Today we’ll be taking a look at the latest with Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns, an update
on Naomi’s story, update on all the big returns that just got confirmed and much more
Let’s start things off with this story that should have fans excited, but considering
the way WWE decided to do things, it has fans a bit dazed and confused
We’re of course talking about all the confirmed returns for the 2022 women’s Royal Rumble
match
What’s the whole mystic around the Royal Rumble?
It’s the surprise returns, surprise entrants, overall key word there being “surprise”
That’s what make the rumble match what it is, the surprise element of having no idea
who’s gonna come out next
Well WWE is facing serious fan criticism because they sort of ruined that here by randomly
announcing 7 major WWE returns during the middle of Smackdown
During Charlotte Flair’s segment, a video package played showing some of the current
WWE women that will be in the match, but fans had to do a double take when superstars like
Lita, The Bella Twins, Summer Rae, Michelle McCool, Kelly Kelly, and even impact wrestling’s
knockout champion Mickie James were also confirmed for the match
They spoiled what could’ve been so many surprise returns for this Royal Rumble match
The biggest name on this list being Nikki Bella
Everyone was under the impression that Nikki was still retired because of her neck issues,
she would’ve been a nice genuine surprise if she randomly appeared in the match unannounced
Another big name on this list is Mickie James as well
Everyone remembers that Mickie James didn’t have the most peaceful exit from WWE last
year, but her return in this spot could be a pretty historic moment
If Mickie James is still Impact Knockout champion come the Royal Rumble, that’ll be the first
time ever that an active Impact Wrestling champion will also be appearing on a major
WWE event
Then of course you also have names like Summer Rae on this list who hasn’t been seen inside
the WWE ring in so many years
So it’s a real bittersweet announcement, it’s great to basically have confirmation
that Nikki Bella is cleared and we’re seeing all these historic returns, but it would’ve
been nice to save all of those surprises for the Royal Rumble match itself
Why did WWE go ahead and ruin the fun by announcing all these returns?
No one knows, but fans speculate that if they’re willing to spoil all these surprises that
they must have a real major surprise that they’re going to keep hidden
Maybe someone like Paige, now there’s a return that shouldn’t be spoiled at all
and would be such a massive deal if it was to happen
So that’s just fan speculation, they think if WWE is giving us all those names like nothing,
there must be someone huge that they’re saving
So we’ll have to see how that unfolds at the match itself, but fans aren’t so happy
about those returns being spoiled for a match thats themed around surprises, but at the
same time, it’s growing hype and speculation that someone big can still show up at the
Royal Rumble as the actual real surprise
———————
So let’s dive into the Naomi versus Sonya Deville storyline
Not much happened with the storyline this week, but there was a few nods and teasers
there than can come back up in the future, so let’s take a look at what happened
Naomi faced off against Charlotte flair but of course the added obstacle of dealing with
Sonya Deville and her hatred for Naomi was still present
Naomi would’ve won the match via count out, but as that was about to happen, Sonya made
it a no count out match
And when Naomi was going to win via disqualification, Sonya made it a no disqualification match
So as these ways for Naomi to technically win the match kept coming up, Sonya kept removing
them until Naomi finally lost
So even in defeat, Naomi still looks good.
She obviously would’ve had that match won in several different ways if it wasn’t for
Sonya’s presence
But what happened next was a bit intriguing
Adam Pearce approaches Sonya Deville about the situation, Sonya immediately gets defensive
and thinks he wants to talk about the situation with Naomi
Sonya sounds like she’s about to start explaining the situation with Naomi and said that it’s
not what it seems like, but Adam Pearce cuts her off and says that his issue was that he
needed to find a Royal Rumble opponent for Roman Reigns
Sonya Deville, being relived that he didn’t wanna talk about the Naomi situation, changed
the topic and agreed to help him find the Royal Rumble opponent for Roman
This moment here sort of goes back to the logic flaw and small plot hole that we discussed
a few weeks ago and that is of course the question of: is anyone watching what Sonya
Deville is doing?
It’s not like Sonya Deville is making silent moves against Naomi behind closed doors, no,
she’s at ringside on national television publicly putting her abuse of power on full
display for everyone to see
So it’s extremely weird and a bit unrealistic that no supervisor or anyone above Sonya Deville
has stepped to her about the Naomi situation
The way Sonya Deville constantly gets away with it makes it seems like WWE management,
in the storyline world, doesn’t watch the product at all, it’s like if they really
don’t know what’s going on
But telling by how Sonya reacted there in that quick moment where she was approached
by Adam Pearce, it does look like Sonya’s character is at least paranoid about the entire
situation and expects to be confronted about it, that’s why she was ready to give Adam
Pearce a whole explanation right there for what’s going on with Naomi
So it would appear that Sonya at least has her story made up shall anyone question her
about what she’s doing to Naomi
And like Michael Cole stressed a lot on commentary, no one knows what’s Sonya Deville’s problem
with Naomi
And that’s actually true, nearly 7 months into this storyline and we still don’t know
the backstory behind this hatred that Sonya has for Naomi
Like we’ve been discussing for all these months, Sonya only acts this way towards Naomi,
so it’s not like we can brush it off and be like “well Sonya is a heel WWE official
character, she acts like this towards everyone” because that’s not true, she only acts this
way with Naomi
So it’s weird and even this deep into the storyline, elements and parts of the story
are still missing, so we’ll see if we’ll ever get the reasoning for why Sonya treats
Naomi like this because it would appear that there’s more to the story that we still
haven’t tapped into yet
—————
So let’s get into Adam Pearce’s decision for Roman’s Royal Rumble opponent
Adam Pearce confirmed during one of his backstage segments on the show that WWE management left
the Royal Rumble opponent for Roman Reigns up to him and that he can pick someone from
any roster
Roman is unaware of this and that’s why when Pearce comes to talk to him Roman seems
very uninterested to know his rumble opponent because he assumed it’ll be someone from
Smackdown that he already beat before so he wasn’t stressing it
But there’s a knock on his door and it’s Monday Night Raw’s Seth Rollins
And we just talked earlier in the week about how cool it’ll be for them to go with Seth
Rollins and that turned out to be true
Seth obviously caught Roman by surprise and Roman realized there in the closing moments
of Smackdown that this is going to be a much bigger matchup than he originally expected
it to be
Now he has to go against a new opponent that he hasn’t faced at all during this 500 day
reign and it just isn’t anybody, it’s someone that knows him better than any other
opponent he’s faced so far
Someone that he came into WWE with and was side by side with for so many years
So it took a long time to make it here, but we’re finally here, we’re finally gonna
get Roman Reigns versus Seth Rollins at Royal Rumble
Why is a Raw superstar competing for a smackdown title?
That’s a story for another day, maybe they’ll explain why, maybe they don’t explain it
at all, but at least we get this massive dream matchup at the Royal Rumble
But what are your thoughts on today’s stories from Smackdown?
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Thanks for watching guys