WWE Podcast Throwback: 2024 Royal Rumble Review

underwhelmed with the show. Most people seem to be disappointed by the show. Most people feel like something was missing from the show, whether it was someone, something of feeling and intangible.

for the sake of shock. We've seen that before under the Vince McMahon regime and under the Hunter regime, Triple H regime, there has been more of a sense of ples over delivery. Now, well, there was a dark cloud hanging over the entire show, and that cloud was called Vince McMahon, and that cloud consisted of the lawsuit pending against Vince McMahon from the former employee. We went over that. You guys have heard about it already, and in the

post press conference, wwe did a very bad job. I thought of kind of skimming over it or trying to downplay it. I mean, even Triple H, who is usually pretty good at dealing with the media, gave a really just not good answer saying he didn't read the lawsuit and then he doesn't want to focus on the negatives.

but that's still not a good thing. I mean, your your father in law is under under this cloud of a massive civil suit, and you are not even bothering to read it. I mean, I understand what he's doing. I understand the attention that he wants to divert away from that.

get raised to a level that's unachievable. And yes, brock Lesser did not show up. Bron Breaker is the man who apparently took his spot, and the positioning of Braun made Braun not Braun, although Braun Strohman I actually thought he was going to appear. You know, look when you look at bron Breaker's number, and where he came in and how Dominanti looked that was apparently supposed to be brock Lesner's spot was bron Breaker filling in for Brock.

So Brock does not make it appearance. We are not going to get a brock Lessner and a Gunther matchup, it appears, unless something comes out that clears brock Lesner's name. Without question, brock Lessner is off TV indefinitely until things are settled. And even after that, if things are looking bad for Brock, if he is found guilty or some he's involved in a way that is let's say undesirable to say the very least, then he probably won't be

back on TV. Ever, so a lot is hanging in the balance with this suit, and that didn't help the royal rumble. Brockleser's appearance, I think would have really helped. Many of us were looking forward to a Gunther brock Lesner interaction and that didn't happen obviously, But for broun Breaker, it's a breakout performance. You know, when when one door closes, another opens, and that door of opportunity opened for bron Breaker, and I think he made a very nice, big splash

in the Rumble. I do I think he You know, that military press of gun throw over his head was incredibly impressive. The crowd reacted fairly well to him. There's a lot of narrative going around again that the crowd was quiet, and at times they were. At times they were, especially during the women's Royal Rumble, they didn't have a whole lot of energy, shall we say. They felt a bit underwhelming at times quiet, But they weren't the worst

crowd in the world. I'm hearing over dramatized statements from people that this was one of the worst crowds in the history of Ples, and I wouldn't go that far.

which is what everyone was thinking about. Also in the men's Rumble, as we're kind of looking at some of the negatives here, because there are some positives, and I got a lot of good stuff to say. Pat McAfee, I love uncommentary. I mean, that's not exactly a shocking statement or a controversial statement. A lot of people like him, I do on commentary. He's grown on me. Why would they waste a Royal Rumble spot on Pat McAfee. What

did that do for anyone? I understand that him in the Rumble is funny, and yeah, like, okay, I get it. He would he just eliminated himself because he would have gotten his ass kicked. But like, then, why even waste the spot that could have gone to an NXT guy or another guy on the roster. You're gonna have Pat come in look like a chicken and then, you know, eliminate.

care about Andrade. They absolutely did. Andrade coming in was a big moment, coming back after how many a few years, right, that was a big moment, you know, having him return, The interactions with Santos, all of that was a lot of fun. So Andrade will be a big player moving forward. But and of course Naomi Naomi, I mean, ye, by the way, the announcers didn't react the way I thought they would. They were just kind of like, and it's

been a long time and here's Naomi. I feel like they would have should have oversold it a little more, and they were just almost quiet about it initially anyway. So Naomi was a big return. Really good to see her. And the debut of Jade Cargill was arguably the biggest moment of the entire night. I mean, you could argue it was the biggest moment of the night over all the championship matches and everything else could have been the biggest moment of the night, you could have argued. And

the crowd reacted appropriately. They were waiting for Jade Cargill. Some of the face offs she had we'll get into the Women's Rumble in a little bit, but particularly with Bianca Bella air people or are just dying for so many different moments with her. I mean, obviously she didn't win,

but still live. Morgan returns, but it's that big return, that big moment, that big, big thing that didn't happen, Like Roman losing the belt didn't happen, the Rock returning or interfering or getting involved in any capacity didn't happen. The guys that you thought were gonna win, or the guy and gal you thought we're gonna win one, which is fine. Again, it's not a complaint at all, but

