ROYAL RUMBLE 2021 Post Event Discussion

[RIPPA]

Just now, Six String Orchestra said:

I resubscribed for this. I have comcast so I believe I have Peacock but never tried. I think the women's rumble should have gone last.

Yeah - supposedly we do but I haven't explored it yet

[RIPPA]

Random "news" from Meltzer (via the radio show)

Dave thinks either Shotzi or Santana Garrett was the last minute replacement for Mia Yim

The original plan was to announce #30 of each Rumble for BOTH matches ahead of time but that was changed before being announced

[StuntmanCrowley]

No matter what im watching, the Royal Rumble is one of my favorite shows of the year.

 

I'm beyond let down

[The Natural]

 

[JohnnyJ]

What hit me while watching the mens rumble is we're experiencing a change in how WWE does business. In the past, as much as WWE wanted to rely on old-timers with name recognition, they were hampered by the fact that they were running 200 house shows per year and needed performers on top who could actually bump/work. No broken down "legend" could keep up with that kind of schedule. That's why the legends would only come around for the big shows. They couldn't handle the road. It's also really difficult in front of a live audience to hide that a wrestler can't go.

Now we're in this weird age of old timers which bares some resemblance to late-90s WCW with better hype packages/smoke and mirrors. 

[Matt D]

I don't think the under 30 thing is a huge deal. If you look at 92, there were maybe six guys under 30 and most of them were 29. That's when WWF didn't have a couple of developmental sub-promotions too. The under 35 figure might be more interesting.

[The Natural]

Reeking of awesomeness!

[Just Dave]

Concussions apparently aren’t the career killer they were ten years ago. Wouldn’t surprise me if Christian did the same hypobaric(sp) treatment Alexa and Daniel Bryan used to get their careers back on track. If that’s the case, and Christian wanted to wrestle bad enough, it’s probably a simple case of “hey, the doctors said I can wrestle again. I can either do that for you guys or on TNT. It’s up to you.”

 

liked the women’s rumble. A lot. I’m not sure I get the anti-Alexa sentiment around these parts. I think she’s the only thing making this silly shit watchable. Her commitment to the material, however “Vince-ified” it’s become, is commendable. 
 

edge winning doesn’t bother me as much as Orton would have, but that was Daniel Bryan’s match. 
 

poor, poor Otis. 
 

big e being eliminated in that fashion was dogshit. Loved the “big meaty men slappin’ meat” segment with Bobby.

[The Natural]

It's a shame there were no fans for Christian's return in the Royal Rumble match like there was for Edge last year. Fuck coronavirus.

[RIPPA]

I know a few folks have mentioned it but honestly if any PPV should be split into two nights now - it should be the Rumble

Heck - if you run one show as an all female show it would allow Steph to do the stupid PR bragging too

It is never gonna happen but yeah...

[Craig H]

I think if anything, the men's and women's Rumble matches showed just how frustrating WWE is. On the one hand, they know how to push someone young. They just did it with Bianca and the women's Rumble match was pretty fun.

And then on the other hand you have the men's Rumble match showing you how stuck Vince is in the past and how many blown opportunities with the men's roster exists. You have Otis out there who had the MitB contract and then fucking lost it when his former tag team partner turned on him and now Tucker is fucking NOWHERE. He may as well not even exist. You have Big E who should be the guy they're pushing to be a top guy next to Roman Reigns and let those two fight it out and make tons of money for the next however many years. You have Daniel Bryan who is actually in the twilight of his career, but it doesn't really matter. You look at Riddle who is booked like a geek, but is allowed time to shine against Daniel Bryan. Keith Lee was unfortunately not there, but Edge winning the Rumble tells you all you need to know about how they would have booked Lee in the Rumble. And the final guys out there was just the same old shit and by old, I mean really fucking old. Christian, Edge, Orton, they're all old. Strowman is juiced to the gills and Rollins is, eh, I don't mind Rollins, but he's so scarred from bad booking that I don't know if he'll ever recover.

They know how to elevate and push younger talent that should be sharing the top spots and you can see that with the women's division. It's frustrating they don't do the same with the men.

[The Natural]

We came so close to Bianca Belair and Edge going an hour. Last one to do that was Chris Jericho in 2017.

[Craig H]

Daniel Bryan went 75 minutes.

[EVA]

43 minutes ago, Matt D said:

I don't think the under 30 thing is a huge deal. If you look at 92, there were maybe six guys under 30 and most of them were 29. That's when WWF didn't have a couple of developmental sub-promotions too. The under 35 figure might be more interesting.

What stands out to me about that is, historically, I feel like 30-35 were the prime years for wrestlers.  If you were ever going to be on top, you generally made it somewhere in that range, and after that you were on your way down.

You look at the guys in that range last night, and you notice A) there aren’t very many of them, and B) Rollins is the only one who’s actually gotten a run; everybody else is still a “potential” guy waiting on his shot.

