ROYAL RUMBLE 2021 Post Event Discussion

[Brian Fowler]

It's the kinda the same "actual age vs TV age" thing from WCW. It's not just that, say, Orton, is 40. It's that he's been on WWE main roster TV for almost 21 years. He's been a main eventer for over 15 years. 

They don't elevate very many young guys, and so many guys have been in the exact same slot for so God damn long. Didn't they say Ziggler had been in the second most Rumbles ever, behind only Kane? And he's basically been the same midcard guy that gets a main event run once every few years. Like he's went from young up and comer to veteran hand without ever changing his spot on the fucking card.

[odessasteps]

And most guys don’t even freshen up or change their look or gimmick. 

[The Natural]

 

[Niners Fan in CT]

39 minutes ago, L_W_P said:

7 years ago Miz was the same character. The exact same.

thing about Miz is he actually did improve his look and somewhat update his character when he had Maryse by his side and then he washed it all away. 

[The Natural]

[Kev]

11 hours ago, GuerrillaMonsoon said:

How do you guys feel about Shotzi Blackheart?

I've seen her maybe a handful of times and she effortlessly inspires go away heat with me. Just something completely inauthentic about her character, and how that translates to what she does in ring (mostly just not buying her going 50/50 with more established acts). 

I don’t know if I’d describe her as inauthentic, I can kind of buy that she thinks all that stuff is cool. I do think the whole aesthetic is incredibly lame though, but I’m probably not the audience.

For me, your description kind of fits better for Toni Storm. She’s good in-ring but she comes off as really annoying and forced. Ever since I first saw her I thought she screamed heel, I see they’ve turned her now but based on the rockstar references they’re still trying to sell her as cool. The rockstar thing (why? Because she wears a leather jacket) should be that she’s a try-hard poser, particularly in contrast to someone like Rhea who really sells her character well.

Edited February 2, 2021 by Kev
Typo

[The Natural]

LOL.

Edited February 2, 2021 by The Natural

[Kev]

3 hours ago, L_W_P said:

Completely agree with this, having not watched in a while it stood out to me how many guys still felt really stale in the men’s Rumble. A combination of guys having reached their ceiling long ago and having little to no character progression. I think a lot of these are good performers but there’s Sheamus, Miz, Ziggler, Orton. Even relatively new guys like Elias, Corbin and Strowman. Morrison, who was away for years ,came back and regressed to a character he was doing 10+ years ago. Kane who’s been part-time/away for a few years just never feels like he’s been gone for any length of time in 20 years so a surprise comeback feels meaningless. I’d even kind of put someone like Cesaro in this same stale bracket but with him there’s at least that hope that they’ll finally give him a main event run.

Edited February 2, 2021 by Kev
Messed up the quote was replying to: It crazy just how long these guys hand around with little/no change. It is absolutely my biggest frustration with WWE right now.

[RIPPA]

Meltzer on the radio show after the PPV made a similar comment regarding some of main roster folks being there forever

It started with them joking about despite bragging about how many years Ziggler and Miz had been in the Rumble that they would keep sending Kane out so no one could catch him but then Dave turned into the point that there really is no reason to have people like Ziggler and Miz in the Rumble year after year.

I mean if it is basically just go out for 5-10 minutes - there is no reason those spots couldn't be filled by any number of people

And tangential to this - in terms of guys who you forget have been around for ever - Jey Uso wasn't medically cleared to be on the show. No exact reason as to why he wasn't medically cleared but it was noted that he was in the SDL graphic a week before the show but not the SDL two days before the show

[Matt D]

You think about guys who were there for a huge chunk of my youth like Dibiase and Duggan, and they're basically 87-93. Six-Seven years. And they weren't on TV every week and especially not in big, even matches.

The issue, in some ways isn't even your Dolphs and Kofis and whatever. Rollins has already been on the main roster for over seven years. It'll be six years for Owens this year, and obviously, with both of them, more if you count NXT time. You get the combination of guys being far more exposed and being there longer. When they finally phase out the late 00s guys, it's not like the ones who are left are going to feel any fresher.

Of course the real hellscape is going to be in ten years when instead of Goldberg coming back to main event, they'll be bringing back five years gone WWE Legend Dolph Ziggler to take a main event spot as an attraction.

[RIPPA]

In case anyone was curious the list of women who have been in everyone Rumble is now just

1. Carmella
2. Dana Brooke
3. Liv Morgan
4. Mandy Rose
5. Naomi
6. Natalya
7. Tamina

 

[Leonidas]

On 2/1/2021 at 4:17 AM, Hector said:

I can't believe there are people who look at Edge in the ring tonight and don't see Randy "The Ram" Robinson. He looked terrible.

He looks like Harvey Keitel in From Dusk Till Dawn ... after he was turned into a vampire.

[The Natural]

1 hour ago, RIPPA said:

In case anyone was curious the list of women who have been in everyone Rumble is now just

1. Carmella
2. Dana Brooke
3. Liv Morgan
4. Mandy Rose
5. Naomi
6. Natalya
7. Tamina

 

I was thinking about that last night. Thanks for posting. Which one did Bayley miss? Without looking, I'd guess the first or second. Missed Sasha Banks in the latest version.