that big goosebump moment never came. And I think that is what people are really pointing to when they talk about this year's Royal Rumble pay per view or ple e is that there was no big, massive goosebump shocking moment that we all were looking for and almost maybe unfairly, you know, maybe unfair Maybe we should stop expecting that, maybe we should stop expecting WWE to produce those moments every single pl But the Royal Rumos a big pl I mean, this is not exactly your you know, your

extreme rules event in the middle of the summer. This is a you know, one of the Big Four beloved by fans pay per view, so kind of weird that they didn't produce that moment. But I don't know what options they had, and they didn't want to do it just to do it, and I respect that.

us are complaining about, unfairly or fairly. So we'll get into all of it in just a minute, but first, after that big long intro, Welcome to the WWE podcast. Everybody, Thank you so much for joining us, as we are going to review the twenty twenty four Royal Rumble here in depth, and tomorrow will be joined by Anthony DeMarco who will joining us for the current state of wwe, I wonder what the heck we're going to talk about.

And we are then going to pursue our regular schedule here until the next pl which is in I think November, no November February twenty fourth, twenty fifth, something like that, for the Elimination Chamber event, which is four weeks away, and then after that it's about five or six weeks until Mania sixty nine days as I record this, until WrestleMania forty, so that'll go quick, as it does every year. It feels like they tell us seventy eighty ninety hundred

days and then you blink and here we are. It's like ten days away, right. That happens every year. That'll happen this year. But we do have one more pit stop in the Elimination Chamber in Perth. I think a lot's going to happen there. Of course, I believe Punk will compete in the chamber, He'll win his right to face seth rollins in the chamber. To me, that is more than likely what's going to happen. But thank you everybody for joining us here on what was a very

eventful show. So we're going to talk about a whole lot more again, I'd like to invite you, guys to the ad free version of this show.

after Dark show that is every single week. It's an adult version of the show, is really what it is, and usually wrestling based, so check that out. It's an exclusive show to you. So all right, let's get into the details, guys. Let's let's dive right in to the results here. And it opened with the Royal Rumble and the Women's Royal Rumble, and again it started honestly kind of It started hot. Okay, let me let's be stray

with you. It started hot, It started really fun with Naomi's return I was a bit underwhelmed with the reaction from the announcers at the beginning of her return. It was what a year and a half, nearly two years since she was back in WWE May of twenty twenty two, so nearly two years. Naomi back was a nice hot start to the rumble. I had no issue with it. I was I mean, it was a kind of a set the tone type of return that I hoped would

be the case. And really throughout the women's Royal rumble, I was not exactly impressed until Jade Cargill came out, or really Becky Lynch and number one, by the way, was who was it?

was Jordanna. It's Jordan Grace. She's the current TNA knockout champion. Very interesting here, you know, it's this is the first time that I can recall in which the TNA champion anyway was involved in the actual royal rumble. I think we've seen a little bit of a crossover before, but nothing like this where she actually had a hell of

a showing here. Jordan Grace was, you know, one of the standouts up until, of course, we got the bigger names here with Bianca bell Air and yeah, the other the other woe I mean, Tiffany Stratton eventually came out and she had a nice showing too, But Jordan Grace really was the first one that you looked at and went wow. All right, and most of us who watched WWE you have never seen her before. Most of us don't even know the name Jordan Grace, and so it

was a nice showing for her. The crowd reacted pretty well to her. She is a powerhouse woman and it was cool to see a bit of a crossover. So she was eventually eliminated by Bianca bell Air, but she had a hell of a night.

Chelsea Green and Piper and Niven. Now here's one of the bigger bright spots of the show for me. Beyond the Jade Car Gill, which was clearly the biggest star moment of the night, it was Chelsea Green, the unsung hero of this match, who just kept getting raged alled and somehow staying in the match. When she got eliminated by Becky Lynch eventually, I mean I was disappointed when

she did. She is entertaining as hell. I mean, Chelsea Green is just so good at what she does, being that annoying kinda that just you know, obnoxious character that runs her mouth and obviously can't back it up, but then will gloat about some ridiculous statistic. For example, she was the fastest eliminated from last year's Royal Rumble five seconds and then somehow she said she made history, right, so she turns it into some obnoxious kind of flex

and I enjoyed Chelsea Green. She just kept getting squashed in the corner by Piper Niven or Nya Jacks. It was just a lot of fun and seeing her eventually get eliminated was kind of sad. I was hoping she'd somehow just luck her way into the end of the match, but Chelsea Green was really No one's talking about it. But I enjoyed Chelsea Green in the match a lot. Now, this match up to this point, number fifteen was Piper Niven,

