8 WWE Royal Rumble 2020 Impulse Reactions
It's a Rated-R Royal Rumble, featuring Drew McIntyre, Brock Lesnar, the NXT Women's Division & EDGE.
Hype.
It's pro wrestling's greatest trick until it's weaponised by angry audiences, and for many years the Royal Rumble succumbed to it. The hype for the Royal Rumble has always been heightened because of the stipulations and the stakes. Their "winner goes to the main event of WrestleMania" patter still has value despite the amount of times they've abandoned it over the past several years. Some haven't headlined, plenty haven't won titles, and yet ahead of the 2020 show - like almost every other - the hype is still real.
Good job, too. The women's division needed it in place of having any actual entrants.
A focus on Brock Lesnar's involvement in the men's match and the two female singles title matches elsewhere on the card seemed to have a knock-on effect on the other half of the main roster. WWE having the gall to only announce seven competitors for the match, post-Women's Revolution, was criminal even if some of the surprises made up for the lazy build when the match kicked off proper. Again, WWE tapped into hype, even if it arrived late.
Hype for the undercard was high. Hype for at least one of the Rumbles was through the Minute Maid Park roof. But as the Road To WrestleMania began in for real, did it prove just hype after all?
8. Shorty G Vs. Sheamus
This match should have been a total banger.
Instead, the last minute resembled a total banger whilst the remaining 11 were spent returning to Sheamus to the same early days his gear evoked memories of.
'The Great White' has been in great form in vignettes since returning to SmackDown via a series of promos shouting the odds at the strange roster assembled by the billion dollar brand, but this contest could have done with getting a bit weird to make up for the sheer amount of f*ck all happening for large portions of it. G had his ear bloodied, WWE's production staff experimented with the lighting in the unique setting, and the referee audibly informed the pair when they were squashed into a picture-in-picture shot, but there was little else to grab on to for those arriving early to Minute Maid Park.
Gable's closing salvo was electric of course, but he'd sold so much by that point that fans simply weren't buying a possible upset. A Brogue Kick sealed this particular deal for the returning former WWE Champion and Rumble winner, but one senses that they'll do a better job with this in the inevitable television rematch.