Royal Rumble Reax

Read on for my thoughts on last night's WWE Network special event.
-- Kickoff:
- Mandy/Sonya promo:
With that women's tag title coming up, these two might stick together longer than they normally would.

- Drake interview:
Well that's interesting.

- Truth/Carmella:
If AJ and Truth win and face off at WrestleMania, it would be a rematch from a 2004 NWA World Title match. How wild would that be?

- Joe promo:
I would have popped for him referencing Steiner's legendary math.

- Braun replacing Cena:
So maybe Brock can beat Braun again at Mania after all!

- Bryan promo:
Honestly that Rumble burger looks DISGUSTING. I'm not about to turn vegan because of it but gross!

Fine by me.

- Roode/Gable vs. Rezar/Dawson:
Cool that they are doing dugout entrances.

Interesting heel combination.

Man imagine if these four were on Takeover instead of here.

That was fun, but so much for setting up title matches.

- Rusev vs. Shinsuke:
Shinsuke is game tonight. Good to see it.

This is good.

I like how these two work together.

Cool to see the Jackhammer.

Oh. Wow. Didn't see that one coming.

- Cross promo:
I wish she had more of a promotion to Raw or Smackdown Live than this, but I think she'll make the most of her opportunity.

- Halftime Heat announcement:
THAT'S AWESOME! A great special attraction from NXT.

- Buddy vs. Kalisto vs. Hideo vs. Akira:
Murphy vs. Hideo is fun, since we don't usually see that.

Everyone's delivering here.

I'm impressed with what everyone's bringing to the table in this one.

This is impressive. They're definitely delivering something unique and fun.

Wow. Pretty big. What's next for Buddy after beating three men at once?

- McIntyre promo:
That was big. He has some notches in his belt lately.

-- Royal Rumble:
- Asuka vs. Becky:
Well this going early definitely sets up Becky coming down later in the show.

I like the back-and-forth here.

Good aggression here from Becky.

Heck, good aggression from Asuka, too!

AWESOME spot with Asuka pulling out the submissions after almost being pinned.

That German suplex could have ended Becky's career. Damn.

That was a scary apron exchange.

This is NICE.

That big Bexploder could have done it.

I LOVE the trading submissions.

That was really, really good. Shocked to see Becky lose, but it sets up a rematch when Becky rebounds to face Ronda.

- Bar vs. Shane/Miz:
I'm curious how much Shane will do here.

Shane makes up for his stamina with crazy bumps.

I love The Bar's teamwork.

Pretty cool counter to Coast to Coast.

Holy shit imagine Cesaro tapping to Shane McMahon.

Shane's getting through a lot.

Pretty crazy. The match was good, though.

- Post-match:
Shane McMahon held gold in WWE TWENTY YEARS AGO. Let that sink in.

- Ronda vs. Sasha:
Ohhhh this is already fun.

Great back-and-forth!

They're both going hard here.

Man. I miss heel Sasha.

These two are SMOOOOOOTH.

Hmmm looks like they could be setting up Sasha winning but Ronda having that tapout on the outside over her.

This is BADASS.

Wowwww. I hope Ronda's not done at Mania, because this rin has been great.

-- Women's Rumble:
- No. 1:
OK first off I expected this to close the show. I definitely didn't expect this to follow a women's title match. Odd idea.

I do like seeing Lacey get mic time, though.

- No. 2:
Nice work so far.

- No. 3:
Cool Sharpshooter spot, although of course you can't win the Rumble like that!

- No. 4:
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA at least Lacey wasn't first out.

- No. 5:
Yeah that armbar spot almost backfired on Mickie!

- No. 6, 7:
OK that was interesting. Makes sense, though.

- No. 8:
I really want Nikki vs. Asuka...

Glad Nikki isn't letting Billie get away with that!

VERY glad to see Nikki turned loose.

- No. 9:
I love this style of match. So much going on.

Yeah the IIconics are going to stick together.

- No. 10:
Oooooh let's see more between and Nikki and Tamina.

- No. 11:
Wow. I didn't expect her to get a shot before some of the other NXT names. I guess they want points for putting a Chinese name there. She's not bad at any rate.

- No. 12:
OK Nikki vs. The IIconics needs to happen.

- No. 13:
Hahaha I like Charlotte being a target.

Oooh. Nikki/Lacey vs. IIconics could be fun for the odd combination.

- No. 14:
YYYYESSSSSSSSSS glad she's getting a big showing this weekend.

NATALYA YOU MONSTER!

- No. 15:
Oh wow. A little surprised to see her wrestle. Would WWE keep her but drop Mike?

LACEY WHY DIDN'T YOU LET HER ELIMINATE MARIA????

- No. 16:
That was an AWESOME save from Naomi.

Ahhhhhh almost save.

That was pretty fun.

- No. 17:
Good to see NXT names mixed in, although I hope we have at least one name from the past.

- No. 18:
That Alicia/Maria stuff was kind of weird.

- No. 19:
Wow. Another surprise given how little she's been featured in NXT.

Fun so far.

- No. 20, 21:
Oh I like The Squad coming out as a group.

Fun work from the Squad.

I'm really liking the Squad here.

- No. 22:
Yeah The Squad can take her....

This is pretty wild.

- No. 23:
Ahhhhh we didn't get to see Kairi and Io team.