I feel like (hope?) at some point WWE is going to have to force a youth movement, and then there is going to be this generation of guys in their early 30’s now who are never going to get a run on top because they have the misfortune of being too young now and will be too old later.

[The Natural]

22 minutes ago, Craig H said:

Daniel Bryan went 75 minutes.

I'm a dipshit forgetting that. I stand corrected.

[Spontaneous]

The men's rumble suffered greatly with Orton's injury angle. You knew he was coming back for Edge. Edge winning again felt like a mistake. He was better used last year where he was second to last week eliminated. 

Really wonder what these shows look like in 5 more years. Goldberg really liked shakey on that jackhammer. Not too many main eventers left to dig up from before the modern era line up. 

[Niners Fan in CT]

The Rock is still in play likely for Dallas or L.A. so the part timer thing is far from over.  if it's him and Roman it makes sense in the "Head of the Table" story line but it won't do any favors for the others on the roster. 

[StretchMediatedHypertrophy]

41 minutes ago, EVA said:

What stands out to me about that is, historically, I feel like 30-35 were the prime years for wrestlers.  If you were ever going to be on top, you generally made it somewhere in that range, and after that you were on your way down.

You look at the guys in that range last night, and you notice A) there aren’t very many of them, and B) Rollins is the only one who’s actually gotten a run; everybody else is still a “potential” guy waiting on his shot.

I feel like (hope?) at some point WWE is going to have to force a youth movement, and then there is going to be this generation of guys in their early 30’s now who are never going to get a run on top because they have the misfortune of being too young now and will be too old later.

Exactly this. Hogan was 30 when he won his first WWF Title, Austin was 33 but he'd been the most over guy in the company for a clear year before that, HHH was 30, The Rock was 26, Foley was 33, Cena 27, Taker was 31 when he got his first proper reign as champ, Diesel was quite old at 35, Bret was also 35 (as was Savage), Shawn was 30. Obviously I could mention Orton and Lesnar.

And most of those guys had had pretty significant careers before they actually got the belt.

[Craig H]

31 minutes ago, Six String Orchestra said:

The men's rumble suffered greatly with Orton's injury angle. You knew he was coming back for Edge. Edge winning again felt like a mistake. He was better used last year where he was second to last week eliminated. 

Really wonder what these shows look like in 5 more years. Goldberg really liked shakey on that jackhammer. Not too many main eventers left to dig up from before the modern era line up. 

Goldberg hasn't hit a good jackhammer since he's come back, but he's also old as fuck and lifting up monsters like Brock, Undertaker, and Drew.

Maybe he hit a good jackhammer on Dolph, but I can't remember for sure.

[John from Cincinnati]

2 minutes ago, Craig H said:

Maybe he hit a good jackhammer on Dolph, but I can't remember for sure.

https://imgur.com/yKp2Zcr

[Tuna Boss]

Looking at that list of guys over 40 in the men's rumble is quite telling. I picked a random rumble - 2003 - and noted that HBK and Taker were the oldest guys in that match at 37. However it's also worth noting that times have changed and wrestlers genuinely seem to be healthier and capable of longer careers these days. I think back to how broken down wrestlers in their late thirties/early forties used to look compared with the likes of Rey, Jericho, Shelton Benjamin and so on who continue to perform at a high level well into their forties. 50 is sort of the new 40 in wrestling in that sense. However, WWE's continued inability to create new stars and over reliance on over the hill part-timers can't be understated.

[S.K.o.S.]

Just thinking about that Ripley/Belair spot where they said "Let's not do anything crazy, let's just get back in the ring."  Could you do that spot with two male babyfaces?  I think today you probably could, but you couldn't have done it with Hogan/Warrior or even Austin/Rock.

To be clear, I think it was a good moment that made sense.

[RIPPA]

Also - I think folks get hung up on age more when it is a "legend" as opposed to a regular member of the roster

I mean Nakamura was 37 when he won a couple of years ago and everyone was excited.

If AJ Styles (43), Daniel Bryan (39), Cesaro (40) had won this year, most everyone would have been excited

And a lot of this goes to Tuna's point - it is part of the reason Meltzer has so many weird issues with the HOF. Back when it started, having the eligibility age be 35 made sense because that was what worked. Now due to a whole heap of reasons - 35 is WAY too young.

[RIPPA]

1 minute ago, S.K.o.S. said:

Just thinking about that Ripley/Belair spot where they said "Let's not do anything crazy, let's just get back in the ring."  Could you do that spot with two male babyfaces?  I think today you probably could, but you couldn't have done it with Hogan/Warrior or even Austin/Rock.

To be clear, I think it was a good moment that made sense.

You could definitely do it with tag team partners or a babyface like Ricky Steamboat but definitely not the examples you cited.

[DJ Hero Morganti]

RE the Ripley/Belair spot... when the shield first broke up you could of gotten away with it with Roman/Dean.  You could probably make it work with like Shemus/Cesaro or Shemus/Drew for more current groups.   Or even The New Day if Kofi had been cleared.