Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis
WOMEN'S ROYAL RUMBLE (CHARLOTTE FLAIR) (70:20): This show was typical WWE these days; entertaining but nothing special and, of course, no match-of-the-year contenders. The WWE is hot these days and printing money, so I guess they don't care if they're not producing 4 star matches. What was the last 4 star WWE match? I don't think I've ever given 4 stars to a WWE match. The one problem I had with this show was that both Rumbles were too long. The men's Rumble on this show was the longest one in history. It was actually longer than that awful Greatest Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia that featured 50 men and was one hour and 17 minutes long. The first Rumble ever back in the 80's only had 20 men and was 33 minutes long. Most of them have been a little bit longer than an hour. Maybe they should go back to the 20 person gimmick. These Rumbles are too long. They drag, they're boring, wrestlers are just standing around most of the time. In this new, Vince-less era, the Rumbles don't feature a lot of past stars past their prime. This one had Trish Stratus, but she's actually recently wrestled on big shows in the last couple of years. Remember when they had a lot of really old stars show up? What, was Vince the only one that knew their phone numbers or something? There were a few returns in this match. Charlotte Flair was injured and gone all of 2024. Alexa Bliss was gone because she had a baby. Nikki Bella returned at #30. She's been gone for years. I wonder how she was making $ for the last ten years. Remember she was dating John Cena? Was that just a publicity stunt? So Nia Jax came in and eliminated a bunch of wrestlers. Charlotte Flair won by eliminating Roxanne Perez, who is a NXT wrestler. Giulia, who used to be in Stardom, is the NXT champ now and was in her first Rumble. I feel bad for her because she'll never be able to showcase her true talents in WWE. Same for CMLL's Stephanie Vaquer. I do like the Rumble gimmick, so this was at least mildly entertaining. **
#DIY (JOHNNY GARGANO & TOMMASO CIAMPA) vs. THE MOTOR CITY MACHINE GUNS (ALEX SHELLEY & CHRIS SABIN) "2 OUT OF 3 FALLS MATCH": If this match happened anywhere other than WWE and happened ten years ago it might've been a masterpiece. But these guys are old, the WWE isn't exciting, and the crowd didn't much care for this match. They had around 65,000 fans at this show, which is impressive. When the crowd pops big for Penta doing a Canadian Destroyer, I always wonder what they'd do if they saw a Will Ospreay match. Would their heads explode? & when they stand up and chant for "tables" and gasp at Kevin Owens going through a table, what the heck would they do seeing 'Hangman' vs. Swerve in a hardcore match? Would they faint? It's almost like these WWE fans don't watch other wrestling. At least, that's what it seems like by the crowd reactions. This was for the tag team titles...which is a total dud of a division in the WWE. The Uso's broke up. The Judgment Day is kind of more singles wrestlers that sometimes wrestle as a tag team. There's those Viking guys that were great in ROH but are super bland now. This was fine but pretty forgettable. **
CODY RHODES vs. KEVIN OWENS "LADDER MATCH" (25:22): This was at least a good match with some brutal spots on ladders. They seem to be turning Cody heel for some ungodly reason. Why would they do that? They do realize that Cody left AEW because the fans started booing him, right? The fans did boo Cody at least in one spot in this match. Maybe it was just that these big WWE shows sometimes get the hardcore fans and the hardcore fans like Kevin Owens. Both men got slammed onto ladder bridges. That was exciting. Cody kept the title and is supposed to wrestle Cena at 'Mania. ***
MEN'S ROYAL RUMBLE (JEY USSO) (80:11): 80 minutes? Jesus Christ. I have, like, things to do. This show was 4 hours and 18 minutes. What is this, a New Japan show? This Rumble was good because it had a lot of big stars in it. Cena, who is retiring after this year, hasn't been in one in a while. Roman Reigns hasn't been in one in years because he was a forever champion. And they had CM Punk, Seth Rollins, Logan Paul. Jacob Fatu, who has become the most exciting wrestler in the company since he debuted (they haven't neutered him yet), was definitely the star. He didn't win of course. Jey Uso eliminated Cena to win. Uso is a crowd favorite. He comes out on RAW amidst the crowd and everyone moves their hands up and down and it's a spectacle. I get why he won. But...he was just in the main event last week on Saturday's Main Event where he lost a title match to Gunther. So why let him win here? He's just going to beat Gunther at 'Mania? Makes no sense to already have had that match and he lost. I suppose Cena will win at the Elimination Chamber to get his 'Mania match. This large crowd popped more for the wrestler's entrances and when they just stood in the ring than for really anything they did wrestling wise. At one point, it was CM Punk, Roman, Seth and Cena standing in the ring and the crowd was going crazy. I get it...the wrestling wasn't better than them standing there. This was Penta's first Rumble and at least he did some moves. Logan did a spot where he jumped to the announce table but he was still alive. He then jumped to the stairs to get back in the match. L.A. Knight was eliminated pretty fast late which I guess means they've given up on pushing him as a main event star. Logan was #30. I figured the only ones left for #30 were The Rock or Solo Sikoa. Both weren't in the match. A lot of this was entertaining but a lot of it was boring. The WWE is fine; it's entertaining, it sells out football stadiums...but it doesn't feature great wrestling matches. This is why we're watching it. At least...me. Will the WWE ever change and get there? I miss the glory days of NXT. I assumed that would translate to the main show with HHH in charge. Sadly, I was mistaken. **1/2
