Here’s my final thoughts on WWE Raw and SmackDown Live’s Royal Rumble 2018!
Bobby Roode (c) vs. Mojo Rawley (Open Challenge for the WWE United States Championship)
Reactions: So we didn’t get Dolph Ziggler or someone somewhat surprising (like the return of Mike Kanellis). All we got was…Mojo. Welp, there you have it folks! Seems like the only surprises you’ll get during the Royal Rumble are the ones that take place during the actual match itself. This was your average SD Live TV bout. Roode retained and gave the crowd something to cheer extra hard for during the Kickoff Show, at least.
Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars
Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson vs. The Revival (Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder)
Reactions: This tag team rematch was pretty much what it would have been if an extra 2-3 minutes got tacked onto their Raw 25 meeting. The action presented here was passable at best. It’s just good to see The Revival healthy again and getting that PPV spotlight (even though it’s during Kickoff Show hours). I guess we’re getting that tiebreaker between these teams on Raw real soon.
Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars
Kalisto, Lince Dorado, and Gran Metalik vs. TJP, Gentleman Jack Gallagher, and Drew Gulak (6-Man Tag Team Match)
Reactions: This was par for the course when it comes to your average 205 Live 6-Man Tag. Wasn’t terrible, wasn’t great…it was just passable. The crowd’s adoration for Gulak’s Powerpoint antics was surprising, plus him and Jack’s squabble over that whole “No Fly Zone” rule was cute. And anytime Metalik gets to strut his stuff, it’s a good time. This was just about what you’d expect, though.
Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars
The Usos (Jey and Jimmy Uso) (c) vs. Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin (2-out-of-3-Falls Match for the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship)
Reactions: While this bout didn’t have a lot of life to it at first, it soon turned into a worthwhile contest between two great teams. Gable and Benjamin focused most of their work on Jimmy’s leg. This portion of the match wasn’t all that exciting, but it led up to that familiar hot Usos tag routine. That’s when the match got way more livelier. This match saw Gable hand out a rare Tiger Suplex, both Usos tear up Gable with Double Superkicks and Benjamin Powerbombing one of the Usos right onto his fresh partner. After the first fall took place, Shelton and Gable turned up their savagery levels a bit to punish The Usos. But then the match ended quickly after one of the Usos surprised Benjamin with a quick roll-up pin. This match is another case of “wait…that’t it?” from this PPV. I still enjoyed everything up until that moment, though.
Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars
Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan (c) vs. Cesaro and Sheamus (WWE Raw Tag Team Championship)
Reactions: Placing this match on the card after an exciting Royal Rumble match wasn’t the wisest decision. That became evident as both teams fought while a completely drained and apathetic crowd sat on their hands. The match itself wasn’t all that bad, but the dead crowd did it no favors. Then there was Jason Jordan’s lack of involvement during the majority of this bout, which expectedly signaled an upcoming heel turn for Kurt Angle’s “son.” Rollins was forced to compete in a Handicap Match of sorts while Jordan slowly got back to his feet. When Jordan finally got tagged in, he chose to instead tag Rollins back in and tend to his injury. That led right into the flat ending that saw Cesaro and Sheamus pinning Rollins to reclaim their titles. A bad match placement, dead crowd, and lame performance from Jordan kept this match from being anything more than okay.
Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars
AJ Styles (c) vs. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn (Handicap Match for the WWE Championship)
Reactions: The crowd loved all three guys here. We’re in Philly after all, so that type of crowd reaction shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone. The opening shenanigans from Team Yep was pretty humorous and it led to some fun exchanges between them and AJ. AJ played his role as the underdog here greatly and Owens/Sami made for the perfect jerks who had the unfair advantage. This match started out pretty slow and gradually got better as it wore on. It was pretty cool to see AJ break out that Backflip Reverse DDT for once. But just as it seemed to be entering into an even higher gear, the match came to an abrupt end. The controversial ending seems to be pointing to a continuation of the whole storyline between Owens/Sami and Shane McMahon. This one was kind of a letdown, but at least the action was decent up until its out of nowhere finish.
