7 Ups And 10 Downs From WWE Royal Rumble 2017

7. Where Were The Surprises?

Finn Balor
WWE.com

Putting Tye Dillinger aside, who were the unknowns in the Rumble? Who wasn’t already on the main roster?

The answer would be “no one.” All 29 other men entering the Rumble were on the main rosters of Raw, SmackDown or 205 Live. No one had been on the shelf with an injury for a long period and made a surprise return. No one had been absent from TV for a long period and was a total shock.

It was just a huge disappointment, especially with the rumors flowing about Samoa Joe debuting or Finn Balor coming back from injury. No one else from NXT arrived. No legends showed up. No one on the sidelines got back in the game.

That can be all well and fine if the Rumble itself is well-planned and well-paced. When it’s not…

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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.