10 Things WWE Regrets About The Royal Rumble

1. "Actually, No. No. You CAN'T Have Nice Things."

Cm Punk
WWE.com

Fully aware that the decision to put Roman Reigns over in the main event at WrestleMania, again, was going to annoy the biggest crowd of the year, Vince McMahon extended an olive branch. Shinsuke Nakamura was to win the Royal Rumble, thus setting up a long-awaited rematch between the King of Strong Style and AJ Styles. Billed as a Dream Match, the storyline underwhelmed, but it was incidental to the promise: AJ and Shinsuke were going to tear the house down.

It wasn't an olive branch after all, but an outstretched arm with which he punched us in our balls for daring to dream.

After a 20 minute match very much laid out in the methodical WWE mould, Shinsuke turned heel on AJ. Our guy won the Rumble, but not the big one - but it was fine. This new heel Shinsuke, restored to his old, mischievous sh*t-kicker self, was going to kick AJ all over the place in matches with a more dangerous, brutal dynamic.

This didn't happen, either: the whole thing, the victory, the turn, the character development, was all in service of prolonging AJ's unremarkable and overlong reign with the WWE Championship - and the feud itself was prolonged by Shinsuke just punching AJ in the balls over and over again.

Somehow, Fox saw this, and threw billions at it - so Vince probably doesn't regret it after all.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!