Imma let you finish, Christian, Carlito and Seth Rollins, but Jillian Hall coming back
just had one of the best Royal Rumble returns of all time.
Oh yeah, and Edge entered at number one and won the whole thing.
I’m Mr Davis, asking you to please give us a subscribe, superkick that thumbs up button
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Like my review of the Royal Rumble: Ruthless Aggression tribute show right now… in about
10 minutes.
Asuka and Charlotte Flair had an interview backstage before their tag team title match
where they said they’re best friends.
I’m pretty sure that’s the first time we’ve seen them onscreen together since
they won the belts.
Despite having that ‘oh you know I’m turning heel on you’ expression, Charlotte in fact
didn’t fall out with Asuka.
Instead, it took Ric Flair and Lacey Evans three different distraction spots to cost
Charlotte the win.
Evans punched her with the brass knucks - which is a good weapon for her Women’s Right finisher
- letting Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler win back the tag titles.
Whatever.
Everything on the main card, however, ranged from very good, to oh my god it’s Christian.
Many fans feared the Royal Rumble would begin the darkest WWE timeline.
Brock Lesnar returning, Charlotte winning back-to-back Rumbles, and, the worst case
scenario we’ve lived through twice already: Goldberg winning a top championship.
WWE expertly used the last two as part of their booking though.
Drew McIntyre vs Goldberg was a great idea - if Drew won.
And that’s exactly what happened.
In a classic Paul Heyman layout, Drew and Goldberg hit big moves before the bell for
two minutes, then hit big moves during the actual match for three.
It was under five minutes of action in total, brilliantly protecting Goldberg’s limitations,
while keeping us all on the edges of our seats because WWE booking Bill to win remained very
real, very scary possibility throughout.
It was incredibly dramatic, making you buy into every near fall, but Drew won with a
Claymore.
This was the simple outcome, and the correct one.
WWE often overbook or overthink their match finishes.
We were scared of a Miz cash-ins.
But they had Drew win clean and confidently, being endorsed by Goldberg afterwards.
Following a pre-show promo where Carmella told Reginald her glass of wine tastes like
gooooooold, she had another very good match with Sasha Banks.
There was Reginald interference, some great submission reversals and a scary dive from
Carmella, but Banks made her tap in the end.
Sasha retaining is the right result - but, ultimately, what did this accomplish?
They had a much better match last month at TLC, and now Carmella’s just lost again
with her new gimmick.
Xavier, Big E and a still-not-medically cleared Kofi Kingston reunited backstage, revealing
their Brodie Lee tribute gear.
Bad Bunny played a rap song while dancing around Booker T. This was not for me.
And the Women’s Rumble match began with Bayley and a returning Naomi!
This wasn’t just the best Women’s Rumble WWE have done.
It’s one of the best laid out Rumbles they’ve ever booked period.
The ring quickly filled up with Bayley, a returning Naomi, Bianca BelAir for the iron
maiden spot at number three, Billie Kay doing comedy, prompting Shayna Baszler to punch
her in the photograph, which Billie sold - hey, I thought WWE banned unprotected headshots
- Jillian Hall came out singing in a nostalgia joke return, freaking Victoria was in there
for about 15 minutes.
Toni Storm, Ruby Riott, Peyton Royce for a brief IIconics reunion - all of them with
only one elimination in the first half of the match.
It was a visible testament to how well WWE have grown their women’s division, that
they had such a deep and varied roster of characters they could play off.
The match turned hard when Rhea Ripley entered at number 14.
Because she was there to actually hurt people.
Doing a number of stiff elimination spots that, if Nia Jax did them, we’d all be calling
for her to be fired.
After Ripley came Charlotte Flair at Number 15 - setting up a brawl between last year’s
WrestleMania opponents, until the real story happened: Ric Flair coming out with Lacey
Evans to continue tussle with Charlotte… and then just weirdly stop fighting each other
for the rest of the match.
Some didn’t like Alicia Fox’s entry involving R-Truth and the 24/7 title because WWE can’t
seem to book a women’s Rumble without in some way involving men.
But I didn’t mind it because it gave Fox a 24/7 title win.
Truth would quickly win it back, and then drop it to Pete Rosenberg in this sexiest
of pinning combinations later on.
The match did become overbooked at times.
Carmella and Reginald appeared to do their spots in slow motion, and Naomi laying on
her back with her feet up in the air came across as goofy.
