8. The Layout Of The Rumble Match
The Royal Rumble is a prime opportunity to create memorable moments within a unique setting that we don't see otherwise. Great spots like Ax and Smash of Demolition being the first two men in the ring, creative eliminations, shifting alliances and heel/face turns, surprise entrants and angles-within-angles are all things we've grown accustomed to. It's the reason why so many of them are classics and remembered fondly. Aside from the backlash over the winner, the booking for this one just fell flat. Bray Wyatt was chosen as this year's iron man - and with good reason as he's rumored to be facing The Undertake at Mania - but instead of having him eliminate someone noteworthy early on he tosses out a parade of jobbers and jabronis before eventually running into Daniel Bryan which created a lot of dead time. The crowd was hot for a Wyatt Family reunion, so instead you gave them more Erick Rowan-as-face which is dying apathetically. We only got three surprise entrants, two of which were awesome (DDP and Bubba Dudley) and...The Boogeyman. There was only one elimination escape that was mildly interesting (Kofi's crowd surf) and it's been predicted on online sites for about six months, but otherwise nothing else inventive or captivating. Add that to the fact that they jacked the Santino spot from just a few years ago for Rusev and you have one of the most uninspired Rumbles of all-time.
Brad Hamilton
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Brad Hamilton is a writer, musician and marketer/social media manager from Atlanta, Georgia. He's an undefeated freestyle rap battle champion, spends too little time being productive and defines himself as the literary version of Brock Lesnar.
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