WWE The Greatest Royal Rumble Discussion Thread - April 27, 2018 from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

[The Icon 152]

50 Man Royal Rumble updated official entrants

Daniel Bryan, Braun Strowman, Bray Wyatt, Big Show, Kane, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, all three members of The New Day, Elias, Baron Corbin, Apollo, Shelton Benjamin, Sin Cara, Chad Gable, Goldust, Titus O’Neil, Mojo Rawley, Dolph Ziggler and 30 more competitors to be announced.

[Zack T 171]

This has shaped up to be a WrestleMania immediately after WrestleMania

 

I wonder how much Saudi Arabia is paying WWE to do this, they've even busted out the Undertaker for this event now.

[Guest MissRattlehead]

Undertaker and Rusev now added to the rumble.

[Kam 243]

This has shaped up to be a WrestleMania immediately after WrestleMania

 

I wonder how much Saudi Arabia is paying WWE to do this, they've even busted out the Undertaker for this event now.

 

It feels like they thought they'd combine the 2 biggest WWE shows of the year (Rumble and Mania) to give the people of Saudi Arabia something special. I wonder if they'll try to make this an annual thing - with all the tourism boost WrestleMania brings, Saudi Arabia could be hoping for a similar effect. Saudi released new tourist visas in November 2017 so it does seem like part of a plan to begin boosting tourism. The oil isn't going to last forever...

[The Icon 152]

Its nice having the casket match, but why in the blue hell Rusev. What connection do they have?

 

Why not a Cena rematch. Lol wouldn't it be great if Cena popped out of the casket.

[TPIB 62]

Its nice having the casket match, but why in the blue hell Rusev. What connection do they have?

 

All I could think of when I found about about the Casket Match was the symbolism of WWE booking Rusev in a Casket Match considering how they have taken every opportunity to bury Rusev Day on TV and on pay-per-view as of late. To me, this Casket Match is conveying what WWE creative wants and that is for the popularity of Rusev Day to die.

[The Icon 152]

Its not dying anytime soon. However it will fade away if WWE don't take advantage. Why they can't push people who get over organically with the crowd I will never know.

[TPIB 62]

For some reason, Chris Jericho will be replacing Rusev in the Casket Match against The Undertaker. As a result, Jericho won't be a part of the 50-Man Royal Rumble Match after all. Their storyline reason is that Lana pulled Rusev from the match. So I guess Lana has more power than a GM or a Commissioner. Who knew? Edited April 13, 2018 by TPIB

[The Icon 152]

Good. Having Rusev in made no sense. Who said Jericho can't also compete in the rumble?

[TPIB 62]

Good. Having Rusev in made no sense. Who said Jericho can't also compete in the rumble?

 

WWE.com did :lol: They took him off of the list of confirmed participants.

[The Icon 152]

Haha ok. That told me.

[The Icon 152]

For some reason, Chris Jericho will be replacing Rusev in the Casket Match against The Undertaker. As a result, Jericho won't be a part of the 50-Man Royal Rumble Match after all. Their storyline reason is that Lana pulled Rusev from the match. So I guess Lana has more power than a GM or a Commissioner. Who knew?

For some OTHER reason wwe.com and Raw last night advertise once again Taker vs Rusev. Jerichos name is nowhere to be seen.

[Zack T 171]

Well from what I understand, Rusev Day is a huge international holiday and is especially popular in Saudi Arabia - So they probably threw a fit when Rusev was removed from the match and threw some money at Vince to have him put back in.

[Guest MissRattlehead]

Apparently Lana had a hand in getting Rusev the match. Not sure what she did.

[The Icon 152]

Apparently Lana had a hand in getting Rusev the match. Not sure what she did.

In the stories she asked for the match to be reinstated yeah.

[Zack T 171]

Ok, I couldn't watch GRR live but I got done watching it a little bit earlier this afternoon. Pretty much all of the matches leading up to the rumble sucked. No one really gave much, they were all just going through the motions it felt like. The only ones that really seemed like they were trying to do anything was the ladder match, Taker/Rusev, and AJ/Shinsuke and even then...the ladder match, there was no fire behind any of the ladder shots, they were clearly pulling their shots there. And yea, Shinsuke/AJ haven't lit off yet but given the state of the other matches for the evening, I'm not surprised on this one.

