Royal Rumble 2017 *Spoilers*

beakerjoe

J. Marston wrote: »

Gallagher is very entertaining.

Hes just a great man all round. He can wrestle, he can speak, hes very creative.... I hope he gets more chances like last night to shine

riffmongous

Angron wrote: »

Machiavellian is a bit generous there. Being glad Roman won doesn't make me any happier to see Orton winning. It was an utterly mediocre Rumble, following on from 4 consecutive Rumbles where the winner was so utterly telegraphed.

I think it's a pretty shocking indictment of the company at the moment, that they even need to book it so well just so that the ending doesn't get **** on by the crowd like it did the last few years.. this is their 2nd biggest (and for some people the best) event and they have to orchestrate it to get a short lived reaction of relief from the crowd...

Bandana boy

When you are booking Reigns as a heel to keep the crowd in check , surely its time to just go ahead and make him a full on heel , Its only fair to Roman too as he cannot be enjoying this .

beakerjoe

Bandana boy wrote: »

When you are booking Reigns as a heel to keep the crowd in check , surely its time to just go ahead and make him a full on heel , Its only fair to Roman too as he cannot be enjoying this .

Maybe they are. History suggests they wont but you just never know. Vince can easily be bullheaded one moment to changing his mind they next.

JP Liz V1

I wanted Jericho to win, hadn't seen spoiler rumour of Orton winning so gutted he did

Ben Gadot

beakerjoe wrote: »

I laughed way too hard at the Jack G umbrella spot with Jericho. If you'd have told me about it before hand Id say its a terrible idea, but Jack and Y2J made it work, great spot

Jack Mary Popping his way out of the ring was a highlight.

Ali Bomaye

It was a fantastic PPV. Bayley vs Charlotte was very good, much better than what I was expecting. Reigns vs Owens was the best match of Owen's title reign. He put on a superb show last night.

Styles vs Cena was incredible. It's going to be a difficult job for any WWE match to top that this year. Loved them trading submissions and Cena attempting to win his 16th Championship with a figure four. Only thing that held the match back just a little bit for me was I never really bought any of the false finishes and could see Cena countering the Phenomenal Foreman from a mile away. It was still a great callback to their SummerSlam match.

I thought the Rumble match was the best one in the last good few years as well. I felt there was plenty of callbacks and payoffs to reward my viewing of WWE since the draft. Harper turning babyface against Wyatt was a big moment. Goldberg eliminating Brock was very well done. Good callbacks with Ellsworth against both Strowman and Ambrose. Cesaro and Sheamus blaming one another when they got eliminated. And even a callback to Xavier Woods' fear of Bray Wyatt. It was also good to see Corbin get the rub of eliminating Strowman after Strowman had such a dominant performance. I thought there was plenty there storyline wise to progress certain feuds, though there was a lack of really dramatic moments in the match.

I also thought the use of Roman Reigns in the Rumble match was absolutely fine. He was there to set up his feud with the Undertaker, sell his anger at the finish of his title match earlier in the night, and to take the loss to Orton at the end. I'm not sure there was a need to debut Samoa Joe debut at number 30 only to be eliminated last and risk a backlash from that. Also, the 'make Roman look strong' narrative is quite amusing to me. He lost the two matches he was in last night. I can only imagine the reaction if he had actually won the Rumble.

Neil3030

The more I think about it, the more I'm buying into this idea of Reigns as a meta tweener. He is essentially a heel to smarks, for shoot reasons, but otherwise a baby face to kids. And this is essentially the two markets of contemporary wrestling - smarks and kids.

WWE now have the best of both worlds - a heat generating heel, who sells babyface merch to kids. So you get pops when he loses, when needed (like last night), but all the trappings of a tall good-looking dude, when needed (Make a Wish, action figures etc).

The danger in turning him full heel, is that smarks will inevitably cheer him, and he's left in a sort of KO/Jericho/AJ no-mans-land. But keep him as this meta tweener, and you can book him to lose and get payoffs at smarky events, and to otherwise win for the kids (which feeds further into his smark heat).

It's actually quite genius, when you think about it.

martyos121

Neil3030 wrote: »

The more I think about it, the more I'm buying into this idea of Reigns as a meta tweener. He is essentially a heel to smarks, for shoot reasons, but otherwise a baby face to kids. And this is essentially the two markets of contemporary wrestling - smarks and kids.

WWE now have the best of both worlds - a heat generating heel, who sells babyface merch to kids. So you get pops when he loses, when needed (like last night), but all the trappings of a tall good-looking dude, when needed (Make a Wish, action figures etc).

The danger in turning him full heel, is that smarks will inevitably cheer him, and he's left in a sort of KO/Jericho/AJ no-mans-land. But keep him as this meta tweener, and you can book him to lose and get payoffs at smarky events, and to otherwise win for the kids (which feeds further into his smark heat).

It's actually quite genius, when you think about it.

DM_7

Neil3030 wrote: »

The more I think about it, the more I'm buying into this idea of Reigns as a meta tweener. He is essentially a heel to smarks, for shoot reasons, but otherwise a baby face to kids. And this is essentially the two markets of contemporary wrestling - smarks and kids.

WWE now have the best of both worlds - a heat generating heel, who sells babyface merch to kids. So you get pops when he loses, when needed (like last night), but all the trappings of a tall good-looking dude, when needed (Make a Wish, action figures etc).

