8 WWE Royal Rumble 2021 Impulse Reactions

The last push to the 2021 Royal Rumble was all tied into the reality that this would be the first without a live crowd in the show's history.

Vince McMahon is desperate to get audiences back into Raymond James Stadium for WrestleMania 37. Christ, he was desperate to get them in for 36 three weeks after the World Health Organisation declared the pandemic, but he's particularly keen to present this year's 'Show Of Shows' as the beginning of the beginning - the global entertainment event that somehow signals a return to the new normal.

In the meantime, we were left to anticipate a Royal Rumble with the caveats of the current miserable one.

On Monday's Raw, Edge confirmed that he'd be back to do what he couldn't last year. And why would the company not promote it? What would WWE have saved that for exactly? The pop? Saturday's return of WWE Backstage offered some unprecedented access to the titular battle royals. In a divisive hook to pull viewers to the Fox comeback special, Renee Paquette's show revealed that 'The Rated-R Superstar' and his WrestleMania 36 opponent Randy Orton were going to start the men's match and Natalya had won the magic #30 spot in her own respective battle royal with a win over Tamina.

For reasons beyond WWE's typical orbit, we were given quite a lot of in advance. Could this particularly unique Rumble find answers to questions we hadn't even asked?

Perhaps now there'll be less questions hanging over why exactly Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler kept hanging out even though they hated each other. Wait. What do you mean nobody asked any questions over why exactly Nia Jax and Shayna Basler kept hanging out even though they hated each other?

Bryon Saxton had the cheek to suggest there had been "dissension in the ranks" between the challengers in recent weeks, as if that wasn't effectively the subtitle of every episode of Raw for the past six months. Nobody gets along anymore, and you can add Charlotte Flair and Asuka to that list probably, now they've lost the gold again.

A painfully average bout (the latest in a long line for Charlotte Flair) offered nothing for the Zoom calls to get excited about before Ric Flair and Lacey Evans came out and cheated like f*ck to ensure 'The Queen' was dethroned. When a generic distraction finish couldn't get it done, a brass knuckles spot did.

All bar Asuka were due to compete in the Rumble later on, justifying why everybody felt the need to wrestle this match in second gear. But it begs the question - why not just fill some of the ample time on Monday's go-home Raw with it instead?