 

Not a single title changed hands all night, which led me to think we'd get 1 big title change in Roman winning. But I admit, that ending was pretty awesome. Made Roman look strong while letting Brock escape and also that'll let Brock beat CM Punk's WWE Title reign from a few years ago, which is something I'm sure WWE wouldn't mind doing.

 

Royal Rumble was fun, DBry's chest and arms looked massacred by the end of it. I knew Bryan was lasting the whole way when he came out at number 1. I also knew once Big Cass came out so late that he was gonna screw it up and eliminate him, and there we go. But I imagine that's cause Bryan will beat Cass. So whatever. They still gave Bryan the longest performance ever and I doubt that it'll ever be broken, unless they go back to 2 minute entry times.

 

Braun throwing Shane off the turnbuckle through the announcer's table was the exact bump Shane took from Undertaker at King Of The Ring 2000. Sick.

 

Braun winning made sense. I knew it'd either be him or Daniel Bryan, and either one is fine.

 

Weird show. Wrestlemania-like presentation, generic crap performance.

[Guest MissRattlehead]

Managed to watch it all live. Matches were predictable. Sick to death of Lesnar. Really hoped he would lose. I have a feeling Roman will address the controversy on Monday.

Enjoyed the rumble and glad Braun won. But the highlight was Titus' slip under the ring. Hilarious

[TPIB 62]

As mentioned, Titus O'Neil really stole the show for all the wrong reasons (by the way, I never thought I would say that Titus O'Neil stole the show for any reason) and, as mentioned on commentary, it was very similar to Titus' trip doing the keg race back in his NXT days. It's no secret that Titus is a big, clumsy doofus and it's obvious that Vince McMahon loved Titus' fall more than anyone. I'm sure we will see six or seven more replays of it on RAW. I do feel a little sorry for the guy though. That had to be so humiliating.

 

In hindsight, I should have done more skipping through the show than I already did. I skimmed through the matches that I didn't really care about like the Cruiserweight Title match, the U.S. Title match, and the two tag team title matches. The Ladder Match had the potential to steal the show but it fell way short in my opinion. The best part of that match was the ladder falling after Joe set it up in the corner. Also, I'm pretty sure that Finn Balor was bleeding because Seth Rollins accidentally whacked him with the belt when he was pulling it down. The way the Ladder Match ended made me wonder if it was supposed to end like that. Typically, we don't see someone win a match like that by pulling the title down right in front of one of his opponents.

 

Cena vs. Triple H was a match that I thought could mirror their WrestleMania match from back in 2006 but it was also a disappointment. It was slow, it was predictable, and it just felt like they weren't trying to do anything spectacular.

 

When it came to the RAW Tag Team and United States Title matches, WWE really kind of ruined who the winner would be by their decisions with the Superstar Shake-Up. It's obvious that neither of these titles were going to go to a different brand (what would they even call the RAW Tag Team Titles if they were on the same show as the SmackDown Tag Team Titles? I guess they would just go back to being the WWE Tag Team Titles but who knows?) but, considering WWE's pay-per-views are co-branded, they could have thrown in a shock title change in any of their title matches then just undo it at Backlash. At least that would have generated some additional intrigue in not only The Greatest Royal Rumble but Backlash as well.

 

The Styles/Nakamura rematch was okay and I don't really mind the double count-out finish but I'm hoping that the rematch at Backlash has some sort of gimmick to it and I hope that the Backlash match can live up to the potential a match between these two has. Their WrestleMania match should have been a show-stealer but it was a let-down and the rematch wasn't really any better. I love heel Nakamura but they are starting to drop the ball on this feud (no pun intended).

