10 Early Reasons To Be Worried About WWE Royal Rumble 2023
7. An Underwhelming Undercard
The pandemic brought with it the concept of cinematic wrestling, the concept being a pre-taped and heavily-edited performance, often with wacky stipulations incapable of being played out in front of a live audience.
How, exactly, this translates when the audience is there isn’t known; the art style has remained largely absent from the realm of wrestling post-pandemic, bar a couple of notable exceptions. WWE, by the sounds of it, will add to the list at the Royal Rumble with a Mountain Dew Pitch Black match, a match type that on its title alone screams late nineties and/or early noughties World Championship Wrestling.
Bray Wyatt and LA Knight’s endeavour with the stipulation will no doubt follow a cinematic style - at the very least partially - on 28 January.
Despite the resounding reaction given to the real-life Windham Rotunda since his Extreme Rules comeback, the reception to his LA Knight rivalry has been largely mixed. Booking the pair in a potentially divisive stipulation - in what will be Wyatt’s first televised match since April 2021, mind - leaves WWE teetering on the edge of audience perception. If it works, then great.
If not?
It’ll be a catastrophic failure.