Thankfully, though, all the women threw out Alexa Bliss before she could transform into
Lady Fiend - saving us from another speculated spot: the dreaded mid-Rumble cinematic match.
Lana threw out Nia Jax in a neat bit of revenge for a storyline picked up from two months
ago.
And we eventually came down to a final three of BelAir, Ripley and, using the same genius
scare tactic of their own history of bad booking - just like how they saved John Cena or Roman
Reigns until the final few to keep you worried they’d win - Charlotte Flair.
Bianca and Ripley ganged up to eliminate her, and then had a great back-and-forth, which
was just won by BelAir - who cut an emotional in-ring promo afterwards, promising to put
EST in WrestleMania.
I don’t wanna be a party pooper, because you look super emotional Bianca, but there’s
already an E, S and a T in WrestleMania.
Sandwiched between two Rumble matches - which are almost entirely within the ring - Roman
Reigns and Kevin Owens wisely put on a Last Man Standing bout almost entirely everywhere
else.
The stipulation lent itself perfectly to the Paul Heyman-style: big move, both guys down
for a count, big spot, referee checks on one of them, big spot, Roman starts trashtalking
- repeat.
And those big spots were mighty big.
Kevin Owens was thrown off the top ThunderDome stands through a bunch of tables.
KO hit a Frog Splash through a seemingly invincible announcer’s desk.
He hit a Swanton Bomb off a Forklift.
Roman decapitated a referee.
And, best of all, Roman ran down Owens in a golf buggy.
Blerp!
AEW Golf Buggy to WWE confirmed.
First KO inherited the Stunner, now he’s getting run over by a Samoan driving a car.
You’re taking this Stone Cold thing too far, Kev.
It was an awesome and hilarious move in equal measure.
It was most sports entertaining.
My only gripe - I can feel the inner Cornette coming through - is that they didn’t really
have any psychological impact.
Owens was brutally run down by a vehicle, which led to… him being on top a minute
later.
The finish was unfortunately botched, too.
Going full Ciampa and Gargano, Roman found himself handcuffed to the trussing - but Heyman
legit couldn’t get him out.
The momentum stalled, and Reigns eventually choked out KO in the Guillotine.
The main card of the pay-per-view had exceeded all expectations, but there was still plenty
of unease in the air.
It’s all how you leave them, folks.
And the men’s Rumble main event was still to come.
And it started off a bit naff.
We already knew Randy Orton and Edge would be out first, which took away the surprise,
and Orton was helped to the back after their brawl in the logic-pushing he’s still not
eliminated from the Rumble despite being removed for medical reasons for the entire match.
It picked up with Carlito’s surprise return at number 8, turning up just a little late
for his Raw Legends night booking, and then a cool Big E and Woods team up for 9 and 10.
The 2nd act fell victim to the midcard treadmill that WWE’s Rumbles often do - with filler
entrants of Elias, Ricochet, Miz and John Morrison - but was helped by a strong showing
from Damian Priest and some fun celebrity involvement when Bad Bunny hit a half-splash,
half-fall off the top rope on Miz and Morrison.
Bobby Lashley came in and freaking dominated, Hurricane Helms got a comedy cameo, and Daniel
Bryan and Kane had a Team Hell No reunion in a very decent run of spots.
But the best moment of this very good match, and arguably the pay-per-view as a whole,
was the genuinely huge surprise of Christian making his in-ring return.
You know, that Christian.
One More Match, Christian.
Captain Charisma Christian.
Edge and Christian - with his tag partner waiting for him in the ring for a sweet embrace.
Then we just got great spot after great spot, as though Blampied really did fantasy book
it.
Cesaro and Sheamus bump into each other for a Bar reunion.
Seth Rollins made his shock return at No. 29.
Bryan and Riddle just straight up had a match of trying to kick the actual crap out of each
other - which was heelishly ended when Seth threw Bryan out, surely setting up their Mania
program.
The only annoyance from this point, really, was the booking of Omos and AJ Styles - where
the Big Guy not only saved AJ multiple times, but fully eliminated Big E and Rey Mysterio.
If that’s legal, then why doesn’t Ali bring all of Retribution with him?
Edge seemed to have it won after he threw out Seth, but then - you guessed it - from
outta nowhere struck Orton with an RKO.
