8 WWE Royal Rumble 2021 Impulse Reactions
1. Men's Royal Rumble
There was more pressure on this particular Royal Rumble to perform than either of the ones on this show, and perhaps any in company history.
Fans were given reasons to believe in potential winners in the women's match, even if they weren't able to cheer them on from the stands. With the exception of Edge's comeback announcement on Monday Night Raw, WWE had anti-booked this one, lining up queues of wrestlers that could win because they'd entered, not because they'd said or done much to prove their worth.
And so it played out. By no means a bad Rumble, the headline battle royal lacked a moment that genuinely rivalled the closing drama between Rhea Ripley and Bianca Belair earlier in the night. After Randy Orton was written out for a bit following a brutal beating from Edge that was only marginally more exciting than their WrestleMania snoozer, but a lack of mini-stories within the bout badly hurt the contest's flow.
Damian Priest scored a series of ultimately meaningless eliminations and Christian's return was a lovely and tantalising surprise but only when Edge scored the climactic win did the contest feel worthy of its prestige and stakes. Of a good standard without being memorable, this felt far closer to something from the middle of September, rather than the start of the Road To WrestleMania.
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