7 Biggest Missed Opportunities From WWE Royal Rumble 2019

It was not so long ago that the thought of Finn Bálor taking on Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship on PPV sounded laughable, but alas, WWE decided to do some much-needed damage control to the Irishman's career and somehow managed to present him as a mildly strong contender to 'The Beast's title, even if fans weren't keen on seeing one of their favourite superstars buried all over again.

However, the match itself exceeded expectations. In a mere eight minutes, Bálor managed to hold his own against Brock by outsmarting and outwrestling him and, on one or two occasions, he came oh-so-close to winning the gold that has eluded him for almost three years. Somehow, WWE made us believe that the smaller, underappreciated superstar had a real chance. Unfortunately, just like we've seen too many times before, Lesnar managed to retain with a disappointingly sudden conclusion.

By making us believe in Bálor, the creative team set themselves up for failure because, despite how great he was here, he won't be the one headlining WrestleMania with the Universal Championship on the line. Instead, that honour will go to the part-time champion, who will once again make us endure his vanishing act when he likely takes the belt off TV for at least another two months before that.

Now would have been a good time to finally take the Universal Title off Lesnar and give it to a fighting champion like Finn - then we may have actually gotten Bálor vs. Rollins II at 'Mania.

Oh well, we can dream, right?

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Do you think the Royal Rumble was full of missed opportunities? Tell us in the comment section below!