I watched the Kickoff Show after the main show this year and that’s probably the best way to enjoy this kind of thing. Shawn Michaels and Booker T added some good insight, there were great promos from Samoa Joe and Nikki Cross and Daniel Bryan, and the matches were actually great.
0. RAW Tag Team Title: Bobby Roode & Chad Gable [c] vs. Scott Dawson & Rezar w/ Dash and Drake Maverick
“This is the Royal Rumble inside a baseball stadium – this is America!” says Renee Young, as an American Olympian, a Canadian immigrant, a Dutch immigrant, and a disgruntled American worked together to have a very OK wrestling match. **
0. WWE U.S. Title: Rusev [c] w/ Lana vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
These guys just jive together. They work basically old school MSG style, with everything about power and manliness and stuff. Rusev’s Polish hammer and the triangle choke deadlift were awesome spots, and the deadlift Jackhammer on Nakamura was otherworldly. It wasn’t the best match of the night, but I wish more matches were like this. ***1/4
0. Fatal 4-Way Match – WWE Cruiserweight Title: Buddy Murphy [c] vs. Kalisto vs. Akira Tozawa vs. Hideo Itami
This was a wonderful wild match that just flipped the crowd out, with a ton of insane stuff hit perfectly and paced well. Murphy, Kalisto and Tozawa all shined doing incredible complex stuff, but even Itami found himself a role and added to the match, making it more than just guys doing crazy spots. Everybody was throwing insane strikes and bumping all over the place at the end, and Murphy’s spike bump on his head was just too crazy – WOW. There have been a lot of 205 Live multi-man matches, but they rarely feel like they embrace their potential – this one did. ****
1. SmackDown Women’s Title: Asuka [c] vs. Becky Lynch
Asuka, Becky, Charlotte, and Ronda have done a phenomenal job the last couple years making these championship matches the most credible things in wrestling, and this was another tremendous main event style wrestling match with everything feeling like a struggle and fight. I enjoy all types of wrestling, but not much these days gets me to the place I am when I am completely enveloped in every ebb and flow of a championship WAR. It didn’t hurt that Becky Lynch is the most over person in wrestling, though Asuka threw a few amazing kicks that threatened that place.
They had big crazy PPV spots here like a swinging neckbreaker to the floor and a super exploder, and they also had a slap exchange for the ages, both guys selling their exhaustion as the crowd followed every blow. The chaos at the end was great too: both guys using each other’s (very over) submissions, Asuka busting out the Cattle Mutilation and throwing spin kicks that’d make Aleister Black blush. You know you’ve got a crowd in your hands when the finish gets a legit, loud “AWWWWW” reaction. A match that felt on another level. ****1/2
2. SmackDown Tag Team Title: The Bar [c] vs. Shane McMahon & The Miz
And to follow that, a solid tag match. The good guys were over, The Bar did a solid beatdown that included an epic Cesaro Swing on Shane, and Shane freaked everybody out with a Shooting Star Press to win the tag titles. Miz’ glee at their win and the celebration with Miz’ dad was incredible. This might’ve been the weakest match of the main show but absolutely had a place in between all the big main event wrestling. **3/4
3. RAW Women’s Title: Ronda Rousey [c] vs. Sasha Banks
Rookie and veteran wrestlers alike, gather around — let me tell you what will make all your matches good. All of them. Are you ready?
PRE. MATCH. INTENSITY.
This had it, baby. This had it to spare. And it turned what would’ve been a fun spotfest into an awesome chaotic fight. That had spots. And was fun. It was like some kind of stunt show based in a weird reality where everything made sense because they sold it that way. “Isn’t that all wrestling?” you say? Of course it is, but wrestling reaches its’ apex when the stunts are extra insane and they still inexplicably make a bunch of sense. Of course, the story was rooted in reality too: Sasha wanted to prove herself and actually dominated Ronda in the ring before she got caught and dropped. And prove herself she did – Sasha was great here, real aggressive and whatnot to the point where it didn’t seem strange for a second that she was beating up Ronda Rousey and doing armbar counters against her. It all made me miss heel Sasha, to be honest. She was tying Ronda up in a hold where she bent both her arms back to the point where they should’ve ripped off and I was like, “Yes. This is good wrestling.” I have no idea how to rate this but it was a wild match and a good time. The staredown post-match was good stuff too. ***1/2
4. Women’s Royal Rumble Match
This Royal Rumble, like the Men’s, had a theme that only became apparent later on – the nostalgia was dropped in place of a glimpse into the future, and even if it didn’t all work I thought it was very cool.
The deal with this match is pretty simple – it was a match built around amazing big angle at the end and outside of some cool cameos, the first 45 minutes or so were not very good. I felt like they relied too much on the Rumble gimmick and didn’t space out the fun – I didn’t need Aja Kong to show up, but give the gals some more fun spots! The first 10 minutes being Natalya and a bunch of rookies was a real strange way to start too. BUT! That amazing big angle was pretty amazing.
