TheVileOne

That's the message he wants out.

I do think having two rumbles on one four-match show is part of what hurts the pacing of these, but then the only solution would be to make the Rumble another two-night event, which might not work.

Well, the guy I wonder about is Matt Cardona. Now, maybe he's happy that he can just work in the same place as his wife, and they can be on the road together. But like, is he really happy with this? Because I see pretty much this as his ceiling in WWE. Frankly, I'm shocked they brought him back at all, and it seemed more like WWE management was doing a favor to Cena and Chelsea Green. It seems like Cardona was mainly motivated by the idea of getting back to WWE and simply wants to be there. But he's only been back a few weeks, and he's already fallen prey to the dreaded 50/50 booking.

To be fair, the AJ match wasn't a title match. It's AJ's career on the line only.

This felt like a very safe and uninspired Royal Rumble. Once again, the lack of meaningful matches and variety is really hurting PLEs. A couple more matches to add some spice could've gone a long way to help this card along. If CM Punk's only job was to do the pre-show, what is the point? Also, why not have at least one match during the pre-show? Would certainly break up all the endless yapping and promos we've already seen clipped over many times. I think the show peaked with the women's Rumble. I think Liv Morgan was a strong candidate to win, but I'm glad to see her finally win it. Brie was the only really big surprise. I think it's fine if she comes back and does a tag team with her sister. They can win the tag belts and have a run there, and you can easily turn them heel if need be. Tonight was not the night to put over Sami Zayn. Frankly, I think the triple threat idea for WM 42 is flaccid. Why not try to do a Sami-Mania program again? Otherwise, if you want to anoint Jacob Fatu, just anoint him. No reason to throw Cody in there. Zayn vs. Drew McIntyre was solid. Drew shouldn't lose right now. His title reign is the best part of SmackDown right now, and he's waited years to have his proper title run. He can be good as a dominant heel champion to build someone up to eventually topple. Hot potato'ing it to Sami just to give him a feel-good moment would've been nonsense. Not sure why we are doing the masked man thing again, just in reverse. The last masked man reveal didn't even really have anything to do with Breakker, as Austin Theory was kind of doing it on his own to impress The Vision, and he was attacking the babyfaces. Plus, it's not like the Black Scorpion reveal has worked in getting Austin Theory over. Considering Bron Breakker was likely a favorite for money to win, this took him out and at least protects him. I can only assume WWE believes they have youth on their side with Breakker, and they aren't in a huge hurry to anoint him yet, especially when he's the top heel now. But it does seem a bit strange. It comes off like WWE is mildly hesitant about giving Breakker the rocker toom. The way they eliminated Brock was bad. It was during Jey's entrance, and it was so uneventful. No one cared or noticed at all. Really sloppy. I think last year, it was fine to give Jey Uso his WrestleMania run, but the Main Event Uso character has really worn out its welcome, become totally obnoxious. I think debuting Hobbs as Royce Keys in the Rumble was a terrible idea. The crowd was dead when he entered, and no one cared. I think Hobbs/Keys really needed that NXT run to properly rebrand him and reintroduce him. Where does he go from here now? With Reigns winning, I think the best route to go is Punk vs. Reigns one-on-one, which I would've preferred last year. I mean, it's fine. That could work for WrestleMania if they really focus and dig in. But both guys are babyfaces right now, and I'm not sure if that will work. If one of them were to turn heel, they need to commit to it, and not pull the wishy-washy garbage they did with Cena last year. Gunther and AJ had a good match. Not sure what to make of AJ feigning to take his gear off but leaving it on. That said, I hope he keeps to his word, and this is it for him. I'd much rather AJ hang it up now and not start becoming like Rey Mysterio, who really should've hung it up a while ago. But AJ is still looking sharp and putting on classics at 48.

In a 2-hour and 58-minute show, the wrestling took up approximately 98 minutes.

I think AJ retiring this weekend is the best course of action. He goes out in the event where he came in. We don't need a long, drawn-out retirement tour for AJ. Men's Rumble really should be someone like LA Knight or Bron Breakker. Women's Rumble should be Liv Morgan.

Evolution 2025 got seven decently lengthed matches, though.

Crazy to me that after all this time, TNA finally makes it back, gets a new TV deal, probably their biggest broadcast deal in over a decade, and they squander a golden opportunity. It's like LOLTNA is hard-wired into the company's DNA. It's also very strange to me that Anthem spent years erasing TNA from existence and rebranding into Impact, only to ultimately resume the TNA branding a few years later. It's such a weird choice. At least they probably didn't waste as much money rebranding as WBD did with HBO Max to Max and back to HBO Max.

Maybe he's buying CMLL.

Powerhouse Hobbs was meandering in AEW, so if he wants to give WWE a shot, now is the best time for him. I also think he will benefit from an NXT run, where he can be used well and get used to the WWE style and pace, and a lot of guys and gals are leaving NXT right now, meaning they can use a monster like Hobbs right now. Hobbs may not be the pure in-ring worker, but the dude has all the tools. You can't always push people based on whether they can deliver a 5-star MOTYC candidate in the ring. Hobbs looks and carries himself like a superstar. They failed to elevate him in The Opps. It was mainly a way to continue pushing Joe and to give Shibata something to do. And there are too many guys like that in AEW right now. It's no wonder that so many guys want to leave. Look what happened to Private Party. They finally got the titles, and they were booked like garbage as champs. Then they disappeared for over a year after losing the belts to Hurt Syndicate.

I'm not too sad about it. If that game got made we might never have gotten the Arkham series.

I hope Punk and Breakker are okay after those botches, but Punk needs to knock off that stupid dive. He shouldn't be diving so late into the match. Also, his dives always look terrible. A dive is not his type of move, and he doesn't pull it off well. It's even worse now that he's 47.

I guess it depends on your opinion. I totally understand people not liking the finish and people thinking Cena shouldn't have tapped. But the vitriolic anger and rejection of the finish are somewhat lost on me because I support the Gunther victory, especially Cena tapping out. Plus Helwani's complaints sort of ignore all the big wins Cena picked up during his farewell tour, including becoming a 17-time champion, IC champion, and he only lost the title to Dominik by heel cheating and interference. I feel Cena having an invincible Super Cena run where he wins all of his matches sort of defeats the purpose and makes no sense. Was the Lesnar match badly booked and conceived? That I'd totally agree with. But I mean, I take no issue with the Gunther match and how the finish played out. I think it's best best-case scenario.

Honeymoon period is over between Triple H and Ariel Helwani. What a weird turn considering a couple of years ago, Helwani was accused of softballing Nick Khan and Triple H, and Tony Khan was publicly calling him out as a fraud for appearing on WWE broadcasts.