[BobbyWhioux]

1 hour ago, The Natural said:

I was thinking about that last night. Thanks for posting. Which one did Bayley miss? Without looking, I'd guess the first or second. Missed Sasha Banks in the latest version.

Bayley missed the third (2020), defending the championship against Lacey Evans [still my favorite Evans match by default]

[Curt McGirt]

Edge pulled this ridiculous face, I think at the end of that promo, where I looked up and laughed and had to ask myself who it was. 

EDIT: No I think it was two places. The bug-eyed face was at the end of the promo and then he was laying down on the floor in the match, I looked up and didn't recognize him. This was last night on Raw BTW

Edited February 2, 2021 by Curt McGirt

[Phantom Lord]

I thought it was an all right show. The women's rumble was really good and I was shocked at all the people they got for it.

Roman vs. Owens was good, but the ending was just dumb.

The men's rumble was good. Not great, but good. Still can't stand evil Seth Rollins so I'm glad he didn't win. Wanted Bryan to win, but they have to be going with Edge vs. Roman which would be a pretty good match.

I was shocked to see Christian return. I'm glad he can wrestle again if he wants. 

[RIPPA]

4 hours ago, BobbyWhioux said:

Bayley missed the third (2020), defending the championship against Lacey Evans [still my favorite Evans match by default]

Yeah - the reason Bayley, Alexa and Charlotte are each at 3 is because each missed a year due to being champion at the time.

Interesting note - Asuka has only been in 1 (the year she won) as she has missed 2 because she was champ and the third was because she was in the title match on the Rumble show (in which her title shot was on the card after the women's Rumble match already occurred)

[Kev]

Another point which I think sort of underpins the whole staleness/guys around forever talk is that, despite the various shows and belts, there’s no real logical structure to anything that happens or even any clear hierarchy a lot of the time.

The WWE/Universal, IC/US, both sets of tag belts are completely interchangeable (didn’t they just outright swap the tag belts between teams last year?). 

What motivates a former world champ to go for the IC/US belt? Why can some guys just skip the IC/US level?

Why do relative scrubs like Elias or No Way Jose get promoted from NXT? Why was Santana Garrett in the women’s Rumble ahead of multiple NXT women that are featured more regularly?

I could go on forever with this, but I think it all contributes to the staleness, there’s just a general sense that nothing really matters and it never feels like guys are facing different challenges. I do think if there was a bit more logic to what was going on then you could create better long term story arcs for people, which would help character development and maybe prevent some of the staleness.

This isn’t the thread for it but I think it would be interesting to try plotting out character arcs for some of these guys to see if they actually make any sense (I’d suggest Rollins actually has the dots to plot out a really good character arc since the start of his run, but in execution the story telling has often been a let down).

[The Natural]

7 hours ago, BobbyWhioux said:

Bayley missed the third (2020), defending the championship against Lacey Evans [still my favorite Evans match by default]

Cheers, @BobbyWhioux and @RIPPA.

[Unnatural]

The Bayley elimination of Ruby Riott was [chef's kiss!]

 

Is it my imagination or does Rhea start potatoing Bayley after the powerbomb apron spot with Dana?

One sec Rhea eliminates Dana, makes it back in the ring, Bayley tussles her hair as Rhea sits there foot tangled in the bottom rope,, giving Rhea this RAGE look in her eyes and she's all over Bayley moments later as Bayley tries to run away and Rhea is just hammering away and Bianca has to pounce on Rhea to break it up 

Either fantastic acting or I'm just over imagining it?

[tbarrie]

3 hours ago, RIPPA said:

Yeah - the reason Bayley, Alexa and Charlotte are each at 3 is because each missed a year due to being champion at the time.

Makes sense that the list of women who've been in all four is a parade of jobbers, then.

[RIPPA]

It also doesn’t help that the first Rumble was half filled with returning Divas

[BobbyWhioux]

3 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

It also doesn’t help that the first Rumble was half filled with returning Divas

lol remember Michelle McCool back for one night to get to be the ring-clearer/Elimination Queen was so hilariously bad.

would still be the nadir of the women's rumbles so far if actual fucking Santina hadn't shown up last year.

[tbarrie]

17 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

It also doesn’t help that the first Rumble was half filled with returning Divas

It was, but they didn't leave any top stars on the shelf that night to make room for those divas, did they? I'm pretty sure the main reason nobody of significance is a four-timer is that most of their top women have been in the world title match at least one of those years.

Spinning off into general discussion of the women's rumble - I enjoyed the "memory lane" schtick they did the first year, but I remember thinking they'd need to hire and push more women to prevent having to do it every year. It bugs me a lot that they haven't done that. Instead, the last three have been padded out with women the audience has no reason to give a rat's ass about, and the match has suffered for it.

I'm actually surprised so many people here have said they preferred the women's rumble to the men's this year, and that's the reason. Sure, I'm happier to see Bianca Belair get a 'Mania title shot than Edge, but the quality of the match is not a function of who won IMO.

[The Natural]