One MIND-BLOWING Secret From Every WWE Royal Rumble
2023 - Incontrovertible Proof That Vince McMahon SUCKED
Remember in the late 2010s, when you couldn’t criticise WWE’s irredeemable slop without running into some woeful “six stars in Tokyo Dome” joke? And then in 2022, when Triple H took over creative, those same defenders were really glad that Vince McMahon was gone, now that WWE had been saved?
Saved from what: the great action that you were biased for thinking was abject rubbish?
Halcyon days.
Vince McMahon killed the joy of the Royal Rumble match. 2022’s edition might have been worse than even 2015: it was a total waste of an hour dedicated almost exclusively to a booking troll-job. Lesnar won LOL. At least in 2015, Vince had a harebrained idea to get a new babyface over. In 2022, he executed the least inspiring idea possible, and took an eternity to get to it.
In stunning contrast, the 2023 Royal Rumble was a record-breaking smash of a PLE that formalised the third WWE boom.
According to the February 6 Observer, Dave Meltzer was told that “two million people watched [on Peacock]” - meaning that it was seen by more people than WrestleMania 28, which, in drawing 1,219,000 buys, was WWE’s most successful PPV ever. The higher cost of the 2012 show shouldn’t be ignored, but regardless: the 2023 Royal Rumble was a monster of a smash. Moreover, the gate out-drew the previous Rumble high by a staggering $2.5 million.
This is more subjective, but the scene in which Sami Zayn turned on Roman Reigns was one of the most well-received angles in WWE history. Triple H restored faith in the event at the first time of asking.