4 Missed Opportunities from WWE Greatest Royal Rumble

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia hosted WWE's Biggest event outside the United States in over 25 years last night as The Greatest Royal Rumble took place in Jeddah. The event, that featured the largest Royal Rumble match in WWE history, ended with Braun Strowman holding the giant trophy and a championship belt above his head as he outlasted 49 other men to emerge as the winner of the gigantic 50-man match.

Elsewhere on the show, Brock Lesnar controversially defeated Roman Reigns in a short rematch to their 'Mania disaster, Styles and Nakamura's rivalry took a vicious turn as their rematch ended in a count-out and Hardy/Wyatt duo finally completed their journey to the top of Raw's tag team division. The show had a series of impeccable performances, with Daniel Bryan breaking the record for longest stint in the Rumble and the ladder match participants stealing another show.

However, the show was not without it's fair share of setbacks and was, in no capacity, the perfect show that it was shaping up to be. WWE missed a few opportunities that might have worked for them in the long. Here are 4 such missed opportunities from the Greatest Royal Rumble in Jeddah.

Keeping the Smackdown Tag Titles Match Short....

These two teams deserved 10 minutes.

Ever since winning the Blue Brand's Tag Team Title back in March 2017, The Usos have been the best tag team in the entire WWE. Not only did they manage to defeat each and every team on Smackdown Live, they even defeated their Raw counterparts, The Bar, in the cross-brand match up at Survivor Series. However, ever since the return of Harper and Rowan, WWE has pushed the two up the ladder, leading to a title win for the duo at WrestleMania 34.

The match at 'Mania, however, was not very well received by the fans as the match only lasted a little over 5 minutes. With both teams capable of putting an instant classic, WWE had the perfect opportunity to have Usos lose the match after a tough fight and then initiate a slow heel turn. However, just to put Harper & Rowan over as dominant force, WWE once again sacrificed its premier tag-team. They delivered big time in 5 minutes. Imagine what they could have done in 10-12 minutes.

...But Taking 10 minutes to bury Rusev

This should have been a squash match.

Ever since the match up between Undertaker and Rusev was announced for Greatest Royal Rumble, just one question had been going through the minds of all wrestling fans - How long would Rusev last against the Undertaker? Even though Rusev has been WWE's most over superstar in the last 6 months, everyone was expecting Rusev to be squashed by the Deadman. After all, 'Taker just squashed John Cena, WWE Poster Boy, under 3 minutes at 'Mania 34.

Rusev did lose at Greatest Royal Rumble and was buried along with Aiden English in the casket, but it wasn't the way everyone was expecting the match to pan out. Instead of just squashing Rusev in under 2 minutes, WWE decided to give him some offence and drag the match to the 10 minute mark. This has just destroyed the value and hype around the squash of John Cena at 'Mania 34 as 'Taker was not as dominant against Rusev as he was against Cena.

If this was the plan all along, this casket match should have taken place at 'Mania 34 instead of Cena squash, while the dream match again Cena could have taken place a year later. Had WWE given Taker a squash victory, it could have been the beginning of a strong storyline leading to the Cena-Taker rematch at 'Mania 35.

Extending Brock's Title Reign

People are getting tired of his reign.

Why does WWE love Brock Lesnar so much? I mean, the man is taking away millions of dollars from your pockets for a handful of appearances on your programming and, barring a few on-and-off matches, has mostly wrestled boring, bland and monotonous matches for you. For the past 12 months, the man has held one of their world titles and scarcely defended the title in that time period. WWE had the perfect opportunity to take the title off him and put it on Roman at 'Mania, but they completely swerved everyone and had Lesnar retain the title.

This time out, at the Greatest Royal Rumble, it was all but a guarantee that Roman would finally win the title and send Lesnar back to his special attraction status. But WWE once again went for the wrong route and had Lesnar retain in controversial manner. Not only does this keep the Universal title away from Raw for a few more months, it has prolonged the dreary, boring and tedious title reign of Lesnar as well as this rivalry that has seemingly run its course. It was WWEs best opportunity to put the title on Roman, and their one decision is gonna turn a large group of fans against Lesnar in the coming months.

No World Title shot for the Royal Rumble Winner

Rumble winner are supposed to be the number one contenders.

If there was one thing that became abundantly clear after the Greatest Royal Rumble, it was that WWE clearly sees Braun Strowman as the guy who can lead the company in the future. Not only did Braun Strowman win the greatest Royal Rumble match in the history of WWE, he broke the record for most eliminations in a single Rumble match, a record that was previously held by WWEs supposed 'Poster Boy' Roman Reigns. Barring Daniel Bryan, Strowman was the most impressive performer in the gigantic match, and what does he get for winning the match? A giant trophy and a mini green title.

Royal Rumble matches are supposed to mean something. There is a special attraction towards every Rumble match because the winner is supposed to get a world title shot at the next Big pay per view and not a gigantic trophy. WWE had the perfect opportunity to raise the stakes and excitement of the match by announcing a world title shot at Summerslam for the winner of the match. By keeping the victory prize to just a trophy and a weird title belt, WWE has converted Greatest Royal Rumble into a larger version of Andre the Giant Battle Royale. Maybe WWE will announce a world title match in the future, but had it come at a greater stage like GRR, it would have had far bigger impact on the event and match as a whole.