5 Things We Want To See After WWE Royal Rumble 2022 (And 5 We Don’t)
Dos and don'ts on the road to WrestleMania.
Another Royal Rumble is in the books, and with that, we are firmly on the road to WrestleMania.
The two titular events have neatly set up the pieces for the coming months, and observant fans can have a good idea of where things are headed.
But things are never set in stone in the zig-zagging world of WWE, and fantasy bookers and wrestling pessimists alike are eagerly awaiting and nervously dreading what comes next. With the company’s largest show barely two months away, it’s time to start considering the best possible outcome for the show of shows, and equally importantly, what could go wrong if the bookers follow their worst impulses.
These are the directions we’d love to see WWE take in the immediate future, from long term angles to individual matches and characterisation. Alongside these are our greatest fears, the most foolhardy approaches WWE could indulge in to ensure the road to WrestleMania is paved with the tears of fans.
WWE, we all know, is a company run on stubbornness and intransigence, and the moaning of some fans on the internet is never going to change anyone’s mind. That’s obviously not going to stop us, though...
10. Don’t: A WrestleMania Of Rematches
It should be acknowledged that, without a doubt, Lesnar vs Reigns and Lynch vs Rousey are the two biggest matches WWE could put on for their flagship show, and it’s probably safe to assume that each match will headline one night of WrestleMania. An optimist could say that the shifted face/heel dynamic in the former freshens things up, and that the women deserve to throw down one on one.
But not only are these matches we’ve already seen, but they’re also matches we’ve seen very recently. In the men’s case, they could be headlining their third ‘Mania in seven years, and that’s without counting all the other PPVs they’ve closed.
Lashley will almost certainly take on someone we’ve seen him fight before, and angles we seem to be building in the midcard are hardly fresher (on which more later). That leaves us with Charlotte Flair vs Lita as the presumed remaining title match. You’d trust Flair to get a fine match out of the Hall of Famer, but while it’s a fresh matchup, it doesn’t exactly speak highly to WWE’s use of its roster of talent.