10 Impulse Reactions To The First EVER Empty Arena WWE Raw
7. The Royal Rumble
THE ROYAL RUMBLE?!
The entire men's Royal Rumble was Raw's version of the Elimination Chamber footage trotted out on SmackDown as WWE scrambled to fill their contractually obligated three hour slot with content.
A wedge this substantial gave rise to a bigger question - why wasn't the entire show just a highlight package? After delivering one empty PC event on Friday, the expectation was reasonable that they'd do it again - weird quirks and all - but it's hard to imagine many viewers sticking around when they realised how long they'd have to wait for all the promised megastars later on in the show.
They were undone by their own excellence here too - the 2020 Rumble was a blinder, loaded with three major angles and a host of welcome micro-stories keeping the contest moving. There was almost no flab and thus just as little to leave on the cutting room floor.
Even this, like everything else, is different now. Drew McIntyre pointed at the sign that night but had no clue quite what shape his final destination would take until an hour before this very show. It's enough to make a psycopath of the Scottish star all over again.