One MIND-BLOWING Secret From Every WWE Royal Rumble

2020 - The Choice Of Winner Went Down To The Wire

In 2018, WWE’s standing was so wretched that the McMahons apologised for the product in a notorious televised segment.

2019, somehow, was much worse - an inscrutable mess of dropped storylines and asinine creative choices. WWE was never critically acclaimed for long stretches of time after 2001, but in 2019, the promotion was drawing unfavourable (and thoroughly warranted) comparisons to 2000 WCW. In 2019, Cedric Alexander posed as a janitor that Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre had selected as Roman Reign’s partner as a joke. Cedric took the fall. He still celebrated as if he’d just concocted some diabolically clever ruse. In the same year, ‘Big Dog’ Roman Reigns was presented as a literal hound as Baron Corbin smothered him in dog food.

Obviously, WWE was hardly awash with over babyface stars at this time. One year on from the apology and the promise of improvement, the WrestleMania 36 card looked bleak, nonexistent even, on paper.

WWE had two choices as Brock Lesnar’s opponent; both were categorised as “babyfaces they hadn’t ruined yet”. In an indictment, one of those guys had just turned. Drew McIntyre, or Aleister Black?

While Black had received strong support internally, backed by Paul Heyman in particular, WWE opted for Drew very close to the wire. WWE made the correct decision; Drew McIntyre was a serviceable champion in a cursed era, and the fact that he was unable to celebrate his big moment in front of crowds informed one of the better characters under Paul Levesque’s regime.