10 Ups And 11 Downs From WWE Royal Rumble 2020

One great surprise winner, one predictable winner, one massive surprise return.

Well, the first Royal Rumble of the Roaring 2020s is under WWE’s belt, and what can you say about it?

The two Rumble matches both delivered some great moments, but they also produced some frustration in how they were scripted. One provided a fantastic, out-of-the-box winner, while the other gave us the preordained victor, just as everyone suspected/feared.

The men’s Rumble delivered a tremendous surprise entrant, one that won’t be topped anytime soon, unless “Stone Cold” Steve Austin enters, followed by Bret Hart. It also went a creative route with how it booked Brock Lesnar’s entry into the match at #1. Whether you liked it depends on the viewer, but that’s fine.

The women’s Rumble leaned heavily on NXT wrestlers, which was both good and bad. It also produced an eyeroll-inducing winner, as though John Cena returned and won because he needed to find a path to WrestleMania.

The rest of the PPV was a mixed bag, with some title matches clicking well, and others being forgettable affairs that defined clash of styles. Thankfully, this year’s edition was shorter than last year, which also helped.

Overall, this was a pretty good PPV, and well worth a watch. With that said, let’s get to it…

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.