WWE Royal Rumble 2018: Star Ratings For All 6 Matches
In which WWE cracks the Rumble curse like the Liberty Bell.
Ultimately, to gauge the success of any given Royal Rumble pay-per-view, we must reduce the polarising fallout to one crucial question: did WWE engineer excitement - or apathy - ahead of WrestleMania?
Almost unanimously, this is a task at which WWE has comprehensively failed in this Network era because the existence of the Network itself allows WWE to tell the stories WWE wishes to tell. They already have your money. A tenner a month is less than delivered food, less than a few post-work drinks. In that respect, it barely feels like even a humdrum everyday treat - and the irony of that notwithstanding, the company offering the service offers a complete bargain, which in turn means the core consumer has less reason to bargain internally. It's only 9.99. Who cares if the Rumble was terrible, really? WrestleMania is cheap now. Besides which, 'Mania itself is the brand - the international travel packages for which are snapped up months before the Rumble, once the enticing teaser trailer, is even booked. Vince McMahon last week formally revived the X F F*cking L. He can do whatever he pleases.
All of which makes the result of the Men's Royal Rumble match, excellent in itself, beautifully rewarding. At last, WWE delivered a fresh Rumble winner to unite the public in both excitement and palpable relief. Roman will surely drive to Suplex City - there is no Elimination of that doubt - but the crowning of a new star has firmly restored fan relations...
6. AJ Styles Vs. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn - WWE Championship 2-On-1 Handicap Match
Better than it could have been.
That's a sentence we probably shouldn't be writing, given the immense talent of all three men involved - but we are where we are, and we are on the SmackDown brand circa 2018.
The knock endured by Kevin Owens was obviously unfortunate for him, but in an insensitive take - it's either this, or receive him as a geek - it at least made coherent the match layout, in which Owens and Sami Zayn were almost comprehensively out-wrestled and outwitted by one man. Owens and Zayn were too entertaining in the role to concern ourselves with hysterical protests of burials and the like, and the layout allowed Styles to showcase his almost peerless brilliance - but really, this was a slight disappointment, even if, thankfully, it did not masquerade as a Shane McMahon ego stroke.
The monkey flip reversal into a hurricanrana spot was exactly the sort of sequence that elevates Styles into the echelon of the greats - just great strategy fused with crowd-popping theatrics. It's little wonder that Styles is the unanimous choice of old and new school fans alike as the best wrestler in - at least - North America. Watching him is just exhilarating - and this was Styles mostly unencumbered by road agent stupidity.
It was all a bit easy for Styles in the end, and at the start, it was all a bit slow in the going. The initial crawling pace seemed to foreshadow something epic that did not materialise.
Star Rating: ***1/2