so we're about halfway through the rumble now. It was kind of clunky, a lot of botches and especially by the time Nia Jacks came out, a lot of botches, a lot of miss spots, and the rumbles. Not an easy match to navigate. Most women haven't been in a Royal Rumble match, has only been once them on top of it, so I get it. But it was kind of a sloppy middle of the match here, one that was kind of took the crowd out of it, the announcers trying to cover for them. I mean, it happens,

but it was uncomfortable to watch at times. So then we get to number sixteen, Zili. She didn't have her lightning coming out of her arms and legs, so I think that's probably why she didn't win here. I didn't see any come out of her. Usually on her entrance she's able to, you know, produce some kind of electricity from her from her limbs, and I didn't see any, So she must have not had her power crystals activated, which is why she didn't win the match. So I'm

not sure what happened there. You know, she'll have to check with zord On. That's a Power Ranger reference for those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about. So all right, Then we got Zelena Vega, who had a nice showing Selena Vega. She was eventually eliminated by Shanna Basler, but Zelena Vega also is somebody that I enjoyed the showing she had.

you know, the crowd reacted to her pretty decently. And then we get Naya Jax, who was eventually eliminated by Jade Cargill. Here, but number nineteen was Naya Jax. We all knew what she was going to do in the rumble, just be a force to be reckoned with. Shatzi comes out in her ridiculous power wheels tank, which needs to just be destroyed. Becky Lynch, now we're getting serious, right, Becky Lynch comes out at number twenty one. She was

eventually eliminated by Jade Cargill. By the way, Becky Lynch, let me just say this was probably the biggest dis appointment of the entire night. And I understand she made it deep into the match, but she's number twenty one, so that's not exactly impressive. But also, she got her ass kicked ninety eight percent of the time she was in the match outside of the first moments she came in, which is what every single entrant on the men's and

women's side does. And the second they come in, they just start kicking ass, right and then within ten seconds somebody knocks them down. That's just what happens. It's just the way everyone enters the rumble. Outside of that flurry that everyone gets upon the entry of the match, she did nothing, absolutely nothing. And this isn't a slight on Becky. This is a slide on the way she was booked here. It was I mean, I don't want to say awful. It was very surprising. Is maybe the word disappointing if

you're a Becky Lynch fan. Becky Lynch did essentially nothing in this match. She just got her ass kicked time after time she spent I'm not kidding you. If someone was to do a percentage ninety eight, maybe a bit of an over drama dramatization, I understand probably about eighty percent of the time realistically, she was getting her ass kicked, laying on the ground, getting stomped in the quarter, getting splashed,

getting hit with a finish. She did nothing in this match, and that was very surprising, and van Becky Lynch, it was unbelievable really, So that was a big surprise for me, was Becky Lynch having essentially.

this moment. While she didn't last long, it was still something that I do remember with Mechen having some kind of offense, and it was somewhat memorable for Mechen, the most important match of her career, given that she doesn't ever have a match so Zoe's star came out, and then Roxanne Perez had a nice showing as well. She was eliminated by Chip Tippany Stratton, and then Jade Cargill finally comes out, biggest pop of the night for the women and arguably a top five pop of the night overall,

maybe higher. The crowd lost it for Jade Cargill. She does look like an absolute star. She absolutely has the look. I mean, we all knew that, but even seeing her for the first time live, she's I mean, as Corey Graves I think put it. I think it was. I think it was Corey. If you were going to create from scratch a women's superstar, you would come out at the other end with Jade Cargill. And that's absolutely true.

She has got a look that can really, I think, deodorize a lot of the missteps she may eventually have in the ring, because she just looks the part so overwhelmingly much that even if she missteps in the ring and doesn't have the five star matches that unfortunately everyone has the expectation of these days, it can be deodorized a little bit with how damn good she looks. And I don't just mean like, oh my god, I'm drooling because she's got such a nice physique. It's you know,

it's beyond that. Of course, I mean as a man, I'm not blind. But also it's it's not that necessarily, it's just that she looks like she should be on the poster of everything without even saying a word. And I don't know a whole lot about her promo skills. I will, you know, that'll be remaining to be seen here. But she just unbelievably, it's really insane, how just star studded she just looks, which is going to help her

moving forward. But the crowd reacted, I mean exploded for Jade Cargill, and yeah, we all knew what was going to happen here. A couple of face offs. She did take Naya Jacks.

