5 Ups And 6 Downs From WWE Raw 3:16 Day

2. The Whole Damn Thing?

Royal Rumble 2020
WWE.com

When the announcers talked about showing how Drew McIntyre became the #1 contender for Brock Lesnar’s WWE Championship, it was reasonable to think we’d get extended highlights from the Royal Rumble.

But to get the entire 60-minute match, plus commercials?

It’s understandable that with a reduced complement of wrestlers, WWE needed to fill some of Raw’s three-hour timeslot with pre-recorded action, but basically 20 minutes into the episode, we got a 90-minute flashback. Why not air this for the second half of the program? Or cut it down significantly and air another previous bout to close out the show?

This is an episode that featured “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and the Undertaker after that airing.

The 2020 Rumble match was a good bout, but having sat through it once, was anyone clamoring to watch it again, especially when it was broken up by a half-dozen commercials?

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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.