Why Was the Men's 2022 Royal Rumble Match Such a Letdown?
The Event was Great, but the Men's Match Could Have Been So Much Better
The 2022 edition of the Royal Rumble is in the rear view mirror, and we are officially on the road to Wrestlemania 38 in Dallas. Before that, I want to talk a little about the events that took place Saturday night in St. Louis. The Rumble matches were won by two former UFC Champions in Ronda Rousey and Brock Lesnar, the latter of which lost his WWE Championship to Bobby Lashley earlier in the evening. Reactions to the wins were mixed, but it seems like Lesnar’s Rumble triumph is getting the worse reception of the two.
I sent out a Tweet on Saturday that said that the Men’s Rumble was one of the top 5 worst Royal Rumbles I’ve ever seen, and I stand by that. It showcased everything that is wrong with the current WWE product. There’s so many mid-carders on Raw and Smackdown at the moment. I was disappointed at a lack of returnees in the match itself, especially when there were rumors of a so-called “forbidden door” entry from another company. The surprise entrants consisted of Drew McIntyre, Bad Bunny, Shane McMahon, and the eventual winner Lesnar. It was great to see The Scottish Warrior back in a WWE ring after several weeks away. That was a huge plus. Even though Bad Bunny had a great match at last year’s Wrestlemania, I’d rather have seen someone else in the Rumble itself.
WWE did not have to rely on celebrity endorsement to make the Royal Rumble match interesting. Instead of names like Bad Bunny and Johnny Knoxville, Cesaro and King Woods could have filled those spots. Sounds a little more legitimate, doesn’t it? Also, the Royal Rumble match showcased WWE’s reliance on tag teams. The Dirty Dawgs, Street Profits, New Day, RKBro, and Alpha Academy all entered the 30-man match. Alone, those teams make up 1/3rd of the field. Add the two celebrities, 12 of the 30 are down. That’s nearly half the entrants.
Finally, there’s the finish. I’ve always been a Brock Lesnar fan, but even I felt the ending of the pay-per-view was just flat. Instead of giving the Rumble win to a younger star, WWE decided to give it to the Beast Incarnate, who was long rumored for a Wrestlemania clash with the Universal Champion, Roman Reigns. Lesnar eliminated five men in just under three minutes en route to his second Rumble win. Riddle, the rumored original winner of the match, lasted until the final four in a very impressive showing. I think most WWE fans would have rather seen the Original Bro take home the W at the end of the night in St. Louis.
There were other instances that weighed the Men’s Rumble down, such as AJ Styles’ elimination at the hands of Madcap Moss, Kofi Kingston’s botched elimination, and Shane McMahon eliminating Kevin Owens. In hindsight, all three of these moments took away from the match itself. Granted, Kofi’s botch was a spur of the moment thing, but less than 30 seconds in the match and no interaction with Big E did not help matters.
I understand that there’s 60 days until Wrestlemania 38, and a ton can change between now and the big event, for better or worse. With the WWE Championship match reportedly up in the air, that’s not a ton of time to build to the marquee title match at the Show of Shows. Elimination Chamber is coming up on February 19, which features a stacked field of Riddle, Styles, Lesnar, Seth “Freakin” Rollins, Austin Theory, and the champion Lashley. There’s a chance any of those six men walk out with the title, and plans are altered again. It just feels that the Men’s Royal Rumble match was not the start on the Road to Wrestlemania that WWE was looking for. They wanted to put the pedal to the metal, but instead, they hit a speed bump right out of the gate.