in the ring. Eventually, I think what we'll get is a eventually maybe for a one off a CM Punk and aj Lee versus Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins. I think that matchup could happen maybe at Backlash or at SummerSlam. But that matchup is ready and set to go. You know,

that would be an amazing matchup. But the other thing is the face off with Jade Cargill and Bianca bell Air, which even Corey Graves alluded to the fact that the fans have wanted to see that since we heard that the moment Jade Cargill was signed that we wanted to see that they had a stare off. They were interrupted. Of course they didn't have any exchange physically, but Bionca Bellair and Jade Cargill just from a visual standpoint is

going to be, I mean, next next level. And now how they work together physically in the ring remains to be seen. Jade Cargil overall physically, I thought did a nice job. I don't think she was too nervous, or if she was, she didn't show it. She certainly covered it well. She's very proud of her physique. I has no doubt about that. She's extremely proud of how she looks.

She will let you know it. And you know if you just you just click by her her profile on any any social media platform and you will be very quickly You'll you'll very quickly realize how proud of herself she is, which was going to lend her to lend itself to be very nice when She's a heel, all right, when she eventually turns a heel, which yeah, I don't know when that's going to happen, but Jade Cargill is essentially a heel when you think about it. She's so

proud of herself it's kind of obnoxious. But right now she is a babyface, and let's ride it out and see how far that can go. And there they did tease a lot of potential matchups with Jade, and many are proposing Jade versus Nijacks at WrestleMania, so we'll see. Jay doesn't seem to be fitting in the tadtle picture right now. But liv Morgan got a decent reaction for her return. I wasn't overly impressed by Liv again. I

think the letdown. The thing is, the letdown for the number thirty spot is almost a given every year because the thirty spot has been really just unfairly raised to a level that's almost unachievable every year. I mean to be honest, I was hoping for aj Lee for number thirty. Obviously that didn't happen. Or many people thought Sasha Banks would be number thirty. That obviously didn't happen. So when you look at aj Lee and Sasha Banks and you

get liv Morgan. It's like, oh, okay, cool, you're back. We won't boo you, but you're not exactly who we were looking for. I mean, that's the way the fans reacted as well. Number thirty. If you're not a superstar superstar, you're gonna be a bit disappointed in the reaction get because fans have an expectation for that number thirty spot for better or worse. That's just the way it is. You can love it or hate it. The fans expect a big star to be number thirty. It's just the

way it is. So overall, I thought the women's rumble was good and Jade Cargill clearly the standout star of the match. Bailey winning made absolute sense. Now, Bailey has alluded to the fact that she's going to face Rhea Ripley. If that's true and she doesn't go after EO Sky, I'll be very surprised. That'd be kind of a weird thing to do, because where does that leave Becky. You know, where's she going. It's going to be a very weird WrestleMania.

If Bailey and Ria no one's asking for Bailey and Rhea. By the way, no one wants Bailey Ria Bailey. The fans are ready to cheer Bailey, but they're also ready to cheer Rhea Ripley. I don't think anyone wants that people would readily cheer EO boot Eo Sky and cheer Bailey. That's a built in story that's been going on for a year and a half. So to me, it's a no brainer that Bailey's gonna change her mind and go after EO. I would hope Bailey and Rhea just don't

make sense, not at this juncture. So that's still slated for a Becky Lynch I think, a Becky Lynch Andria Ripley matchup, I would think, but the Chamber is going to really set things in motion. So alrighty, what happened after that?

This match went on second. When's the last time a Roman Reigns title match went on second on the show? So that told me immediately there is no chance of Roman losing, and to double down on it, there is almost no chance of the Rock showing up either, and neither of those things. Those things happened. It was a standard by the numbers Roman Reigns victory, and some people are claiming by the way that it's a clean Roman Reigns victory. Some people are telling them, like, did you

watch the match? I watched, What do you mean a clean Roman Reigns victory. It's the same formula we've been getting for Roman Reigns's title defenses for the last three years. We get a interference from the Bloodline, which costs Roman or costs his opponent the opportunity to win the title. Roman Reigns. It's a spear and that's it. It's the same thing we've been watching for years now and say something. Okay, First of all, the match was fine. It was good. It was really it was good. I enjoyed it.