I'm liking this a lot.

- No. 24:
I'm really enjoying all the NXT cameos instead of, say, Torrie Wilson.

OH MY GOD THAT KACY SAVE.

OK we need to see Rhea vs. Kacy now.

- No. 25:
Well there's your Hornswoggle appearance.

Ha. Cool showcase of Rhea.

Andrade better murder Hornswoggle for this.

- No. 26:
Very glad to see her again.

- No. 27:
I hope Bayley can be significant again.

- No. 28:
BOOOOOOOOO.

Yes by all means give us Becky over Lana.

- No. 29:
HAHA GET BENT LANA.

OH MY GOD Nia vs. Io.

Nia's a lot of fun.

- No. 30:
Yeah no dance breaks here.

I'm good with Becky subbing.

Pretty good group here.

Moon had an awesome showing.

HAHAHHAHAHAH that punch tease from Nia.

Oh well. Maybe next year, Carmella.

Cool Bayley elimination.

OH MY GOD that strength from Charlotte.

Clever Nia elimination.

Wait what happens if Becky can't continue?

Oh I'm loving vicious Charlotte.

Very great stuff. Glad they didn't waste time with nostalgia this time.

- Bryan vs. AJ:
REALLY? After this intense of a feud, they're doing a technical match?

Yeah this is a disappointment. They should be trying to kill each other.

I mean, they're two amazing workers, but we've seen them do this kind of match before.

Well that's an odd association.

That was STUPID. Waste of two great workers. The action was fine before that out-of-nowhere ending.

- Post-match:
We'll see where this goes, but I'm not a fan so far.

- Brock vs. Finn:
Ooohhhh boy. This is fun.

Lesnar's mauling him.

I love the battle here.

Braun looks like a monster as always.

GODDAMN PAL THAT CLOTHESLINE.

Finn's giving it his all.

AHHHHHH that Kimura counter.

Ohhhh man that was so good until the ending. If it would have gone longer, it would have been epic.

- Post-match:
Yeah, see, if this was part of the match, I would have liked it more. Good work overall.

- Men's Rumble:
- No. 1:
Have we had a concert in the Royal Rumble before?

- No. 2:
OH MY FUCKING GOD IT'S HAPPENING.

I'm all for this after the Brock/Finn massacre.

DAMN YOU ELIAS!!!

Hahaha Elias isn't pleased.

Well, at least Jarrett got another WWE match.

- No. 3:
This would be an interesting feud.

- No. 4:
Man, Angle vs. Nakamura would be special.

- No. 5:
This is an odd combination, but I like it.

Ahhhh. Fun to see Angle while he was there.

- No. 6:
Oh this should be great.

- No. 7:
Hopefully more NXT names are coming.

- No. 8:
Whoooaaaaa this should be fun.

Joe vs. E would be a blast.

- No. 9:
Hahahaha at least he lasted longer than Jinder!

- No. 10:
Ooooh he's got a long time to last.

Fun enough.

- No. 11:
I love when a show has a bit of comedy if there's good action, too. Of course, the comedy has to be entertaining. This was.

- No. 12, 13:
More fun work here.

Ali's getting a big chance in WWE so far.

Ali vs. Nakamura could be fun.

I REALLY want to see Gargano vs. Joe.

- No. 14:
This is fun.

- No. 15:
Again, totally fine with some silliness.

- No. 16:
Haha Jose learned to take the Rumble seriously.

There's some badass action here.

- No. 17:
Drew's not a fan of New Day. It's a shame they couldn't tease a 3MB reunion.

- No. 18:
YESSSSSSSS.

Dunne could have a lot of fun matches post-NXT.

- No. 19:
Another guy with a bright future.

- No. 20:
Eh. Not as cool as it would have been if he had stayed in NXT for a while.

- No. 21:
OHHHH MY GOOOOODDDDD. I'm definitely in favor of spotlighting NXT names with a few special cameos (Jarrett).

This is BADASS.

Black vs. Dean could be a lot of fun.

- No. 22:
Another filler name.

WHOOOOAAAAAAA big moment for Mustafa.

- No. 23:
WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

I'm very glad Mustafa didn't job to Corbin. He's really been disappointing since moving to Raw.

- No. 24:
Wow. I'm starting to think Braun could win it.

Hardy's greatest hits.

This is impressive.

I really want to see Drew vs. Dunne.

- No. 25:
Oooooh Baron had him scouted.

- No. 26:
WOW. Didn't expect him to go out that easily. I wonder if he's hurt.

Yeah Seth's going to have to OVERCOME THE ODDS.

- No. 27:
Braun's in the driver's seat.

Phew. At least Corbin's done.

- No. 28:
Whoa. Didn't expect that. Actually kind of underwhelmed actually, because a fresh start for him would have been great.

Booooooooo. Way to drag Drew down.

- No. 29:
Braun vs. Orton would be a lot of fun.

Fun superplex/bodypress spot.

- No. 30:
Well. That was unexpected. They already did the replacement spot tonight, though.

Wow. Nia looks pretty strong here.

Well, she looked good before she lost.

Haha vintage Orton.

Hmmm maybe we do see that Rey/Andrade pairing.

Ziggler winning would be AWFUL.

I'm loving this final stretch.

This is cool.

That was a fun ending! Seth vs. Brock should be interesting.

More wrestling coming up.