I don't have many places to go and chat about wrestling so I'm gonna rant here about last night's Royal Rumble.
1) Sheamus x Shorty G - They televised segments for this rivalry or whatever and then it was a dark match, boo.
2) Andrade x Humberto Carillo - Again, they made a huge deal out of the thing with Andrade and his US reign... and it's a dark match, boo.
3) Reigns x Corbin - I heard a lot of folks actually enjoyed this fight, I didn't really watch it as I was getting my kid ready for bed, but I don't care for Corbin or Reigns, so it was an easy skip for me.
4) Women's Rumble - So much good stuff went on in this, but the whole time I'm watching it, I'm thinking to myself, who would WWE push to win this thing. They've been pushing Bianca Belair pretty fucking hard, but she already has a title match with Ripley at Takeover Portland, so it's non sensical... plus I really don't care for her. She ends every match holding her head... is it your hair? Do you have undiagnosed brain damage? Is this how you sell hard fought matches? I don't know, I don't like it. While WWE wants to act like NXT is on equal ground as Smackdown and Raw, I don't think they'd let an NXT star win one of these things just yet, not until the ratings justify it and NXT ratings just aren't good enough. Over half the competitors were NXT or Unsigned/Retired folks, so that didn't leave much. Kairi is really good, but with Asuka getting a shot and them having the belt, no, I don't think so. I'm still expecting a Bliss-Cross x Kabuki Warriors Tag Title match at Mania, so that knocks out a handful. I love Sarah Logan, but I knew she was gonna get jobbed again. No way they are pulling Fire & Desire, or Lana and Liv from their respective promos. That pretty much guaranteed a Raw winner with the only reasonable winners maybe being Flair, Naomi, or Natalya. Personally not a fan of Flair, she's so stale at this point and I hope she jumps to Smackdown. Anyway, overall enjoyable match, I figured Otis would save Mandy at least once, but I'm pleased to say while watching, I didn't see it coming, so it pleased me. Naomi's little parkour thing was kinda funny and I enjoyed it. Beth Phoenix and Natalya kicking ass was pretty dope, I still hate the turning on your friend trope. I'm a huge fan of Bliss-Cross so it was nice to see them work together and not betray each other, I'm constantly concerned they are going to do that because it's very much a Bliss thing to do based on her history. A lot of the NXT stars looked pretty damned bad ass. Just overall a great showing. The Santina thing annoyed me a little because it belittles what great is going on and just makes a joke at the expense of having another competitor in the match. I'm glad to know that Kelly Kelly being in the match was a last minute thing and not planned, because I was not a fan of it. She is very much a relic of an era when women's wrestling was slapping, hair pulling, and overly sexist maneuvers.
5) Bayley x Evans - Especially with the placement of this match, I expected this to be a quick match with no title change with a possible build up to a real fight at whatever their February event is. Match ended with a roll up which is always weak and a non end to a story. So this will likely continue.
6) Fiend x Bryan - Premise for the fight is good and they built the fight up well, but we knew this wouldn't be the end of the Fiend's reign. This is the first Fiend match I've seen and I'm glad that I never had to experience the "red lights" that I heard people talk about not being there last night. Match went pretty well, but the end was so abrupt and anticlimactic, I didn't care for that.
7) Lynch x Asuka - I had heard about WWEs plan for this match a long time ago when some Raw match went a certain way and there were talks that WWE didn't mean to end the match that way so they could properly build a Lynch/Asuka rivalry. I didn't buy into the promos, but I knew it'd be a great showing because they are both fantastic competitors. Fantastic match with the ending I expected and I think several people called.
Men's Rumble - I'll preface this with the statement that I hate Brock Lesnar, always have, always will. The first ~25 minutes of the match were just torture for me. He just flicked people around like a napkin ball. And when people did manage to stack up, they didn't focus on Lesnar solely so he managed to continue. I'll also state that I hate the cliched turning on your pal thing, it's so over played and I hate it. Once Lesnar was out the match kind of picked up to its usual stuff, pretty good overall. Glad to see Edge in there and kick some major ass. The AOP/Rollins thing got tiresome quick and luckily they ended it rather quick I felt. Match started stupid slow and stupid and gradually built to a real good match. Kind of cinches that McIntyre is going face. Will be interesting to see because he seems very Orton in that he has a heel face and swagger.
