30 Quick Notes From Royal Rumble
Is AJ Styles done done?
Enjoyed the friend versus friend situation to kick off the women’s Rumble match. Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss taking the 1998 dynamic of Cactus Jack vs. Chainsaw Charlie and turning it on its head (with no unprotected chair shots to boot).
Becky Lynch is great with the little details. She refuses to hand her Intercontinental Championship over to referee Jessika Carr cause she doesn’t like her. Love it.
Lola Vice is super fierce and I dig the legitimacy she brings to her presentation.
Nattie’s new theme music is wonderful. I also like Jordynne Grace’s. There’s only a few who have really good music (see the aforementioned Becky too). It makes a lot of the other entrance songs a little concerning.
Kiana James is super impressive. Low key great performance by her.
Maxxine Dupri has improved so much.
What’s too sweet? No doubt has Kevin Nash has had a major impact on Raquel Rodriguez and that has helped her get this major push. Awesome she eliminated Rhea. Such a big deal.
Lash Legend got the major attention. Not against it at all, but curious how it all plays out on the SmackDown roster.
Brie Bella returning was a very apropos surprise. Major reaction, unexpected name, plus a tease for the Bella Twins to go after the tag gold.
Sol Ruca is Carly Simon cool. Really well done putting her in the final three.
Liv Morgan deserves the WrestleMania spot.
Love the sleeper teases throughout this fight and AJ out-maneuvering them.
Gunther is ruthless. Love how he’s going back to yelling “ask him” (if AJ wants to quit) even when he’s not locking in a submission
Is it serendipitous that AJ’s phenomenal forearm got color?
The gloves moment was reminiscent of the ending of The Shield (the FX show not the obvious one). Don’t think AJ’s done. I say we see him in TNA on AMC. Plenty of fresh faces for him to face and eventually rerun the place.
Sami’s got a good energy for his title match while Drew looks chiseled out of granite.
The back becomes the bullseye and ain’t nothing like a classic backbreaker to accentuate that.
Love the double tap Claymore finish.
Oba Femi is a BEAST. He’s gotta go 50 minutes.
Love the Breakker angle, but could we get something different than an attack wearing a black hood?
Rusev kinda done dirty there, but hopefully there’s a story to follow it (maybe with Oba himself).
Great Jack Tunney reference, Wade Barrett.
The Spider-Man meme Americano.
Didn’t shy away from Powerhouse Hobbs name. I like Royce Keys (Royce Jones was a famous vocalist for Steely Dan so there’s that). I wouldn’t have debuted him here. The Saudi crowd didn’t give him the appropriate props.
…is La Parka Seth Rollins (or DDP?) UPDATE: No he isn’t.
I kinda (no, I really) wanna see Dragunov vs. Lesnar.
Surprising exit for Lesnar. Felt like he was just checking the “Saudi big star” box.
Would not have put Gunther at #30. That crowd was flat for it.
Logan Paul deserves to be in the final four.
Roman Reigns teased this win months back by looking at both titles. Makes sense, but you really wanna dump it on? Should’ve had Gunther win it. So. Much. Heat.