The Rundown Slam: WWE Royal Rumble 2019

02/02/2019 12:42:55 AM

Seth Rollins just burned Royal Rumble to the grounds of Chase Field! (Photo credits: What Culture Wrestling)

January 2019 has seen the wrestling world exploding into new heights yet again – and we're not talking the lackluster lineup of the Wrestle Kingdom 12 (but they still deliver better than WWE). With the new promotion emerging from the ground, it seems that that World Wrestling Entertainment realized they have a legitimate threat – no matter how much some claims that All Elite Wrestling (AEW) as the alternative from the usual.

As always, WWE is kicking off the year – and the road to WrestleMania – with its first pay-per-view,(PPV) event, the Royal Rumble. With the baseball stadium called Chase Field serving as the venue, the 32nd annual Royal Rumble was served with grandeur in such a dragging manner; housing more than 40,000 people in attendance who had seen a total of nearly seven hours (including 2 in the kickoff). Seven championship matches also took place.

And at the end, Two MAN stood out among the rest: Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch. They were both ready to rumble, and somehow, Lynch has taken Rollins' 'Mania 31 path of losing-at-first, and winning at the end. Sure, she may tap out to Asuka from that obscurely Asuka lock, but managed to salvage a slot at the expense of the limping Lana. It was already predictable at will but still managed to convince us on why Becky should headline this year's WrestleMania. 

Plus one good thing is that Becky stood on her own ground again the always-dominant Charlotte Flair, who seems to hog the spotlight for too much (or probably, she has been over-booked by the creatives for too much). And whatever Kofi Kingston can do, the ladies had done better – and we mean Kacy Catanzaro and even Naomi. Check out their respective highlight reels. Plus, Zelina Vega was sneaky good for a bit of comic act. Hey, Natalya was also a standout.

I kinda felt bummed when Rusev was dethroned once again for the United States Championship. Meanwhile, the cruiserweights were once again robbed for a slot in the main program; while Shane McMahon and The Miz managed to pull off a well-executed story to win the SmackDown Tag Team Champions. 

There were also solid matches from the RAW brand as Brock Lesnar seemingly to enjoy working on smaller opponents. We can tell that he liked working with Finn Balor with the way he took bumps and putting over such David-like foes only to thwart them out of competition at the end. Thank AJ Styles for this kind of Lesnar's work ethic. On the other hand, Rousey scored a rare pinfall victory over Sasha Banks, and this appears to be a leaf on the awaitng clash of the Four Horsewomen.

Speaking of which, AJ Styles was unsuccessful in his rematch with Daniel Bryan for the WWE Championship. It was a solid technical match but suffered an unfortunate cirucmstance wherein it was put in the wrong time slot as the audience was seemingly exhausted from the hot-rod Women's Royal Rumble Matches. Maybe, Erick Rowan's surprise cameo was a drastic measure to keep the show's flow and momentum from sliding away.

I wasn't wrong when I picked Seth Rollins as the Royal Rumble winner (well, one of my top three picks, actually). It was a sudden twist after losing his lackluster feud with Dean Ambrose and a sudden insertion of the program with Bobby Lashley. Strange that no other man had more than 4 eliminations. Braun Strowman, Drew McIntyre, Andrade, and Mustafa Ali were also the standouts. I still felt bad when Nia Jax snatched R-Truth's spot, but on the flip side, this could keep the door ajar for opportunities on setting up intergender matches. So why not?

P.S. Lacey Evans is hotter than Mandy Rose. Sorry, Corey Graves! Looooooord!

The Verdict: 7

Author: slickmaster | © 2019 The SlickMaster's Files