WWE Royal Rumble Review: Battle to Main Event WrestleMania 31

WWE.com

Royal Rumble Match

Result: Roman Reigns wins and will main event WrestleMania 31.

Rating: 2.8 out of 5 stars

Rob’s Take

This was a very up and down Royal Rumble match.

The beginning was great with Bubba Ray Dudley returning to WWE for the first time in a decade. He got a big pop after being in TNA for such a long time. The domination from Bray Wyatt early and throughout was great as well.

Where it started to get rocky was when Daniel Bryan was eliminated by Wyatt (11th overall elimination). This was the stunner of the match. The crowd chanted for Bryan for awhile and booed the stars in the ring for a little while. It would prove to be an attempted strategic move on WWE’s part for when Roman Reigns won the Royal Rumble later on.

I was disappointed to see Dolph Ziggler get such a short run in the match after coming out at #30. He was out within a blink of an eye! It felt like a statement from WWE that said “this guy is not a main event talent.”

When Reigns came out at 19, he was viciously booed by the “smart crowd.” The boos kept reigning down on him for awhile, as he was laying out other stars in the ring.

Eventually, the final four was Reigns, Big Show, Kane, and Dean Ambrose. Show and Kane would toss out Ambrose, followed by Reigns tossing at the two Authority henchmen. We all forgot that Rusev was still in the match, so he popped up from the below the ring, took a spear from Reigns, and was eliminated. It was extremely anti-climatic and poorly executed. They should have battled for a little while to at least create some suspense. Reigns disposed the Bulgarian Brute like a rag doll in short time.

I like Roman Reigns. I think he has the potential to be a stud in WWE; it’s just too early for him. He has made some improvements in his mic work and wrestling skills, but he’s not ready. The crowds clearly aren’t ready for him either. WWE clearly does not care though and are sticking with their guns of manufacturing Reigns into the next “guy” as soon as possible. Wrong move. Even having The Rock make an appearance couldn’t salvage this.

WWE has to expand on this main event for WrestleMania 31. It can’t just be Reigns and Lesnar because it will fail with the crowd. How do we even know that Reigns can wrestle a match longer than 10 minutes?

So many of WWE’s flaws were exposed in this one hour match. It’s a shame.

Mike’s Take (Coming Soon)