It was an incredible bit of booking, making us scared the Darkest Timeline was happening,
for Edge to reverse Orton’s throw and win the Rumble from the No. 1 spot.
What did you think of the Royal Rumble pay-per-view?
Let me know in the comments, and vote in our Poll on a Pole match by following us on Twitter
@WrestleTalk_TV - where an amazing 49% thought it was excellent.
This not only had two fantastic Rumble matches, it’s one of the best Royal Rumble pay-per-views
WWE have ever put on.
Surprises, great matches, returns, winners you’re happy with - absolutely everything
you could hope for from WWE’s best format of the year.
Royal Rumble 2021 is four out of four.
It also all went down in our Royal Royal live reactions too.
Randy Datson and Adam Blampied won the Jamble matches, setting them up for title shots at
WrestleJamia.
And I lost, no, I was screwed, out of my Jampionship by the Inside Man.
El Fakidor is your new Jam that Jampion.
And that’s not the only thing that’s happening at WrestleTalk.
Because here’s a very special message… from me, recorded back when I still had my
Jampionship belt!
Now here’s a WrestleTalk service announcement… from me!
Now, this is a ‘shoot’ as they call it in the wrestling biz.
We’ve got a few things happening on WrestleTalk - all good, don’t panic - that I thought
it’d be useful to go through with you all.
I’m selling everything to Peacock Premium.
Just kidding.
To peel back the YouTube analytics curtain, we’ve been talking to some very smart, very
expensive experts.
Algorithmic boffins.
Who say that the way we’ve got the WrestleTalk channel structured isn’t the best it can
be for all of you, our amazing viewers.
If you look at all the content we put out.
And it’s a lot.
You’ll see the WrestleTalk podcasts get around 30,000 views an episode.
Then the WrestleTalk News gets about 100,000.
And Adam’s lists get between 200,000 and 1.3million views oh my god.
Which shows that not everyone watches everything.
Which the almighty YouTube algorithm doesn’t like.
Apparently, it thinks because you haven’t watched the most recent few uploads, you don’t
like us anymore, and it’ll stop suggesting you our videos.
Because I’m pretty sure the YouTube algorithm has become sentient and is out to replace
us all oh go-
So when we make our WrestleTalk News episodes live on a Tuesday, and then put up the WrestleTalk
Podcast just two hours later on the same channel, YouTube tends to only recommend the most recent
video.
Meaning not as many viewers are getting recommended our videos as they should.
Which sucks for you guys.
Because our videos are amazing.
The answer is: THE SUPER CONTENT SHAKE-UP!
The WrestleTalk Podcast will move entirely to an exclusive WrestleTalk Podcast channel
- which is the rebranded Wrestle2.
That’s where you can find every Raw, SmackDown, AEW Dynamite and pay-per-view review podcast
stream, along with the magazine show and our pay-per-view live reactions - meaning if you
just want longform wrestling podcasts, this is the channel for you!
Wrestling Daily has already moved to its own channel, where you can enjoy Alex McCarthy,
Louis Dangoor, Stephanie Chase and SP3 every day.
Adam Blampied’s list videos, meanwhile, will move to PartsFUNknown to be alongside
his Fantasy Booking, QuizzleMania and Luke and Laurie’s wrestling video essays Explained
and Actually Good.
partsFUNknown will now be our home of evergreen wrestling content, making it much easier for
people who aren’t interested in current news and reviews.
Leaving this channel right here, WrestleTalk, to be exclusively what it originally started
as: The WrestleTalk News, every Monday to Saturday, hosted by me, Laurie, Pete and Luke
- which will stop your subscription feeds getting too cluttered.
I know, I know - change.
It’s scary.
But, really, it’s all the same as before.
Just our various series will now be easier for you to find.
Which will hopefully give us more views.
It’s a win, win.
To make sure no-one’s left behind, we’re going to be dual-streaming the Raw and AEW
podcasts both here and on the WrestleTalk Podcast channel for the next three weeks.
We’ll do the same for Adam’s list videos on partsFUNknown too so everyone knows each
video’s new homes.
Then we’ll move over everything completely on the day after Elimination Chamber.
So please do Support WrestleTalk, now more than ever, and go and subscribe to partsFUNknown,
the WrestleTalk Podcast and Wrestling Daily.
Thanks for sticking with us all these years guys.
Hopefully if this all goes to plan and doesn’t spectacularly blow up in our faces, we’ll
be able to do even more for you all.