some moments. By how many times are we going to see this? La Knight By the way, wwe did a really nice job out of nowhere reminding us how big of a star La Night is, who has kind of fallen off in recent months with all the other big returns with Orton and Punk. WW has done a nice job of repositioning him as a real threat, and they really seemed to focus on him before the match and the promo package of doing a nice job of reminding us how big of a star he is and how

he has a real chance of winning. So that was a nice unexpected boost for La Knight that I think his career needed. And the crowd seemed to be really behind him too. I mean they were really behind him, even maybe more so than Norton. People knew aj Styles wasn't going to win. But when you look at this match, Okay,

you had the solo interference, you had all that. But what I want to talk about is Michael Cole who responded to the Internet Wrestling Community when the match was just beginning, I think of Roman Rains was making his entrance and doing his thing for forty five minutes. Michael Cole responded to the Internet community Internet Wrestling Community the IWC by saying that some believe you know that his match or his title rain is it's not deserving because

he doesn't defend the title every week. That was his words. His words were that were mad because he doesn't defend the title every week and that he only defends it couple of months, and that his response was if you don't like it, then someone should beat him. That was his response. Michael Cole that is okay on several levels. That is a very weak argument. Number one, the premise that we're asking that, the premise that you have laid out that we are asking Roman Reigns to defend the

belt every week is false. No one is asking Roman Reigns to defend the belt every week, no one. I don't want that. We see it with Seth Rollins and a lot of fans don't like it. Seth Rawlins over defends the championship. There's nobody asking for Roman Reigns to defend the belt every single week.

he's preserving his body with the schedule he has. And good for him, good for Joe, good for Joe Onuai, good for him. But for fans, the Roman Reigns character doesn't ever show the f up. So tell me, Cole, how are we supposed to have someone beat him? If he can't, if he doesn't show up. And by the way, we have had several candidates over the years, namely Drew McIntyre, Sammy Zain, Hew even Kevin Owens compete with him, of which we have said this is our guy, this is

La Knight another more recent example. Those are the guys that we have told w no, no, it's time to end it with this guy, and WWE has said no, okay, So how exactly we're supposed to have someone beat him when we have told you who we want to beat him,

and then WWE management management refuses to comply. And I still look back at all of those title defenses, specifically Sammy's Ain, specifically La Knight, who have been a really good candidate, and those still would have been really good candidates, and I still believe that they should have one of them should have taken the belt from Roman, but instead WWE refuses. So Cole the argument of responding to us that, oh, well, you know, you're we're complaining that he's never defending the belt.

He's not even there to defend it. So let's start at baseline. Cole, you're wrong on like four levels and no one's asking him to defend.

this point, Explain the benefits of that. Explain how not giving guys an opportunity regularly, not every four months, an opportunity to potentially win a championship, and not allowing guys to get in the ring with Roman Reigns regularly.

adds like one hundred days automatically to his run. And we're supposed to be impressed by the number of days he's been champion when he takes like, you know, multi month vacations.

But at the same time, it can also be true that his matches have become boring because they are so predictable and formulaic. Where you know he's going to be in Jeopardy's, somebody hits a finish on him, you know that there would be a three count, and then here comes the bloodline, here comes Solo, here comes Jimmy. Oh wait, never mind distraction, Samon and Spike spear there it is game over. It's the same fing formula. That's why they can also be really good matches and boring at the

same time. Those two can happen at the same time, and that is where where the Roman Reigns matches have become and where they are now. They're boring, but also I can appreciate the hell out of the effort. It's a very strange combination. I'm just sick of going into Roman Reigns matches and immediately knowing the outcome. I'm sick of it. The fans are sick of it. This isn't the heat on Roman, This is the heat on the company. The heat on Roman is and was on him because

as a character in a good way. The heat now has transferred to the company. It has been on the company for over a year now, I would argue maybe longer. The heat is on the company for continuing to push this for some unknown reason. Is it just for Cody? Is it really? I mean, we'll get to him in a minute, but I'll leave it there. I'll leave it there. Overall, it was a good match. I applaud all four men, including Roman. The timing was there, It was a very

sound wrestling match. Some funder falls that made you wonder, but ultimately it's the same match we've been watching. You can just plug in play this formula that we saw last night to any of the matches he's had, nearly any of the matches he's had over the last couple of years, and go, oh, let me guess. Solo interfered, Roman reigns got lucky, Jimmy came out. Oh yeah, yeah, that's right, Yeah they did right. Yeah, Jimmy wasn't there, but Solo was the one that helped him retain at

WrestleMania helped him retain last night, among other times. Right, okay, I'll get off this match and get into the United States Championship match, which this was a lot of fun and lover hate Logan Paul. Every time he gets in the ring, he kicks his own ass. He does not leave anything to be desired. He, as I've mentioned, doesn't deserve to be this good and he is a lot of funder falls. The bumps that they took were just I mean, Logan Paul was bleeding.

