Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
WOMEN'S ROYAL RUMBLE (LIV MORGAN) (66:51): Money talks, so the Royal Rumble is in Saudi Arabia, the first time the Royal Rumble has been outside of the U.S. and Canada. Next year, Wrestlemania is in Saudi Arabia. You know...since TKO loves money more than human rights, why don't they just put every WWE show in Saudi Arabia? They can bring back Vince then and kill any critic legally. Vince can go rape all the women he wants and not worry about paying them off. Saudi Arabia is a bad fucking place. It's bad enough that the women wrestling on this show had to cover up their skin by wearing full body suits. Women in general there have to get their husband or father's permission to do pretty much anything like travel, marry, or get a job. Alcohol, porn, and homosexuality are banned. Saudi Arabia got a lot of press in recent years because they cut the head off a Washington Post reporter. The CIA found out that the leader of Saudi Arabia not only knew about that but gave the go ahead. What hasn't been in the mainstream news is that last June, Saudi Arabia killed another critic, a reporter that created a Twitter account to reveal corruption by those in charge. After sitting in jail for 7 years, they killed him. His name was Turki al-Jasser. Okay, let's watch fucking wrestling! Who gives a shit about dead critics, right? Am I right? Sadly, the U.S. is on the path to becoming Saudi Arabia. The U.S. government just murdered two protestors in Minneapolis. It's just sad that athletes, comedians, and famous people go to Saudi Arabia only because they're getting boatloads of cash. Tucker Carlson and Hillary Clinton just spoke at a conference there. Recently, there was a comedy festival that Dave Chapelle and Pete Davidson performed at. And there's boxing there all the time and UFC and their ultra-lame golf league nobody watches or cares about. What the fuck, dude? Does nobody care anymore? I'm guessing one reason that most online critics savaged this show was because it took place in Saudi Arabia. I thought it was a decent show with one great match. Most people thought the women's Rumble was better than the Men's. The show was held outside in a temporary stadium they just built. They do have stadiums in the country, so I don't know why they had to build a temporary stadium for this. Maybe they wanted the look of that Wrestlemania held outside at Caesar's Palace in Vegas in the 90's. The crowd got really hot for Brie Bella, Brock Lesnar, and the AJ/Gunther match. Sol Ruca, who is in NXT, was one of the last in the Rumble and became the star. The crowd was going ape shit for Brie Bella, and they were orgiastically doing the "Yes!" chant. Brie hasn't been in the WWE for a while. I was kind of wondering if maybe Bryan Danielson might return, as he's been mysteriously absent as a commentator in AEW the last two weeks. Liv Morgan ended up winning the Rumble. That seems like a good choice as she's popular with the fans even though she's a heel. This was a typical Rumble: someone comes out, does a few moves, then everyone stands around until the next entrant. **1/2
GUNTHER vs. AJ STYLES (24:04): These two wrestled last week on Saturday Night's Main Event. Styles lost that match but wanted a rematch. Gunther said that he'd do the rematch, but AJ had to put his career on the line. About halfway into this match, I was thinking: man, this match is great...AJ is definitely losing. The reason being: AJ would definitely want his last match to be great. He'd go all out. He'd do everything. And he did. This was the best WWE match I've seen in years. It was hard hitting. It was exciting. Eventually, AJ got choked out but didn't tap, he just went unconscious. Their match on SNME was boring. And on RAW last week, AJ and CM Punk had a title match that was boring. But this match was fantastic. It's funny how wrestlers can "turn it on" when they actually want to. AJ was about to take his gloves off and leave them in the ring but decided not to. I have no idea what that means. AJ, you're fucking retired. I don't want to see some stupid storyline negating that. ***1/2
DREW McINTYRE vs. SAMI ZAYN (15:59): Sami is supposed to be this big star in Saudi Arabia but, honestly, I thought the fans might've been more into this match because of that. They cared more about the AJ/Gunther match. I was thinking about this, and I think it's because they're probably more into the older WWE stars of the past. AJ is an older wrestler they probably recognize more, as is Brie Bella, as is Brock Lesnar. Those three got the biggest pops. I mean...the crowd was doing the "Yes!" chant like it's 2018. Sami didn't win the title here. And Sami is not going to main event Wrestlemania. The WWE had their chance in 2024 and fucked it up. Sami Zayn is never going to be a big star. He had his chance and they decided, "Nope!" This match was dull. *1/2
MEN'S ROYAL RUMBLE (ROMAN REIGNS) (58:21): Everyone online hated this match. Maybe because Chris Jericho didn't return? Apparently, he's still under contract with AEW. They haven't used him since last April when he lost to Bandido. Powerhouse Hobbs did make his debut. His name is now Royce Keys, which is fucking awful. I can already see they'll never push him. Gunther was number 30, which made no sense since he already wrestled. Brock came in and gave everyone scary looking German Suplex's. The funniest part was that Brock was eliminated while Jey Uso was doing his "Yeet" entrance in the crowd and probably nobody there noticed. Brock did get to humiliate Rey Fenix. I'm not sure what the point of that was. Fenix came in and got destroyed and tossed out by Brock in, like, thirty seconds. Chad Gable returned but he came in as Grande Americano or whatever that luchador gimmick name is. The other Grande Americano was in there, too. I figured that Bron Breakker was going to win, as did probably everybody. Bron was number one, and when he was walking to the ring a masked figure ran out and beat him up. This caused number two, Oba Femi, to immediately eliminate Bron. The masked figure gave Bron a stomp, which made you think that it was Seth Rollins. The other interference had Drew McIntyre run out and eliminate Cody when Cody was on the ring apron. Drew wasn't in this match. This sets up Cody vs. Drew at Wrestlemania. The other 'Mania main event is CM Punk vs. Roman. Since Bron was never even in the match...did they do that because he was injured or something? Because it's kind of stupid to take him out of the entire match. I thought they were building him up to be this big star? Randy Orton was one of the final entrants. Gunther and Roman were the last two. When they mentioned that Roman had only won the Rumble once and it was way back in 2015, I figured that he's definitely winning. This match was just okay and nothing special. In 2025, the most watched WWE PPV all year was the Royal Rumble. It actually is more popular than Wrestlemania. That's kind of crazy that this has become bigger than 'Mania. I guess with 'Mania being two nights it lowers the total viewership. I don't know if this show will end up being the WWE's most viewed PPV of the year (it did start at 2 PM on a Saturday East Coast U.S. time), but it most definitely won't be the best. **
