Another Royal Rumble has come and gone, and just like it is with most WWE pay per views, there was some good, some bad, and some ugly depending on your point of view.
Most of the WWE Universe seemed to enjoy the pay per view but had many questions on how the Royal Rumble match itself was booked.
Five titles were up for grabs at the Royal Rumble pay per view, and three of the five changed hands. As for the Royal Rumble match itself, there was some history made with Chris Jericho becoming the sixth WWE Superstar to last over an hour in the match.
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Jericho also broke Triple H’s record for the longest cumulative time in the Royal Rumble match in history.
Randy Orton made some history of his own becoming the seventh WWE Superstar to win multiple Royal Rumble matches, and he has punched his ticket into one of the main events at WrestleMania 33 in Orlando this April.
This article is going to cover five disappointments with what many consider to be the second biggest pay per view on the calendar for the WWE. They range from the placement of a title match, an unceremonious way to tie a legendary record, to a couple of poor decisions in the Royal Rumble match itself.
Continue on to see the disappointments that occurred in the Royal Rumble this year.
#5 – Poor use of the big names in the Royal Rumble match
The biggest drawing point of the 2017 Royal Rumble was the fact that Goldberg, Undertaker, and Brock Lesnar were all going to be in the match. One would expect that we’d get some sort of epic battle involving these three men and the other WWE Superstars.
Instead, Goldberg lasted a little over three minutes and Brock Lesnar didn’t even make it to the five-minute mark.
Also read: 5 Integral numbers that define the WWE Royal Rumble Match
Undertaker did last almost nine minutes in the match and had the second most eliminations, but he was unceremoniously thrown over the top rope by Roman Reigns, possibly setting up a Wrestlemania feud between the two.
Overall, it wasn’t what we were expecting. We expected some different types of confrontations, but instead, most of the wrestlers that were in the ring were just thrown out like jobbers.
#4 – Giving Gallows & Anderson the tag titles on the pre-show
Shortly after WrestleMania in 2016, one of the best tag teams in the world in Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson joined the WWE from New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Gallows and Anderson were one of the most dominant tag teams in New Japan Pro Wrestling history, winning multiple titles, not to mention that they were in the biggest faction in pro wrestling today with the Bullet Club.
While Gallows and Anderson came into the WWE in dominant fashion, the booking of the duo became less than dominant making fans of the tag team pretty upset with creative.
After nearly a year in the WWE, Gallows and Anderson finally captured tag team gold, but unfortunately, it was on the pre-show and not on the main card where a moment like this actually belonged.
#3 – Putting in Roman Reigns at #30 instead of Finn Balor or Samoa Joe
When the entrants for the 2017 Royal Rumble were announced, there were a total of eight spots that were left unclaimed for surprises, debuts and returns. While the best surprise was Tye Dillinger at #10, and it was great to see Jack Gallagher from 205 Live, the rest of the unclaimed entrants were not that newsworthy.
When Undertaker came out at #29, there was still hope for a big shocker at #30. Could it be Finn Balor returning from injury? Could it be a debuting Samoa Joe? Unfortunately no, it was Roman Reigns, who we had already seen earlier in the night.
While Reigns is great as a wrestler, the booking behind him is why the WWE Universe boos him, and it therefore made the #30 entrant very anti-climatic.
#2 – Using Roman Reigns to get the crowd to cheer Randy Orton’s win
Typically the winner of the Royal Rumble is someone ready to take the next step, someone who is new to the main event scene. That wasn’t the case this year as 12-time world champion Randy Orton was crowned the winner.
With John Cena winning the WWE World Championship earlier in the evening, as it stands, it sets up a match-up between Randy Orton and John Cena that we have seen many times before.
John Cena still has to escape the Elimination Chamber first though and there are two possible reasons for this decision that are being discussed.
The first is that Vince McMahon is getting tired of people saying how much better Smackdown Live is than Monday Night Raw so he has decided to water down their main event at WrestleMania.
The other opinion is that Bray Wyatt will win the Elimination Chamber in less than two weeks and will face his ally-turned-foe Randy Orton for the title in Orlando.
#1 – John Cena ties Ric Flair for his 16th world title win, may only hold the belt two weeks
For the WWE World Championship, it was John Cena challenging AJ Styles at the Royal Rumble. It was truly an amazing match, and will definitely be a contender for match of the year already.
After two consecutive Attitude Adjustments, Cena was the victor and made history by tying Ric Flair with 16 total world championships.
While John Cena definitely deserves to be up there with Ric Flair in terms of title runs, this was not the right time to do so. For one, many think Bray Wyatt is going to win the championship at Elimination Chamber, meaning his historic title run will last only two weeks.
Something this historic should have been saved for a WrestleMania in the next couple of years.
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