him the knucks, the referee stopped him. Eventually we had Ko get a hold of the knucks hit Logan Paul, knocked out Logan Paul, but the referee saw the knucks on Owens as he was making the cover, and the referee called for the DQ and Owens ends up losing the match via DQ, which allows Logan Paul to remain the United States Champion. We had Grayson Waller and Austin Theory come out and get themselves involved. But then we got after the match, we got Owens continuing to attack

Logan Paul, sending him through the announcer's table. And this program is going to continue, which is fine with me, and it should still be to me. La Knight taking the belt off of Logan Paul at WrestleMania, So I had no issue with this. This was the absolute right booking all of them. And by the way, again all matches, all four matches at the Rumble were booked properly. They were the winners and losers. Think we're booked properly. I really do all of them. And this one just you

could argue this was a match of the night. You could this was just again all four men are both men rather did a really nice job and Logan Paul continues to just kill it inside the ring. So no issues here with the finish and some nice near falls, and this program is going to continue. All right, Let's get to the men's Royal Rumble match. The first guy out Jay Uso. He was eventually eliminated by Gunther. We then got Jimmy Usso coming out and he was eventually

eliminated by Brown Breaker. But more importantly than that, Jimmy Usso staring at Jay Uso. Jimmy needs to chill on the body language. His facials were a complete overreaction to Jay. He's I mean, he had his eyes wide at him. I don't know if he was trying to make him laugh enough, or he was trying to actually emit some kind of craziness, or he was supposed to be scared, or it was to me just whatever the intention was, it's still to me came off goofy. The wide eyed

stare at Jay was just overdone. It felt like he knew the camera was on him zoomed in, and he was trying to overcompensate for that. I didn't like it, but Jimmy and Jay facing off given the history was fun. We haven't seen it in a while, and I don't know if this is a precursor for these two facing

each other at WrestleMania. I still believe that Jay Uso should win the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania, so I don't if I was given a choice, I'd rather have Jay versus Gunther and in the icy title picture at Royal Or rather WrestleMania than Jimmy versus Jay. I really still don't care about Jimmy versus Jay. I'm done with the civil war stuff. I don't even care. I know some of you do, and that's great. I just to me, I'd rather have Jay win an actual championship than beat

his brother, So just my thought, okay. Grayson Waller came out next. Andrade number four Andrede returns. He's been gone for what three years plus, and it was nice to see him back. He was eventually eliminated by Bronson Reid, but Andrade back was an expected return in a lot of ways, but still cool to see him back. He looks like he's more polished, more confident. I mean, got a good pop as well, So Andrade coming out was a nice, a nice return. Carmelo Hayes was next. Shinzkana Kamura,

who was eventually eliminated by Cody, came out. Santos Escobar, who was eliminated by Carlito, was out next. Carrion Cross was next. He was eliminated by Bobby Lashley, so that program continues. Dominic Mysterio was number nine. He was eventually eliminated by Punk Carlito came out at number ten, Bobby Lashley came out at number eleven. Ludwig Kaiser was number twelve. Austin Theory was number thirteen. Finn Baller was number fourteen. Cody Rhodes cut his number in half from last year.

call that you don't put Brock out there. You just can't with all the sponsorships, because if you guys didn't know Slim Jim, who paid millions to be on the show last night and all their ad spots and everything else, they were pulling out of the sponsorship deal until Vince resigned. Once Vince resigned, they went back into the deal and they decided to move forward with the partnership for the Royal Rumble with WWE. If brock Lesner had come out,

I think that would have been a big issue with sponsors. Again, you guys got to think about that. As fans, we don't really care about who cares about the sponsors to WWE, that's a major source of income. Is the sponsorships major, if not their primary, source of income, even more than the fans and the merch sales and the ticket sales and everything else. We are a big source too, but the sponsorships supersede us, so they give a damn about

what the sponsors say. And it was just the right call on top of the fact that it's just the right thing to do, so, which sucks. If you wanted to see Brock and you wanted to see brock and Gunther interact here. Well you can thank his actions for unfortunately if they're true. Omas was number twenty one, who was eventually eliminated by braun Breaker. Omas coming back. I mean,

did anyone really care that much? He had a cool face off with braun Breaker, which was going to be Brock But we've seen Brocken and Omas before facing against each other, so that wouldn't have been that big of a deal. But Amas facing off against Broun, it was a fun little new interaction. Pat McAfee was number twenty two. He eliminated himself in thirty eight seconds, again a totally