Rating: 2 & a Half out of 5 Stars
Brock Lesnar (c) (with Paul Heyman) vs. Braun Strowman vs. Kane (Triple Threat Match for the WWE Universal Championship)
Reactions: I’ve been a huge fan of WWE’s monster mash matches for the Universal Championship lately. Lesnar’s finally gotten some worthy competition in the form of bruisers such as Braun Strowman, Samoa Joe and Goldberg. Ever since then, these giants have clobbered each other and delivered some of the best matches contested for Raw’s title. This Triple Threat Match joins that collection of entertaining big match contests. Strowman, Kane, and Lesnar looked as if they were auditioning for the role of the next Godzilla film as they destroyed themselves and everything around them. Strowman looked as horrifying as always, Lesnar tapped into his “Suplex City” prowess and Kane even put in some worthwhile work. The broken tables and broken bones all equaled up into an awesome brawl that was better than I expected it to be. Lesnar won of course, but I was still pleased with the pure chaos all three men got involved in. Strowman still looks unstoppable since he wasn’t pinned and Lesnar is still the Universal Champ, so this match accomplished what it set out to do.
Rating: 3 & a Half out of 5 Stars
2018 Women’s Royal Rumble Match (30-Woman Royal Rumble Match for a Women’s Championship Match at WrestleMania 34)
Reactions: History was definitely made with the first ever Women’s Royal Rumble. And what made this this bout even more special is the fact that it got the main event spot. Banks and Lynch as the first two entrants made the most sense as they’re some of WWE’s best workhorse competitors. After their opening match portion concluded, the fun truly began. Faces we haven’t seen in a while popped back up (The Bella Twins, Molly Holly, Torrie Wilson, Kelly Kelly, Michelle McCool, Jacqueline etc.), plus Hall of Famers (Trish Stratus, Beth Phoenix, and Lita) returned. A lot of fun moments were seen throughout, such as Nia Jax’s domineering performance, Trish and Mickie James rekindling their 2006 beef, and Naomi’s Kofi Kingston-like Rumble elimination save. While it wasn’t as action-packed as the Men’s Rumble, this all-ladies battle royale still showed and proved in the main event spotlight. Asuka got the expected victory, but the unexpected happened when former UFC fighter Ronda Rousey came out and pointed at the ‘Mania 34 sign. The theme of this entire segment was “shock and awe.” It certainly delivered on that front.
Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars
2018 Men’s Royal Rumble Match (30-Man Royal Rumble Match for a World Championship Match at WrestleMania 34)
Reactions: The 2018 Royal Rumble turned out to be much better that I expected it to be. I didn’t really picture any surprise entrants popping up, but I was shocked to see the welcome returns of The Hurricane and even Rey Mysterio! The action never faltered here as the ring stayed full at all times. On the comedy front, I got a good laugh out of watching Heath Slater continuously get assaulted by incoming entrants. And then he got a huge pop from me and the live crowd after he got rid of Sheamus with little to no effort! Rusev Day was in full swing, too! Him and Finn had one of the better showings this year as they lasted a good while from numbers #1 and #2. NXT played a part in the Rumble proceedings as well due to the surprising arrivals of Adam Cole and Andrade “Cien” Almas. The final six entrants made the last stretch of this battle royale match a nail biting affair. Finishing moves were unleashed and popular contenders got thrown over the top rope in quick succession. Once Reigns and Nakamura became the last two men, they played with everyone’s emotions by going back and forth in a mini-match. Their closing encounter provided a fitting end to an engrossing Royal Rumble that ended with Nakamura getting the big win and taking aim at the WWE Champion, AJ Styles.
Rating: 3 & a Half out of 5 Stars
Match of the Night
The Men’s Royal Rumble Match!
Final Verdict
The Royal Rumble marks the start of the Road to WrestleMania. This PPV sets the tone for the leadup to the biggest wrestling show of the year either positively or negatively, depending on who wins the big battle royale. The 2018 installment of this historic PPV did a good job of giving me hope that ‘Mania 34 turns out to be an exciting affair. Both the Men’s and Women’s Rumble’s dished out shocking returns, hilarious moments, and exchanges that caused me to sweat in anticipation of who would get eliminated. Two Japanese Superstars emerged as the winners, which is incredibly historic in and of itself. Those matches, plus the Triple Threat clash for the Universal Championship gave this show the spark it needed. The rest of the card was filled with mediocre performances, but the abundance of shockers that the 2018 Royal Rumble featured more than made up for them. The first WWE PPV of 2018 was a good time well spent.
Final Score: 3 & a Half out of 5 Stars
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