Review for WWE Royal Rumble 2017

The Royal Rumble was my favourite PPV. In fact this was the PPV that I looked forward to all year and the past few years this has become less and less. This year we had some great PPV matches featuring the likes of John Cena returning to take on Smackdown WWE Champion AJ Styles and Raw Universal Champion Kevin Owens taking on Roman Reigns. These make up slightly for the rather lacklustre Royal Rumble… not by much, but at least take away the sting.

Kick off Matches:
Six Woman Tag Match
Becky Lynch, Nikki Bella and Naomi vs. Alexa Bliss, Mickey James, Natalya

This was an odd match. I enjoyed it for some of the moments such as the six-woman suplex and a few of the high flying moves, but really this match should have been much better. At the end the match didn't really achieve much and felt more like a TV match (the ad breaks didn't help this).

WWE Raw Tag Team Championship (with Two Referees)
Cesaro and Sheamus vs. Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson

This was a good tag match. Both teams worked well. The whole second referee thing was slightly pointless, but otherwise it was full of great moments and these are two teams put on a great show.

Sasha Banks vs. Nia Jax

A waste. This match may aswell have just been a 10 second Goldberg-style squash. Instead it followed the same format of almost every Sasha Banks match for the past few months and the same Nia Jax one for that matter. This match did nothing for me. It showed Jax was strong, but I knew that anyway?

WWE Raw Women's Championship
Charlotte vs. Bayley

This is the women's match I have been wanting to see for the past twelve months. Bayley is the perfect underdog to Charlotte's smug Heel. Every two count was exciting and made me not turn away. This was a match I hugely enjoyed and compared to the previous two I can understand perfectly why this was the one on the main PPV. It is just a shame that the ending was a little sudden. Plus I wish they would stop talking about how amazing Charlotte's PPV streak is? It means nothing if she's losing her belt every other month on Raw?

No DQ Match for WWE Universal Championship (with Chris Jericho in a Cage)
Kevin Owens vs. Roman Reigns

Wow a Jericho in a cage match. This is some Vince Russo level nonsense right here? The beginning of this match made no sense and once they had gotten him in the cage the match itself wasn't so bad. I do wish that when we would get to a PPV that a No DQ match would at least be a little extreme. I'm not after blood and injuries, but a little more No DQ style action would have been nice. However, the match had some good spots from both though the ending was a little confusing.

WWE Cruiserweight Championship
Rich Swann vs. Neville

This was a highly effective match between the two. I expected it to just be a spotfest, but instead everything made sense and it was a great match between the two.

WWE Championship
AJ Styles vs. John Cena

My feeling going into this match is simply this: John Cena cannot win. If he does it will destroy all the hard work that AJ Styles and the WWE has been doing over the past few months.

It was a good back and forth match and really when you think about dream matches this is still one that I never thought I would see. My biggest problem with this match was that the commentary was so pro-Cena that you almost forgot at times that AJ Styles was the champion and every time that Cena went for a pin my heart was in my throat... until the end when I wanted to throw up.

Ok, I don't have anything against Cena and I do think he is a much better wrestler than people give him credit for. However, him winning on his first match back is such a cheap move and it makes all the hard work of AJ Styles has been doing the last few months for nothing. The sad thing is this: This match was amazing, but as always it's the ending that leaves the bitter taste in the mouth. Cena is champion again and once again I cease to care.

Royal Rumble Match

I still love Enzo and Big Cass entry though I had expected them to be numbers one and two. My pick has been Chris Jericho and so him coming in at two might not be a good sign. Jack Gallagher? What is this? This is the first time that Braun Strowman has looked pretty good. Maybe because there is nothing scientific about what he was doing, but still it made a change and the back and forth between him and Big Show was pretty good. It was surprising that the ring got quite full with a long time without any eliminations.

At 21 with Bray Wyatt it's still great to see all the lights... though it is amazing that there haven't been any nostalgia surprises yet?

Sheamus and Cesaro eliminating The New Day followed by the turn was pretty good... predictable, but good. Once again, did Dolph Ziggler drink a litre of Red Bull before coming out. It is exciting, but not as much as they would like to think. Lesnar destroying everyone was great, but could have been better it didn't make sense that he was able to take out everyone.

Lesnar and Goldberg was once again fantastic! That's how you do it! Now the match can continue after everyone seemed to just stay down. As for Undertaker's entrance? That was an awesome moment.

And after no real surprises what do we get at the end... Roman Reigns. I see someone with a sign that says 'When it Reigns it Bores'. Why? When this could have been AJ getting his rematch or someone from NXT? Have WWE not watched how much the WWE Universe have rejected Reigns for the past year?
We are down to Reigns, Jericho, Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton and all I can think is.... Please WWE. Do the right thing! (Holds head in hands!!??)

The Royal Rumble 2017 is another disappointing edition of what was once my favourite PPV. I can’t even remember the last time I was actually happy at the ending of the event. The rest of the PPV was fine with the two title matches great matches, just a shame that they went with Cena winning which was pointless. The only extra on the Bluray is the confrontation between Goldberg, Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker which was amazing, but could have been done better. It is a shame that nothing else is given.

I would say the PPV’s slogan of ‘Remember the Rumble’ is a little misleading as this is definitely one that I would rather forget.