wasted spot that helped no one. J D McDonough was eliminated by jay Usso we then had Our Truth come out and he thought it was a tag match, which was hilarious. So he's on the on the rope. He was dominic played along and in truth that was hilarious. I mean, I wish Our Truth made it to the

final four. I mean, how do they not have this man eventually as a champion just a quick three month run, have some fun, give him, you reward him instead of just being a comedy character, which he's very successful, and I would love something a little more serious for truth. The Mizz was number twenty five, Damien Priest was number twenty six, CM Punk number twenty seven, number twenty eight was Ricochet, Number twenty nine was Drew and number thirty

Sammy Zain so noa hul Cogan. Thank god Sammy's Ain was back. He just went right after Drew McIntyre. He had halluva kick on Drew McIntyre, but he was eventually eliminated by Drew McIntyre. So Sammy's Ain and Drew are probably gonna go right into her, continue where they left off from the program from a couple of months ago, and go right on too raw and face one another.

And maybe you could bring Jay us So in Gun through into this too and have that fatal four way I keep imagining in my mind for the icy title. And Sammy's Ain't had a nice reaction again, I don't think it was as explosive as you know, you know, maybe the rock which a lot of people thought was gonna happen, and it didn't. So Sammy's Ain ends up,

you know, having a nice showing. But he was really there just to continue his program with Drew Drew had a nice showing as well, But it came down to I think it was was a Cody Punk and Seth or Seth, Cody, Punk and Drew, and it was the men that you thought would be there that were there,

and it came down to eventually Cody and Punk. They had a really nice showing together, really fun kind of finish for finish, who can throw each other out some you know, very intricate close eliminations that eventually did end in Cody Rhoades beating Punk as we all know now, and I thought, but he would win, and to me, that's the right call again. You could have Punk win

at Chamber and eventually face Seth Rollins. That's probably what's going to be on the line at Elimination Chamber is who's going to face Seth at WrestleMania, and Punk will win the Chamber and face Rollins at WrestleMania. That to me is very clear and has been clear for a month now, which is fine because now you have Cody Rhodes who has won back to back rumbles. And if you guys have been paying attention, I don't mean that

in a derogatory way. I mean that if you really have WWA had started pushing this, this narrative that or that this really reminder to fans the moment that Cody Roads declared for the Rumble, which was like the day after Survivor series. Hey, don't forget if Cody was to win, the last guy to do that is stone cold Steve

Austin to win back to back rumbles. Now, of course Hogan and Sean have done it before, but they wanted to remind you that it's been I think, by the way Cole said twenty six years, where's that math coming from? Cole was off his game a little bit last night. I mean he was stumbling through ad reads his attack on the IWC had I mean, I just destroyed his

argument there with romans complaints and all that. And then he says it's been twenty six years, And he said that a couple times, and I'm like, Austin won in two thousand and one? Is it twenty twenty seven? Am I in a time warp that I get in the DeLorean? Like was he talking about? And I'm like, nah, bruh, it's like been twenty three years, you know, I'm like, what are you talking about? And even Corey Graves repeated

the twenty six. It's a small misstep, I understand, but he repeated it over and over, like, where is this twenty six coming from?

my god, Wow, he's the equivalent of Austin. Wow, Austin did this, Cody's done it. Well, I guess Cody's the new Austin. And it's just it's ridiculous. But I know what they were doing, and I'm not faulting them for it. But if you kind of heard that early on, it was a setup to remind you how important and big this would be if Cody were to go back to back.

So I thought that was a very very big kind of tipping or writing on the wall if you will that, hey, Cody's going to win here, and when he does, don't forget what we told you about Austin, you know, And I'm sure they'll remind us again on Rod tomorrow night. So this was again I didn't hate the win. I thought it was probably the right way to get Cody into the main event. So all of you Cody fans that were worried he's not gonna be in the Rumble or in the main event of Wrestle Ania, well you

don't have to worry about it. And after the match, he pointed directly to Roman Reigns, who was in the skybox Seth was also in his own skybox. That was a nice touch, by the way, different different way to a different way to kind of end the show with the champions in the skybox, which was cool. And he pointed right to Roman Reigns, So we don't have to worry or wait, right, we don't have to wait many

weeks to figure out a decision. Sometimes they'll string us along on the men's and women's side of like, oh, who's gonna choose who? By buh, and they go on and on and on and on and it's like, no, you gotta choose what championship you're going after, and it should be, by the way, the championship they're chasing, not the person, but nonetheless, so Cody made it very clear that he's going after Roman. Roman seemed a bit distraught

about him having to face Cody again. So we're gonna get Cody Roman too, and Cody should be the one to take it off Rome.

a little Cody jab in there. He was the right guy to win, and Cody and Punk put on a nice ending to the match, but she had a few moments that made you believe Punk could win, and I had no issue with it. No Rock, though, so we don't know where the Rock is gonna land, how he's gonna get involved with Roman. Apparently the reports are saying that yes, Cody, or rather Rock and Roman is still happening.