The danger in turning him full heel, is that smarks will inevitably cheer him, and he's left in a sort of KO/Jericho/AJ no-mans-land. But keep him as this meta tweener, and you can book him to lose and get payoffs at smarky events, and to otherwise win for the kids (which feeds further into his smark heat).

It's actually quite genius, when you think about it.

Its John Cena 2.0!

oneilla

Neil3030 wrote: »

Unless we get Jericho v KO and/or Wyatt v Orton, it looks like the only WM matches with more than a two month build will be Lesnar v Goldberg, and HHH v Rollins. No huge surprises there.

Those matches you listed plus Reigns v Taker looks to be the main card for WrestleMania. Wyatt to win the belt at Elimination Chamber, Goldberg to beat Owens for the Raw belt at Fastlane making his match with Lesnar for the title. (Probably...)

Lithium93_

Looking back this morning, who the hell approved that segment with Enzo, I get product placement, but christ it was freaking brutal to watch.

J. Marston

beakerjoe wrote: »

Hes just a great man all round. He can wrestle, he can speak, hes very creative.... I hope he gets more chances like last night to shine

2-0 in MMA too. Talented guy.

WinnyThePoo

Got to feel sorry for some the lads who where there to take moves and roll to the corner ie. Miz

764dak

Many people are complaining about Orton winning. So who should have won? Some 50+ year-old guy? Brock Lesnar? Bray Wyatt?

Lithium93_

764dak wrote: »

Many people are complaining about Orton winning. So who should have won? Some 50+ year-old guy? Brock Lesnar? Bray Wyatt?

Maybe someone who hasn't/hadn't won it before.

ERG89

Miz. He's been the best heel in the company since the brand split imo. Miz vs a face Styles wouldn't be hard to do especially as AJ gets cheered every week & got dumped on by Cena last week.
Most of the big matches already have a story going in so they missed an opportunity to have a surprise winner. Why they had Orton win it is beyond me as him & Bray have a long story line going. They also had a dour main event at No Mercy not so long ago.

DM_7 wrote:

Its John Cena 2.0!

Minus all the millions in merchandise. People are giving WWE waaaay too much credit when it comes to basic intelligence.

brianregan09

Don't see the big deal in Gentle Jack either , its like Sheamus got shrunk in the washing machine or something

WinnyThePoo

I have no problem with it. Though Bray has to go over at Wrestlemania

CSF

Haven't watched wrestling in a few months but have generally followed on here. Orton as a Royal Rumble winner doesn't fill me with regret to be missing these shows.

Eager for Balor's return (if it does happen pre-Mania), but there isn't really too many others to be excited about going into Mania season. Heel Reigns vs Undertaker sounds good but they won't go fullon heel, it'll be like that kind of booking they did with him and Styles before Styles turned. And there's only one winner in that match.

Orton v Wyatt doesn't excite me any more than it did pre-Orton turn and Lesnar v Goldberg sounds a lot better in theory than I expect the actual spectacle will be. Owens vs Jericho sounds good but I'm not sure that they will actually go down this road. Poor Rollins and Ambrose seem to have been totally lost in the shuffle and it remains to be seen where they go with Cena and Styles (both of whom generally interest me).

Jerichoholic

https://twitter.com/WrestlingLAD/status/826119608432263168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Fans react to Roman

Angron

Lithium93_ wrote: »

Looking back this morning, who the hell approved that segment with Enzo, I get product placement, but christ it was freaking brutal to watch.

One of my friends on facebook messaged me asking was Enzo about to **** a chicken.

J. Marston

Jerichoholic wrote: »

https://twitter.com/WrestlingLAD/status/826119608432263168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Fans react to Roman

WWE: "The most talked about number 30 entry ever!"

"The controversial Guy!"

"The polarising Big Dog!"

SureYWouldntYa

Neil3030 wrote: »

The more I think about it, the more I'm buying into this idea of Reigns as a meta tweener.

I think you're giving WWE too much credit on intentionally placing him as or keeping him as a tweener

They keep making him do things to make him seem impressive like eliminate Undertaker, or stacking the odds against him in the various title matches

I think they're dumb as schtick and it's just more attempts by them to get Roman over

764dak

So if Balor or Joe were #30 and eliminated the Undertaker would you like that?

CastorTroy

This is the same company that rewrote history to imply everything they did to keep Daniel Bryan down was all a plan to make him as popular as he is.

Rock Lesnar

Just finished watching, Randy Orton winning is meh for me, never been a fan and couldn't care less, i was waiting for Samoa Joe to appear, and would have been a far better winner for me

Rock Lesnar

764dak wrote: »

So if Balor or Joe were #30 and eliminated the Undertaker would you like that?

No Joe should have won it had he appeared, Reigns eliminating Taker iv'e no problem with cos i don't care what Reigns does

SureYWouldntYa

764dak wrote: »

So if Balor or Joe were #30 and eliminated the Undertaker would you like that?

Yep, I'll keep it simple, I like certain things, Roman Reigns as he is now is not one of them

I have wrestlers I like, and I would like to see them do well, it's the bloody basics of wrestling

All the hype for the Rumble was ruined by Reigns at 30 for me, I was hanging on my seat waiting for Balor, totally forgotten about Joe all Rumble stupidly enough, but Reigns coming out and ruining another Rumble is just so bloody sad because nobody wants to see him like this

764dak

I guess it would have been interesting to see Balor get an RKO.