Everybody was over as hell, with folks like Bayley and the IIConics who don’t always get featured getting superstar pops. There were the obligatory fun moments too, like: Lacey Evans swaggering to the ring with her “LET’S RUMBLE” cap at #1, Billie Kay refusing to enter until Peyton Royce got there, Nikki Cross wrecking everybody, Kairi Sane and Charlotte Flair chopping the shit out of each other, the Zelina Vega/Candice LeRae showdown, the Xia Li/Candice LeRae/Kacy Catanzaro/Io Shirai/Rhea Ripley entries, and HORNSWOGGLE.
And then there was the finish, which narrowed things down to the superstars of the women’s division and god damn has this division gotten good. The mis-direction with the Lana ankle injury, WE WANT BECKY chants, uncertainty after Carmella entered at #30, and finally Becky charging down to the ring was AWESOME and something nobody but WWE does well anymore. Loved her going after Nia, loved BayMella reuniting to take out Alexa, and especially loved Becky/Charlotte being the final 2 and Charlotte’s sllloowww descent to the floor, ringing every drop of anxiety out of Becky Lynch’s legions of devoted fans. This was a rare example of WWE not just making the right call but throwing the kitchen sink at making that call work, and I loved it. ***1/2
5. WWE Title: Daniel Bryan [c] vs. AJ Styles
What a strange, beautiful wrestling match. These two basically had a 25-minute mat classic to SILENCE. They worked holds and grinded down each other’s limbs and it was all credible and awesome and it was in front of a crowd completely exhausted from freaking out over Becky Lynch and thus not really giving one single shit. But also – it didn’t matter. The work was so tight and legit it didn’t need a crowd. There weren’t even really any big near falls or reaction spots. It was just a mat-based fight with great execution and build and limb work and cool counters and Bryan doing the “I have til 5” deal. And then ROWAN returned and attacked AJ Styles. A good match, an interesting match. ****
6. WWE Universal Title: Brock Lesnar [c] w/ Paul Heyman vs. Finn Balor
This was a tremendous sub-10 minute match, a SPRINT as they call it in the Wrestling Biz. Finn went right after Brock, Brock sold his diverticulitis areas which created an opening for an actual Finn win, Finn kept getting cut off, and Finn did three tope con hilo’s in a row which were perhaps the three most menacing impactful tope con hilo’s ever done. And then Brock just snatched Finn out of the air with the Kimura Lock, like the biggest nastiest Venus Fly Trap there ever was. If you’re doing Brock vs. Non-Demon Finn Balor I see no holes in anything they did here. ****
7. Men’s Royal Rumble Match
This was a good Royal Rumble. It didn’t have the wild surprises that have become to be expected or the cathartic insanity of last year’s match, but it also didn’t have some of the lame shit that bogged down a lot of other Rumbles. What it lacked in MOMENTS~! it made up for in showcasing a whole lot of awesome young wrestlers: Mustafa Ali, Pete Dunne, Aleister Black, Johnny Gargano all made a case that they should be doing big things in the wrestling business. Jeff Jarrett and Kurt Angle being quick surprises with quicker eliminations might’ve been some kind of statement, actually.
Mustafa Ali was fun to follow along, both because he’s fun to watch and they told a story with him, as he eliminated not just Nakamura but he took it to and eliminated Samoa Joe. I loved the bit where he eliminated Nakamura, killed it with Gargano, then got wrecked by Joe. We can just forget he got eliminated by Nia Jax, OK?
Pete Dunne meanwhile looked like an elite talent, as in just over 10 minutes of ring time he created like fifteen dream match scenarios – Andrade, Drew, Joe, Rollins, and so on and so forth GIVE ME ALL OF IT.
Now, there were some weak parts. Dolph Ziggler was an entrant. The Kofi bit might’ve jumped the shark, though Drew quickly eliminating him was cool. I feel bad for No Way Jose.
Curt Hawkins and Titus O’Neil getting some love was nice. Drew McIntyre had a good night, even if he got eliminated by Dolph. Rey Mysterio is still the king. The big Almas/Rey/Ali/Braun suplex spot was a dumb Tower of Doom spot I can get behind.
In the end, they kept it interesting and there was more good wrestling than usual. Seth Rollins vs. Braun Strowman was a fun finish too. I dug it.
Oh and they did that Nia Jax thing.
And sometimes, yanno – WWE is just gonna WWE. Personally, I am anti-whatever they were trying to do there. I don’t know why you’d insert that right in the middle of whatever cautious goodwill you have from the fanbase, both because of THE CONVERSATION it will set off but also because nobody is really all that into Nia Jax.
Regardless, I will sit here and watch it unfold. For when the idea came to him, I told Vince McMahon, “You are not strong enough to withstand the storm.” And he whispered in my ear:
“I am the storm.”
****
There was A WHOLE LOT of wrestling here but it was an incredible top-to-bottom show jam-packed with big presentation and great wrestling. It was a show loaded with cool matches on paper and everything delivered. 10/10