 

My favorite part of the Brock/Roman rematch was nothing to do with the match itself, but with how so many Roman Reigns fans are reacting on Twitter. I saw one fan had their Twitter name as "#JusticeForRoman" and I spent a few hours arguing with someone who kept trying to tell me that Roman won. She didn't say that it looked like Roman won, she said that he did win. I tried my best to explain to her and her friend the difference between a wrestler winning and it looking like a wrestler won but they of course didn't get it. It's also obvious how many uneducated fans are out there when I saw that "#SaudiArabiaScrewjob" was a thing on Twitter which, when you think about it, doesn't make sense when you think about what a screwjob in wrestling actually is.

 

I was a bit surprised to see Paul Heyman getting physically involved in the match. I don't remember the last time he interfered in a match. As far as the finish goes, I think it was a good finish to continue the story between Brock and Roman but I hate how obvious they made it. You could tell by Roman's positioning when he went for the Spear that they were going to do the cage-breaking spot. Roman has always done the "ooh ahh" in the corner before doing the Spear but he opted to stand by the ropes and do it. Now, had he just went for the Spear without any lead-up, it probably would have worked better in terms of surprising me.

 

I don't know if it was done intentionally that Roman's feet touched the floor first while Brock's body touched the floor first but it works for the narrative. The "controversy" of that finish will give Roman something to talk about for a while and I'm expecting to see Brock vs. Roman one more time at SummerSlam and it will probably be inside Hell in a Cell. Either that or they will wait until the actual Hell in a Cell pay-per-view itself. I know that Lesnar vs. Lashley was the original plan for SummerSlam but I also heard that idea was scrapped so I guess we will see.

 

I had predicted that Daniel Bryan would win the Rumble Match itself but, once Big Cass came out, I knew exactly what was going to happen. Braun winning it was the right move to make even though he really just won a trophy and a title belt. I'm assuming that The Greatest Royal Rumble Championship isn't going to be a title that is actually defended or anything (unless, of course, they do The Greatest Royal Rumble again next year and Braun enters that one too, then he would technically be defending it) but it is nice that they gave the winner something besides a big, awkward trophy that will probably just go into storage or something.

 

Booking Chris Jericho for the Royal Rumble Match was kind of a waste given the short amount of time he was actually in the match. He did more in his backstage promo than he did in the actual match.

 

Overall, I would label The Greatest Royal Rumble event as a disappointment. With the exception of the 50-Man Royal Rumble Match, everything else felt like it belonged on a house show. Also, making this a five-hour show was so unnecessary, especially in hindsight. 'Taker/Rusev, the Cruiserweight Title match, and Cena vs. Triple H were all pointless matches to have on that show. You could also argue that the Styles/Nakamura rematch was a waste of time too since it ended in a double count-out. Another big mistake WWE made with this show is having it take place a little over a week before Backlash. WWE never seems to learn its lesson when it comes to booking their pay-per-views too close together.

Edited April 29, 2018 by TPIB

[Kam 243]

Weird show. Wrestlemania-like presentation, generic crap performance.

 

That pretty much sums up the show! It didn't feel as though there was any excitement/momentum to the show.

 

I was surprised they went with Kalisto for the Cruiserweight match. I would have thought having a rematch between Mustafa Ali and Alexander would have gone down much better with the predominately Muslim crowd.

 

How cringeworthy was that segment with Saxton talking to the panel! :eek:

 

I don't know if it was done intentionally that Roman's feet touched the floor first while Brock's body touched the floor first but it works for the narrative.

I thought it was funny when they showed the replay and you hear Saxton say Brock won because his feet touched first (or something along those lines)...then he realises Roman's touched first - that's when the commentary team go into damage limitation mode :lol:

 

I was about to skip the NXT trainees segment with the 4 Saudi recruits but that was saved by the Daivari Brothers - I thought that was done well. With all the tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia, it was a nice touch.

 

There were some odd choices for the Rumble with the likes of Tucker Knight, Babatunde, Dan Matha - I would have expected more established NXT stars.

 

Poor Titus :-O

 

Apparently, Saudi Arabia's sport authority had to apologise for footage of women on the show - I'm assuming it was Backlash promo which featured the women's matches. The BBC has a story online about it here. WWE had better hope for some more progress on the Saudi side over their policies/laws otherwise I don't know if it's going to be worth all the criticism they're going to get in the next 10 years (how long this deal is meant to run for).

