Royal Rumble 2016 Thoughts

I thought Royal Rumble 2016 was a good show, I enjoyed it a lot actually. The Last Man Standing Match for the Intercontinental Title was a great battle with some clever spots mixed in to the usual weapon based brawling. I liked Kevin Owens rolling to the outside after a Dirty Deeds on a chair as he was unable to climb to his feet. I also liked the finish as enough time had passed to make the viewer forget about the stacked tables on the outside. I wasn't so keen on Dean Ambrose's ability to jump to his feet (albeit on a nine count) after going through a table from the top rope and then suffering the Pop-up Powerbomb as I felt it weakened Owens' finisher. I also didn't like this match going on first as I feel it lessened it's importance and hurt the next couple of bouts as the crowd were on a comedown.

I feel like I've seen New Day versus The Usos a thousand times and this felt like just another match between them. Xavier Woods on the outside was more interesting than the action in the ring for the most part. There was a cool finish though as Big E caught Jimmy on his shoulder and finished him off with the Big Ending.

There was yet another US Title switch as Kalisto defeated Alberto Del Rio which begs the question why they felt the need to put the belt back on Del Rio 24 hours after Kalisto's original title win. The hot potato approach does nothing but devalue a championship. There was a great near fall for Kalisto towards the end but the match was only okay and was a bit clunky in places.

I felt Charlotte and Becky Lynch had a good wrestling. I liked the no nonsense punch counter to the Figure 8 but the finish involving Ric Flair was a bit daft. Sasha Bank's post match angle with Charlotte went down a storm with the live crowd. Hopefully they'll build this towards Wrestlemania and not throw it away at Fast Lane.

The Royal Rumble match was really entertaining but there's something really wrong with 46 year old Triple H winning the WWE World Title and headlining the "biggest Wrestlemania of all time" as the company's top heel. I realise Seth Rollins' injury messed up their plans but this is what happens when you don't create new stars. It's a real shame the likes of Rusev and Bray Wyatt have been damaged so much. I don't have a problem with Triple H versus Roman Reigns as the story makes sense and has been built well, I do have a problem with it being for the world title in the main event of Wrestlemania. I thought Triple H didn't look in the greatest shape and his arms have shrunk quite a lot. The other marquee match set for Wrestlemania is Brock Lesnar versus Bray Wyatt which sadly doesn't fill me with much excitement either. Wyatt has been reduced to the role of jobber to the stars in the last 12-18 months and a lot of work needs to be done to repair the damage done to him.

Rumble match observations: I think WWE should be concerned with the level of boos aimed at their star project Roman Reigns not to mention the roar of cheers that went up when he was dumped out of the match by Triple H. It's quite obvious that Reigns is beating Hunter for the belt at Wrestlemania and surely the last thing they want is the show to end with their new star babyface being showered with boos ... Rusev being dumped out by Reigns in less than 90 seconds shows how far he has fallen ... AJ Styles got a huge pop as he made his debut and put in a really good first performance in a WWE ring. A positive start for him for sure ... Chris Jericho, who looks a bit heavier these days, was this year's endurance man as he lasted 50 minutes in the match. Could a young up-and-comer not have been given that role? ... R-Truth's 'comedy' spot must've gone over my head ... Kofi Kingston did his annual spot of leaving the ring over the top rope without being eliminated only for the cameras to miss his actual elimination ... The Authority were so desperate for Roman Reigns to lose the World Title that they forced him to defend the title in the Rumble from the number one spot and then Vince McMahon instructed the League of Nations to pull him from the ring and attack him until he was unable to continue. Why not just have the three men throw him over the top rope? As it was Reigns was helped to the back but of course, he would be back ... Braun Strowman was given the star treatment as he eliminated Kane and then the Big Show. Unfortunately nobody seemed to care ... Owens limped to the ring and eliminated AJ Styles to loud boos. It was to be expected ... Sami Zayn then eliminated Owens to a big pop which was a nice nod to their NXT feud ... Brock Lesnar got a huge pop too as he entered the match just as the Wyatt's were taking over. Lesnar battered Strowman for no selling his clothesline before eliminating him, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan. Lesnar's showdown with Bray was cut short as the Wyatt clan re-entered to eliminate Brock. I'm not sure what was stopping them remaining in the ring to help Bray win the match as already eliminated participants are apparently allowed to do whatever they want ... Predictably Reigns returned to the ring and ran riot for a while before Triple H entered as number 30 to a big pop that was nothing compared to the booming response when he eliminated Reigns from behind ... The crowd was hot for the final two (Triple H and Dean Ambrose) but it was obvious that Hunter was going to win here so in some ways the ending was a bit of an anti-climax.


Hopefully Wrestlemania will mark the end of The Authority. The so called 'superstars' being treated like lowly workers who are lucky to have a job is really counter productive and needs to end. They've been doing the heel authority gimmick for 18 years now, it's time to move on.