But unless it's gonna happen on night one and Cody and Roman's happening night two and it's not happening at Chamber, well, then I don't know how the hell it's happening. The time and places are running out, at least when it comes to between.

When Roman Reigns goes and wins a pay per view, when's the main event of the event of the whatever pay per view, you're at whatever pl you're watching, and you get the same finish and all that, you immediately look at it, look ahead and you go, okay, well he's not going to show up to this b pay per view, which means he's not going to lose it maybe until the next big one, which is in three months.

WrestleMania is this year, so that's also been a big problem with Roman's run, as you just look ahead and go, if he doesn't lose it here, he doesn't have another chance of losing it for another three to four months after that at this event. That's been also super frustrating. So you're artificially just pumping in three to four month chunks of time because you know they're not going to drop the belt in a b pay per.

They didn't, And I applaud them for that because they did that year's past, especially early on, and it made it just feel so artificial. It made it feel so just like just weak and like they couldn't fill out the roster so they had to bring in stars to make it look like there was a deep roster of women. It was embarrassing. So I'm glad they didn't do that this year. So that's something positive I wanted to end on. But when it comes to the Rock guys, I know,

no Rock, no Brock, no Austin. Some people were predicting he would somehow show up. No, I mean no, I understand that. No aj Lee, no big moment, right, there wasn't that big, oh my god, this is going to be awesome moment. I understand that. I feel that disappointment. I share that with you. But also they booked correctly, so wwe would say, well, you didn't get that moment, but you got what you said you wanted, so what

are you complaining about. It's a weird feeling, right, but I guess we want to have our cake and eat it too. We want the really good booking that makes sense, but we also want those shocking returns. We want those shocking moments, we want those shocking confrontations, and we didn't get any of that this time around, but we still got some nice returns. I'd say nice andrade Live Morgan. We got the debut of Jade Cargill. We got to see a lot of some nice moments from Tiffany Stratton,

Roxane Perez, bron Breaker. We got some really nice NXT talent as well, which I know doesn't create as much buzz, but this is what the life leove of the company is is to help create new stars and get them moving them in front of fans. It's not as fun as a fan established fan, especially if you don't watch a XT. It's not as interesting. Who cares about these people?

I know many of you are a lot lower, some of you are in threes, fours and fives out of ten. Six and a half is kind of where I've landed out of ten because it did what it needed to do, but it didn't live up to the expectations, which is kind of sounds like it's a contrarian statement, but it's not,

if you know what I mean. And also the looming the dark cloud of Vince McMahon and being there because of the whole lawsuit and Triple H handling the press very poorly at the end and telling us to stop talking about it because he just wants to talk about the positives. It's like, no, dude, we're the journalists. We decide what the hell we want to talk about, and this is way more important than whatever's going on on

TV that's all manufactured. By the way, you need to address this if we ask you, and stop telling us not to because it's a negative, I don't want to talk about it. How did he not know that that was going to be something that the journalists immediately ask And how are you trying to downplay it like it's not more important than the positives of well, we had a great we had a great event, guys, right right,

talk about the event, don't talk about that. It was very I mean, that's that's a very rare misstep for Triple AH. She should have had a canned response to cover all his statements, so he didn't have to talk about it. Of like, hey, guys, listen, I know you want to talk about events. I know you want to talk about the pending lawsuit. Let me just say, right off the bat, for legal reasons, I can out comment

on it. So if you have any if you have any questions the Royal Rumble event itself, I'd be happy to answer it, but at this time we can't comment on the pending lawsuit. Events anyway, just shot it dead right there. It would have been a boring can statement, but better than what he produced. I mean, I'm sorry, Trips, you didn't exactly handle that the best way.

about the Rumble. We've got the raw review. I've got a guest host coming there. I've also got a guest host coming next Sunday night. You guys have heard them before, brand new co hosts. I got Amanda and Chrissy who are coming on this week, so you guys will get some female flavor into the show.