Seriously how do you mess up the Royal Rumble THAT bad like what the hell this show was such a mess and had very little redeeming parts of it This isn't going to be as polished as my usual stuff, this is just going to be a more casual review of the show going through my thoughts on it all
The 2022 Royal Rumble has come and gone and boy it certainly was a show. I usually don't write reviews of wrestling shows because it's wrestling and everyone has a different opinion it's all subjective, you know, but MAN this show left me with such a bad taste in my mouth. This is coming from someone who basically only watches WWE too this is the main wrestling company I follow, so I just had to talk about this show and how it turned the most fun show of the year into the most frustrating.
Personally, I think the show started relatively strong with Seth vs Roman for the Universal Championship. This match is easily my favorite of the entire night and was the best part about this entire show with a masterclass in storytelling. Seth coming out to the ring with the SHIELD gear AND theme was incredible, that man is a lunatic and a menace and I love his chaos. It was cool to see someone finally start to shake Roman and get under his skin. This match was a doorway to a different side of Roman, a much more vengeful part of him. As the match went on, Roman cared less and less about victory and only about causing Seth pain. I enjoyed this match, and while it might have had an abrupt and weak finish (except for the spot where Seth's hand landed on the rope, that was cool), I get what they're going for in order to show us how Roman has snapped and still wasn't over Seth's betrayal all those years ago. It was very much so saved though when Roman took that chair to Seth's back perfectly recreating the SHIELD's breakup to a T, which was great. I really wish that they were able to keep this feud going and expand on it because this doesn't feel like a concrete ending whatsoever. Unfortunately, for reasons you're already aware of, doesn't seem like we'll be able to get that!
Ok now here's where things start to fall apart with the women's Royal Rumble match. I was really excited about this match because of how many cool things they could have done. It may be a fault of my own expectations that only add to my disappointment, but I was really hoping for some big returns like Asuka or Bayley, maybe some NXT women like Dakota or Io, but none of that happened at all. The match just kinda... happened. There were some fun moments for sure, like Ivory in the RTC gear which was so funny, Cameron made for a surprisingly interesting part of this Sonya/Naomi feud, and Mickie James opening the REAL forbidden door with the Knockouts belt which was so surreal to see. But personally, I felt like everything else just kinda fell flat. There wasn't much exciting stuff happening besides the new entrants, big names were being thrown out like they were nothing and there weren't really any surprises since they were all (mostly) announced ahead of time. But of course, the worst part of this match was the winner. I could write an entire article about why having Ronda win was the worst possible option, but here are a few reasons. First, she's a genuinely horrible person. The blatant transphobia she has never apologized for and probably still believes, the terrible lies she said about the tragedy at Sandy Hook, and is just generally unsafe. It's so hard to watch a bad person succeed, and it's even worse when she took so many other women's spots. The women are working so hard year-round all fighting for this moment, and Ronda just gets to step in after being gone for nearly 2 years and take all of their spots? How is that fair? Poor Bianca, Liv, and Naomi who have been built up and had the stories going on all year and could have easily won the match to get the success they actually deserved. It's so disrespectful to them to have Ronda step in and take that spot they were working towards. The matches she could have at mania for the title too just don't interest me, partially because I don't care about Ronda as a wrestler or person, but also because we've basically seen them before. I would much rather have seen someone new win the rumble and go on to have a moment at mania that actually meant something. It was just so frustrating to see all of this happen and for someone so undeserving to take someone else's spot.
Becky vs Doudrop was a fine match, it wasn't anything special but it had some interesting offense and got Becky's reign to continue for another show. I genuinely don't have much else to say about this match, it was a fine match and they were put in a tough spot following that rumble, but they did the best they could with it.
Lashley vs Brock might have been the match I was most looking forward to on this show. First time EVER that they faced one-on-one after being a dream match for nearly two decades. Two big meaty men bumpin' meat. What more could you want? I was kinda underwhelmed by it though unfortunately. It definitely had its moments of fun when things were going at a fast pace, but never really got to that level I was hoping it would. The main takeaway from it was the ending, where Roman cost Brock the title with Heyman's help, and Lashley was once again crowned as champ. I was really unsure of how this match would go and honestly for some reason I didn't expect this ending, but at the moment I thought it was a really good ending. Lashley as champ again was really cool, he deserves it and it'll be interesting to see what he does next. Roman costing Brock perfectly set up their rivalry from there on out and laid all the groundwork you'd need, so surely nothing else would happen to unnecessarily add to it right? ... right?
It Couple vs grIT couple was definitely a match so I have heard
Finally, we get to the main event: the men's rumble match. I was once again really excited for this, before the show I genuinely had no clue who would win, it was anyone's game and that was so thrilling. The match itself had a lot of the same problems as the women's rumble but to an even worse extent. It just kind of went on and the match just happened without really anything notable happening. The most heartbreaking part of it all was Kofi's spot which they should have just let slide because it was so cool and who cares if it happened they didn't have to show us. It was hurt even more so because the entrants were full of people that were all announced for the match already, so there were only 3 surprises in total. Bad Bunny's rumble run was a welcomed one, he is genuinely so good at this and I wanna see him wrestling as much as possible, it's insane how talented that man is. Shane's return made me laugh far too much, that sweaty mf is so funny to watch. Unfortunately, the last surprise was one I'd been fearing throughout the match: Brock Lesnar. He simply entered the rumble and won the whole thing which was so unnecessary. Even having Brock at the best he's ever been as a character right now in my opinion, him winning the rumble just hurts everyone else so much more. They already had the story with Roman written perfectly. The groundwork was already laid and it wrote itself, putting him in the rumble does nothing for that story. You could have just had a vengeful Brock on the hunt for the big dog leading all the way up to mania and it wouldn't have changed a thing, except now his win had to take it away from someone who could have actually really used the win. I would have much rather had someone like Big E win the rumble and then go on to challenge Lashley for the title at mania. Now, there's nobody in line for his title because that spot was used up for no reason whatsoever. It's frustrating to watch Brock step in to win the match when someone else would have benefitted from that SO much more.
Overall, this year's Royal Rumble was disappointing. Only Seth and Roman really delivered for me in a somewhat satisfying way. The other undercard matches just kind of happened, while the two rumbles were ruined by winners that completely took me out of it and ruined all of my enjoyment personally. Having Brock and Ronda win just to me seems like a fundamental problem in storytelling when they just step in front of people who had stories leading up to this rumble. I really think those two are my least favorite pair of rumble winners ever.
It's very poetic that after BOTH rumble matches, the WrestleMania sign caught on fire. Surely it's a sign of things to come and points towards a bumpy road to WrestleMania.
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