10 Snap Judgements Following WWE Royal Rumble 2017
3. Fan Service
There's been no show over the years quite like the Royal Rumble for best representing the ongoing war between the WWE and it's increasingly more challenging audience.
After years of grief between the live crowds at the January classic and the company's longterm booking direction (the true heel of the last few Battle Royals), the hex was finally broken in 2017 with WWE barely needing to compromise that much to get the event back onside with fans.
Alongside the aforementioned treatment of Roman Reigns across the entire evening, the Rumble match allotted crowd-pleasing spots to all the major names, including wicked spells of domination for Undertaker, Brock Lesnar and Goldberg, some fabulous early comedy with Jack Gallagher and a couple of eye-popping RKO's from eventual winner Randy Orton.
Above all else, there was a collective roar of both joy and relief when WWE revealed NXT standout Tye Dillinger as the heavily favoured #10 entrant into the Battle Royal.
With 'ten' chants beginning shortly before his number was announced, there was always the possibility the crowd could turn if their chosen one was not delivered, but for this year at least, WWE thankfully didn't make such an obstacle for themselves.