The 2022 Royal Rumble is in the books and has been met with a mixed reaction. Everyone thought it was boring and completely devoid of any creativity, while Vince McMahon thought it was “good shit”.
The Royal Rumble is the most exciting wrestling event of the year. It starts the road to Wrestlemania, and the Royal Rumble match is one of the most entertaining matches in wrestling.
However, this year WWE showed how completely devoid of creativity WWE and Vince McMahon are. The chance was there for them to surprise everyone, as there was no clear cut winner pegged to win the 2022 Royal Rumble.
Fans enjoyed theorising who would be the man to outlast 29 others to win the World Championship match at Wrestlemania. Wrestlers who have never won the Rumble like Big E, Kevin Owens and AJ Styles were all fan favourites who had a chance of winning the Royal Rumble, but WWE went for the most uninspired choice possible.
Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns
Earlier in the night, Bobby Lashley defeated Brock Lesnar to win his second WWE Championship. The plan had been known for a while that the Wrestlemania main event would be Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns, but fans had higher hopes of WWE creative in finding an interesting way to get there.
How wrong they would be. Reigns interfered (for no apparent reason) to cost Lesnar the WWE Championship against Lashley. If he hadn’t done that, then I’m sure he wouldn’t have had to defend his own Universal Championship against Lesnar.
Luckily for Reigns, his stupidity meant that Lesnar decided to enter the Royal Rumble. Luckily for the notorious work-shy Lesnar, he drew the number 30 slot in the Rumble, and lasted a heroic nearly three minutes to win his second Royal Rumble match.
It was the laziest way possible to book Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania. Not that fans every want to see that match ever again, mind you. It’s been done to death and I for one wont be watching it.
Especially not after the most boring Royal Rumble of all time that happened.
Royal Rumble lack of stars
The Men’s Royal Rumble match this year was a procession of jobbers that you couldn’t pick out of a line up. Yes, that might be slightly harsh, but WWE has failed to build anyone up to a level to make anyone care about them.
The likes of AJ Styles and Kevin Owens got one of the few big pops of the match. It’s not that the crowd were quiet – they tried their best to get excited but they simply couldn’t.
Every time a new entrant entered the rumble, you had to check the titantron or the ring apron to see who they are. Their entrance music was so generic and unforgettable that you couldn’t tell Mad Cap Moss from Montez Ford when they made their entrance.
The lack of creativity when it comes to entrance music was more noticeable in the Women’s Royal Rumble. The Women’s Rumble was stuffed with women from the past, due to Johnny Ace’s gutting of the division over the past year.
These women’s entrance themes were noticeably more unique compared to the current women. When the likes of Michelle McCool or Kelly Kelly made their entrance, no matter how bad the song was, you instantly know who is coming out. The song shows their personalities and instantly introduces them to the audience.
When Shayna Bazler came out at number 30, multiple people including myself had no clue who it was until she walked out. This is endemic in both the men’s and women’s division, but was more evident in the women’s due to the influx of “legends” like Summer Rae and Cameron.
Lack of men’s legends
The women’s Royal Rumble highlighted the dearth of surprise male superstars in the Royal Rumble.
Every 90 seconds a new superstar entered the fray, and the fans tried their best to get excited to see which wrestler would make their surprise Royal Rumble return.
Unfortunately, WWE clearly hates it’s fans. Of the five spots not already announced for the Rumble prior to the match, those five were a Ridge Holland (on the main roster), Drew McIntyre (back from injury), Shane McMahon (Has been gone for a year, largely disliked by fans), Bad Bunny (A singer) and Brock Lesnar (spent two minutes in the match and won.
It was a complete waste of one of the best moments in wrestling. Seeing legends of the ring return for one more night is the best part of the Rumble. Instead of seeing someone return for one last shot like DDP or Kevin Nash in previous years, instead we got Shane McMahon trying not die as he walked down the ramp.
The fans desperately tried to get excited for the next entrant in the Rumble, but as the Angelo Dawkins and Mad Cap Moss’s made their entrance, their enthusiasm dwindled.
The match wont go down in history as one of the most terrible ones. 2014 and 2015 are remembered for the absolute meltdown from the crowd who were desperate for Daniel Bryan to win the Royal Rumble. The 2022 Royal Rumble wont be remembered at all. It just happened and that was it.
It was just boring.
