Rumble was a bit of an unexpected animated release that came right at the end of the
year onto Paramount+. With WWE Studios partly behind the story, we get the opportunity to
see the spectacle of professional wrestling… blown up bigger than ever with giant monsters.
It’s a fun movie that follows to characters both left to fill the shoes of their late, great
fathers… and explores some of the difficulties that come along with such a monstrous task.
With a colorful cast of both humans and building-sized
creatures… we want to see how everyone stacks up on the morality spectrum.
I’m Kyle with WickedBinge, and this is Rumble Characters: Good to Evil.
As usual, we’ll begin with the most noble character and work our way down
to the most evil. These characters are The Good. We have to say, the Gold Wrestling Belt of Good
goes to none other than Rayburn Jr. He’s one of two of the main characters in the movie,
and we have to say that he comes off as just slightly more noble.
He isn’t perfect, by any stretch of the imagination… He is incredibly lazy,
and doesn’t seem to have any real drive in life…
He lives in a sort of shame, losing fights professionally, by another name… because he
knows that he’s never live up to his father’s name. And, as he points out later in the film,
he hasn’t been happy in a long time. In fact, he comes off as suffering from depression.
Which is why it’s nice to see him break through that depression, not only for himself,
but for his new friends, as well as the entire city of Stoker. Yes, Winnie does a lot for the
city too, and never gives up… but we can’t overlook that poor Rayburn here is the one
putting himself in actual physical danger. All the way to the point that he challenges
the toughest monster around, the actual champion, to a one-on-one match for the
Arena. And for this level of courage and bravery… we have to give him The Gold.
But not far behind him, we have Winnie with The Silver. Desperate to live up to her dad’s
great legacy, she takes it upon herself to make him proud… and save everything that he built.
We have to give her a lot of the same credit we gave to Rayburn, as the city wouldn’t have been
saved if not for her persistence and dedication… But she does this, at least at the start,
without much concern for what Rayburn wants. She kind of pressures him into
it knowing that he doesn’t really want to be a fighter, or anything like what his father was.
That said, she comes around eventually and learns how to help Rayburn find happiness as well…
and the two of them go on to save the Arena and the city of Stocker.
We’re giving The Bronze Medal to both Jimbo and Rayburn Sr. The dads of Winnie and Rayburn Jr.
respectively. They don’t have much screentime, as they’ve been gone for so long… and most of
what we hear about them is practically legend… but they were both great fathers to our heroes
and raised them in part to the people… or monsters… that they are today.
Next, we have Winnie’s mom. She really falls into the classic supportive mom animated trope,
but that’s totally fine. She supports Winnie in everything she does,
even if it’s a monumental task like going to find a new monster to bring back home to the
arena. She also does everything she can to make Winnie feel better once the mayor signs over the
deed to the area for demolition. Explaining to her daughter how proud she is for coaching
and fighting so hard regardless of the outcome. A quick shoutout to Mac next. Mac is the monster
half of the broadcasting duo who commentate all the Monster Matches… Unlike his human counterpart,
he’s actually very positive… and seems to be rooting for Rayburn Jr. Even complimenting him
on his dancing, despite the fact that his co-host seems to have a burning hatred for it having a
presence in the sport of wrestling. Next, we have Fred and Maggie.
These two are citizens in town who love the Monster Fights… but more importantly,
they seem to be very supportive of Winnie and her efforts to save the arena. We see that Fred
is an all around nice guy from the start when he comforts Winnie when the crowd is chanting her
dad’s name in the opening of the movie. And rounding out our Good Characters,
we have the monster, Axe Hammer. Axe Hammer is one of the first monsters Winnie encounters
on her scouting mission… and although she laughs at her recruitment speech, it becomes
clear that she’s a good monster. Specifically later, when she shows up to help train Rayburn
prior to his final showdown with Tentacular With the good characters out of the way… we
now move into more neutral territory. These characters fall in The Grey Area.
First up we have King Gorge… We don’t really have a whole lot to say about the big dog from a moral
perspective… Even if he’s vicious in the ring, that doesn’t say much… as he may just be a heel.
We will say that we kind of felt bad for him when we learned that he hasn’t left his kennel since
his big defeat against Tentacular. Poor pup. Similarly, we can’t really hold too much
against Ramarilla, as well. We will say that this monster comes off as more…
psychotic than many of the other fighters. But again, he’s probably just putting on a show.
Wrestling is filled with heels, afterall. We do have a couple gripes with Siggy, however.
Siggy was the coach of Tentacular who chose to leave Stoker with him,
even after the monster revealed himself to be awful to the town… Sure, it’s a job,
I guess… but given the fact that Siggy was with Winnie’s dad from the start… it was certainly a
bit of a treacherous decision to leave. He also dismisses Winnie’s advice early on, saying that
little girls like her don’t belong in the ring. But in the end, Siggy does try to do the right
thing by telling Winnie to put the safety of her monster before victory… Which Rayburn told her
to disregard, but it shows that he at least has a heart. And in when the fight is over,
he tells her that her dad would be proud. Rounding out our Grey Area are The Mayor
and The Council Woman. The mayor comes of as cowardly, simply put… he signs over the
arena immediately… without putting any effort into coming up with an alternative plan. And on
top of that, when things work out in the end… he proclaims that he’s actually be re-elected,
showing that we really only cares about his own power and what’s best for his career.
The Council Woman comes off as quite heartless, both when she explains the situation to the town
in the diner… and later when she shows up to clear out the arena while Winnie and Rayburn are there.
Neither one of them seem to be the best elected official… Stoker could probably do a lot better.
With The Grey Area complete… we now move into darker territory. These characters are
The Bad and The Evil. Our Bronze Medal of Evil has
to go to Tentacular’s Agent. There really isn’t anything redeemable about this guy…
He’s totally apathetic to anyone else’s plights… and is completely and totally
narcissistic… which makes a lot of sense given the fact that he’s representing Tentacular.
We’re going to give The Silver Medal to Lady Mayhen, which probably isn’t all the surprising.
She’s the monster in charge of the rigged fights that Rayburn loses in over and over… So she’s
already involved in what seems to be a scam of some sort, likely centered around gambling.
But she’s also very threatening to Rayburn and others… making herself quite the danger
to anyone who may cross her. But most notably, in the context of the story… she’s the character
that has helped build up Rayburn’s identity as just a loser. This seems to have ruined him
psychologically in so many ways, which shows how awful of a manipulator she is.
Finally, surprising nobody I’m sure… Our Gold Medal of Evil has to go to Tentacular. He’s
the biggest heel in the movie. He basically waits until he’s successful and then throws the entire
city that supported him under the bus and leaves for another company. Not even just because it’s
a better opportunity but because he actually hates everyone there and what they represent.
He doesn’t want to destroy the arena because it’s competition, but because it’s represents a legacy
that is greater than him… so he must destroy it. Which makes Tentacular one of the most
narcissistic villains we’ve seen in a long time. He seems to be practically sadistic
with the level of hatred he has for the city that supported him; and wants nothing but
fame and attention… As he put it himself… It’s not about anyone else… it’s about ME.
We’re very happy that he was defeated by Rayburn. But let us know in the comment section what you
thought of Rumble. And who do you think was the most noble character? Don’t forget to hit that
notification bell and binge oru Good to Evil playlist. But most importantly, stay wicked.