This was the first Royal Rumble I watched in years, and it didn’t disappoint. Physical theater has me hooked again. Yes, thats how I choose to look at the WWE. Once you make that distinction it becomes so much more entertaining. Here are the highlights in my opinion, you should care about.

Charlotte Flair vs Bayley

The Pay Per View event kicked off with Ric Flairs daughter, Charlotte. Showman — or should I say, show-womanship runs in her genes. Whether it’s on the mic or the ring, Charlotte Flair gets it in.

Flair battled up and Comer Bayley, who I personally feel is getting a push because of lack of competition. Her character is built on current America. Everyone gets a CapriSun and a hug. Charlotte is more of an asshole. A charming asshole like her pops. And like most charming assholes (The Rock, Stone Cold, Joe Budden) they are really good entertainers.

Anyhow, the Rumble kicks off with this match, and it had some back and forth, with Flair showing some great power. Bayley is an athletic acrobatic performer, but in the end even her Macho Man-esq flying elbow (that legit busted Flairs mouth) wasn’t enough to put the champ away. Flair retains the title after hitting her finisher (Natural Selection) on the outside of the ring apron.

Roman Reigns vs Kevin Owens

If you followed this storyline, then you know that Chris Jericho was supposed to be suspended in a cage, above the ring during the length of this match, so he wouldn’t interfere on Kevin Owens behalf. Well as you may have guessed, he and Kevin Owens jumped Roman before that ever happened. Then the predictable happens (Roman Reigns fights back and throws Jericho in the shark cage and locks him up).

S0 the match begins, a lot of back and forth for the fans, but the real fun began when the chairs and tables came into play. Owens set up some odd chair on top of chair, on top of more chairs contraption, and Roman sets up a table in the corner of the ring. Highlights: Kevin Owens landed a super dope frog splash on the outside of the ring — sending he and Reigns through a  table

Later after Reigns finally throws Owens threw the chair contraption, Reigns the decides to put KO through the announcers table. After the destruction of the table, Roman Reigns rolls Kevin Owens under the ropes, and sets up for what looks like will be the end with a spear, possibly through the table

Then my new favorite wrestle Braun Strowman appears, powerbombing Reigns through a table and and Owens rolls over and gets the victory.

 

The Match before the main event was John Cena vs Aj Styles. With the possibility of Cena tying Ric Flairs’ record for the most times winning the WWE championship, you can guess  who won.

The Rumble No Jungle

The moment we all been waiting for. The 30 man Rumble! Big C was the first entrant. Followed by Chris Jericho.

This years Royal Rumble had a lot more action, and a couple of more brutal exits then I expected.

Highlights: The New Day triple teaming everyone, the Wyatt Family implosion, Strowman and Big Show showdown, Brock Lesnar cleaning house (until Goldberg showed up), Then Undertaker commits senior on senior crime, eliminating Goldberg. Roman Reigns entered at 30 ( to the dismay of the fans), and eliminated Undertaker — in a passing of the torch kind of way. But the best part of the 30 man battle in my eyes, was what I suspect the WWE  may be breaking away from the horrible Randy Orton in the Wyatt family angle. Making Orton’s return to singles competition.

With the WWE able to bring someone like me back in as a viewer, this is as good as time as any to make the single competition as competitive as possible with someone like Orton. I’ll be watching.✌🏿

Thanks for reading.