12 WWE Royal Rumble 2018 Impulse Reactions

9. Clean Slate

Big E Heath Slater
WWE

The Royal Rumble match was the best-booked of this decade, and maybe the finest version of the contest overall since 2007's action-packed battle ended in a dramatic standoff between Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker.

Every great Rumble utilises bottled angles that feed into the main overarching story of the match, and the opening running gag featuring Heath Slater was a throwback to the Pat Patterson-booked golden era for the gimmick.

Floored by a raging Baron Corbin, other entrants enjoyed literally kicking him while he was down before he scored a fluke elimination over Sheamus for one of the biggest pops of the night.

Setting the stage for Elias to serve out another sh*t-stirring solo, it made excellent use of the characters at play in the early portion of the contest without sacrificing the entire match for sheer and unconvincing comedy.

Heath's willingness to go along with the concept and allow himself to have the p*ss so profoundly taken out of him yet again deserves additional praise - there are too many performers in WWE that don't know their role. The Rock probably wasn't thinking of the 'One Man Band' when he coined the phrase, but few from the current crop embody it more successfully.

Contributor
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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation for 10 years. Alongside the production of daily written, audio and video content covering WWE and AEW, he also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot on the UK's wrestling podcast charts with over 10,000 episodes and 70,000,000 total downloads. He also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House!, Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast, and has guested on long-running Sunderland AFC podcast Wise Men Say. With WhatCulture, he has provided in-person coverage of some of the biggest pay-per-views and Premium Live Events in wrestling history, including WrestleMania, Survivor Series, All In & Double Or Nothing in destinations such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. He has also been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana, 411Mania and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in music and culture magazines The Crack, Pilot as well as Sunderland AFC's premiere fanzine A Love Supreme. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it every other Saturday at the Stadium Of Light, and at Cribs gigs nationwide.