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The Royal Rumble always seems to come with a lot of good and a lot of badWWE Royal Rumble 2017 was the best built Royal Rumble show in years. After years of anticlimactic Rumble results, the WWE had finally given us a show that felt like it could go anywhere, as the Royal Rumble should.From title matches to grudge matches to the Royal Rumble itself, there were so many ways for them to start The Road to WrestleMania.It wasn’t all flash, either. The earlier matches on the card were pretty good, but then came time for the main event.It’s hard to describe this year’s Royal Rumble Match. More details will come on it later, but it was failed by its own ending, like a lot of things in WWE that get viewed in a negative light.Still, for fans who desperately want to see WWE put on their first good Royal Rumble in years, this was a step in the right direction.So there will be a lot of complaining in the coming days. Wrestling fans have no problem being vocal when they feel wronged, and they felt that way on Sunday night.Still, we’re going to take a look at the show from all sides here. We’re not ignoring the positives just because of the negatives. The optimism for The Road to WrestleMania was short-lived, but maybe WWE can build some of it back up again.So it’s time to break down the show, looking at its three worst qualities, against its three best. We’re wrestling fans, so let’s kick this thing off negatively.Next: Kicking Things Off WWE.com
Worst: The Kickoff Show
There was just nothing going on here. With Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, Nikki Bella, Alexa Bliss, Cesaro, Sheamus, and The Club, all appearing on the Kickoff, I thought they might put some effort into making it entertaining. They did not.
These matches were only there as filler, and if you’re going to start out that way, why even have the matches? Certainly there’s no point to beating Sasha clean on PPV in that environment.
Sasha’s not the only one. The SmackDown Live Women’s Champion was defeated in her match by Naomi, who is sure to be a contender in the near future, and the Raw Tag Team Championship changed hands on the Kickoff.
It was an eventful part of the show, but it never felt that important.
Maybe that speaks to the larger issue of WWE constantly beating their talent, to the point where nobody outside a select few has any star power. Either way, it’s an issue, and the people listed at the top should be able to draw viewers and make for three interesting matches, but that did not happen.
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Best: Main Card
When the main show got going, things began to change. The opening match was for the Raw Women’s Championship, and Charlotte and Bayley went out and put on a show. They told the story beautifully, showing how bad Bayley wanted to win, but just how ruthless Charlotte could be. That’s what got Charlotte the win, but Bayley gave a good account of herself, and could be staring a WrestleMania rematch in the face.
There was also an excellent Cruiserweight Championship Match between Rich Swan and Neville. Swan did all he could, and both men made sure that he didn’t look outclassed, but Neville is being built up to be a beast in the Cruiserweight Division. That’s ultimately what he was here, winning the title.
Both of those matches laid an excellent foundation for the three main event matches that the show was built around, regardless of how those matches actually turned out.
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Worst: Universal Championship Match
Does anybody think Kevin Owens looks like a champion?
I get that there are times when a champion is lesser than other people on the roster and he has to look as such, but they have done nothing for Owens. He is constantly made out to look like he is inferior to Reigns, and he’s not even getting good heel heat out of it.
At least if he was getting heat, it would make sense. He’s not, though. He’s cheered more than Reigns is every night. What’s all of this doing for either one of them? What’s it doing for the title?
The answer is nothing.
It looks like Reigns is going to be moving on to feuding with Braun Strowman or The Undertaker. All this feud did for him was remind the fans that he’s the company guy, and he’s not going anywhere. We knew that. The constant reminding just makes his crowd reactions worse.
Owens is having this long title reign, but it’s largely forgettable. His friendship with Chris Jericho is more memorable than anything else.
They didn’t even do that much for Braun Strowman, whose vicious attack couldn’t keep an already beaten Reigns down.
The title is the real loser in all of this. It’s a brand new championship. He’s only the second man to hold it, and the first guy only had it for 24 hours because of injury. A strong champion is important to making a title prestigious, and they have not done that with the Universal Championship.
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Best: AJ Styles and John Cena
They are allergic to bad matches. Every time they step in the ring together they create magic.
The way that they finished the match was done so perfectly to look like the finish at SummerSlam, but with Cena countering AJ’s forearm and finding a way to win this time. That’s something we see a lot of, but Cena and Styles are so good at the little things and that helps bring the moment over the top.
The extra aggression from Cena was an interesting thing to see as well, he was taking it to Styles early in the match. The back-to-back A-As at the end were a shining example of that too. It brought an extra element to the match that showed how badly Cena wanted to tie Flair’s record, but, more importantly, how badly he needed to beat Styles.
It’s unfortunate to see Styles lose the title, but this feud has been so perfect and it really felt right when Cena’s hand was raised.
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Worst: Royal Rumble Surprises
There were 22 announced Royal Rumble entrants going into Sunday night. That left eight “surprises.” Those surprises were wildly underwhelming.
It started off with Kalisto, then it just never got better. Tye Dillinger got his obligatory entrance at #10, but every other surprise was just a low-card guy who had no chance of winning.
Well, that is, until #30. It wasn’t Kurt Angle. It wasn’t Finn Balor. It wasn’t any legend of any kind who would’ve at least brought a fun reaction out of the crowd and made things interesting.
No, it was Roman Reigns. Reigns’ music hit and the crowd immediately booed him out of the building. He made it to the final three and tossed Bray Wyatt out of the ring for no reason at all, before Randy Orton eliminated him to become the winner.
It was a Royal Rumble that had been built and built, and it seemed like any legend or NXT star could’ve been in those eight spots, but that did not happen and it sucked the air out of the building.
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Best: Royal Rumble Booking
It wasn’t all bad. Even if it felt like it was for the final part of the night.
For the first time in years, the Royal Rumble was booked in a sensible manner. It felt like every elimination mattered, and we were on the edge of our seat for every entrance, because any number could’ve been the winning entrant.
Surprise legend returns have become the norm, and it’s disappointing to not get at least one, but, considering what there was to work with, they did a good job.
The only bad elimination was Roman Reigns eliminating Bray Wyatt, because it felt like they put The Wyatt Family’s storyline on hold for the sake of Reigns getting an elimination. Other than that, they were good. One bad elimination out of 29 is not that bad of a ratio.
Overall, it was a fun Rumble, especially compared to recent years. A little underwhelming, but nothing like the disasters we’ve endured as fans before.
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