9 Reasons WWE Royal Rumble 2017 Match Was The Worst Of The Decade

The 2017 Royal Rumble was on track to be one of WWE's best shows in years. The Kevin Owens/Roman Reigns match managed to be enjoyable despite the fact that the two have faced each other about a thousand times in the last few months while the cruiserweights, women and tag teams all acquitted themselves quite well.

And then there's the John Cena/AJ Styles match.

These two have proven to have such amazing chemistry that anytime they're in the ring together it's almost a guarantee to produce magic and fireworks. Regardless of your opinion on this particular bout or New Japan Pro Wrestling's recent classic between Kenny Omega and Kazuchika Okada, comparisons between the two have had wrestling fans passionately debating the better of the pair since Sunday night's show.

The showdown between the two was great and should be a Match of the Year candidate, and upon its conclusion it felt like we were watching something special; a show that would do down in the annals of WWE history as one of their most impressive all-around pay-per-view events ever.

Then the Royal Rumble itself happened.

While that match wasn't exactly a disaster, it was a tremendous disappointment and easily the worst Rumble of this decade...

Where were the surprises? For the last few weeks rumors had been rampant about some of the names who might make an appearance in the Rumble match. There was talk of Finn Balor being rushed back from injury to compete, but as we saw that didn’t play out.

Kenny Omega was the biggest of all the potential surprise entrants, and although both he and several WWE stars took the opportunity to troll the fans, it appears he will be remaining with New Japan Pro Wrestling. Samoa Joe was another heavily rumored option that seemed likely given his position in NXT.

Kurt Angle’s induction into the WWE Hall of Fame made him another prime candidate but unfortunately we were deprived of hearing “Medal” blow the roof off the Alamodome. Even much smaller surprises such as the rumored inclusion of DDP were a no go.

In the end, the only unexpected competitor we got in the Rumble was NXT midcarder Tye Dillinger, who entered at #10 as a nod to his “Perfect Ten” gimmick. While it was nice to see what’s essentially been an ongoing joke come to fruition after three years, it wasn’t the shocking moment that we expect from the Royal Rumble.