamus’ face run not too long ago which didn’t go anywhere. Similarly, Lex Luger was the continuation of Hulk Hogan and he never got to the heights that was predicted. If you look at the stars of years past, you’ve got Stone Cold and Rock who had the opposite characteristics to Bret Hart who had the opposite traits to Hogan. Even John Cena went against the grain of The Rock and Stone Cold through the personality. My point here is that if you keep trying to create a replacement for Cena it isn’t going to work. Cena sells a lot of t-shirts yes, but that doesn’t mean that Cena 2.0 will and the fans seem to be calling for a newer personality to take reign of the company (no pun intended). Regardless of what you think about Reigns, whether you like him or not, the fact of the matter is, is this guy is a babyface and at the end of one of the biggest PPVs of the year, he was booed out of the building. The blame shouldn’t be on Reigns here, he is the one who has been put into this position and the blame should be on WWE.
Leaving with a Positive note
I thought here I’d just leave with a positive note of what could happen. If Reigns goes onto WrestleMania to face Lesnar in a singles match we can only assume he will win. This could be a rocky road to WrestleMania in the build up but enough people are into Lesnar that it’ll get hyped properly and especially with Heyman’s influence. Anyway, you could turn Lesnar face and just go for a face v face match and then have Rollins cash-in on the night after and win the belt. This way you still elevate Rollins into that number 1 heel position that’ll be left if Lesnar doesn’t re-sign with WWE while also circling back to The Shield feud. If booked properly they could use the cash-in to build the feud until Summerslam and if done right WWE could incorporate Ambrose into the feud and finally have that triple threat match between all the members of The Shield. If this is the way they’re going then that’s some good long term booking, however, knowing what WWE are like, I’d bet against it but there is always the optimistic view.
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