[TPIB 62]

To your point, Babatunde apparently hasn't even debuted on NXT yet so The Greatest Royal Rumble was his television debut for WWE.

 

Yeah, I read about Saudi Arabian authorities having a problem with that part of the show. It's one of those situations that I cannot agree with. I basically take the same stance that WWE takes with it; I'm not okay with it but you kind of have to accept it for the time being.

 

I do find it interesting that Xavier Woods' trombone is named Francesca, which implies that the trombone is a female. This technically means that Francesca was the only female booked on the live show. I guess Saudi Arabian laws don't apply to inanimate objects.

 

Yes, the deal is for 10 years and for a boatload of money (I read that the deal is an eight-figure deal). I think that WWE will chip away at the Saudi Arabian authorities over the next 10 years and we will slowly see women introduced to the show in one form or another.

 

Speaking of which, I just read that the Twitter account of The Riyadh Report is saying that WWE will be holding another show in Saudi Arabia in November. This time, the show will be in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh. WWE hasn't officially announced this November show yet but we still have a ways to go until November so I guess we will see. I'm kind of surprised WWE is going to do another Saudi Arabian show in 2018. I kind of expected it to be a once-a-year type of thing but who knows? Maybe the Riyadh show will be a non-televised house show and WWE will just make The Greatest Royal Rumble an annual pay-per-view.

 

I'm sure Titus is mortified over that spill he took but, look on the bright side, Titus may have just extended his career in WWE. We know how much Vince McMahon loves that kind of humor so I wouldn't be surprised if Vince gives Titus a mini-push as a clumsy comedy character (which doesn't seem too far off from Titus in real life :lol: )

 

I forgot to mention it in my earlier post but how about that scary suplex Big Cass took from Bobby Lashley? It looks like Lashley dropped Cass right on his head. Cass got lucky as I saw that he briefly rolled out of the ring after the spot but was ultimately allowed to continue the match.

 

If you're like me and love interesting statistics, here are some statistics about The Greatest Royal Rumble. Daniel Bryan beat Rey Mysterio's 2006 record for the longest time spent in a single Royal Rumble Match as Daniel was in the 50-Man Royal Rumble Match for 1 hour and 16 minutes, beating Rey's record of 1 hour, 2 minutes, and 15 seconds.

 

Unsurprisingly, The Greatest Royal Rumble Match also set the record for the longest Royal Rumble Match in history, clocking in at 1 hour, seventeen minutes, and twenty seconds, beating the record set by 2011 Royal Rumble Match (which was a 40-Man Rumble), which lasted 1 hour, 9 minutes, and 49 seconds.

 

With his performance in The Greatest Royal Rumble Match, Chris Jericho increased his own record for the longest cumulative time spent in the Royal Rumble Match as, in his WWE career, Jericho has now spent a total of 4 hours, 59 minutes, and 30 seconds in all of his Royal Rumble Match appearances. If Jericho spends just 30 seconds in another Royal Rumble Match, he will make it to an even 5 hours.

 

Braun Strowman beat Roman Reigns' 2014 record for the most eliminations in a single Royal Rumble Match, scoring thirteen eliminations (Braun eliminated Babatunde, Dan Matha, Big E, Heath Slater, Titus O'Neil [slater Gator], Tye Dillinger, Curt Hawkins, The Great Khali, Shane McMahon, Bobby Lashley, Chris Jericho, Kevin Owens, and Big Cass).

 

Mike Kanellis was the quickest elimination in The Greatest Royal Rumble Match, lasting only three seconds. Honorable mention goes to Tyler Breeze for lasting 16 seconds, Curt Hawkins for lasting 20 seconds, Tye Dillinger for lasting 29 seconds, The Great Khali for lasting 31 seconds, Hiroki Sumi for lasting 46 seconds, and Viktor for lasting 51 seconds.

Edited April 30, 2018 by TPIB