10 Ups And 11 Downs From WWE Royal Rumble 2020

3. Finally, A Solid Men’s Rumble

Kevin Owens Roman Reigns
WWE.com

After years of lackluster men’s Royal Rumble matches, we finally got a really good one Sunday night.

For the longest time, the Rumble was a hard thing to screw up, but a lack of creative and logical booking doomed several recent editions, leaving you to wonder whether WWE could even book its own signature match effectively anymore.

That changed Sunday, when Drew McIntyre won the Rumble, in the process tossing Brock Lesnar and five others (including Roman Reigns). The Rumble was a tale of two matches, with Lesnar’s elimination show being the first half, and a more traditional Rumble with teased eliminations, strange alliances, double-crosses, surprise entrants and the like dominating the second half.

Having a guy who’s been overlooked win rather than just Reigns taking it (like Charlotte Flair did for the women) made it a more enjoyable event too. They also managed to cut down on the silliness, which made it feel more special.

So bravo on this one. Way to get off the schneid, WWE.

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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.