5 Ups & 10 Downs From WWE Royal Rumble 2022

5. A Lot Of Dead Time

Nikki Bella Natalya
WWE.com

The women’s Royal Rumble really could be divided into three sections: a good opening segment when Sasha Banks was in the match (tossed after #7), a star-studded finale (from about #28 on), and a mostly dull, large middle chunk.

Seriously, think back: What exciting moments happened from the time Banks was eliminated until Ronda Rousey came out. Oh sure, there were a couple small moments like Bianca Belair eliminating both Carmella & Queen Zelina at the same time and Naomi getting revenge on Sonya Deville, but it was a really slow, draggy match for a large portion of it.

Nearly half the field was either cameos from “legends” and Hall-of-Famers, or part-timers. Aside from Naomi and Sonya Deville, was there any big development to come from the match?

This was poorly laid out, focusing more on legends getting their bow during that period and some moderate action rather than an energetic, fun Rumble. This is a match where you maybe watch the last 7-8 minutes and that’s about it.

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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.