RJ’s Two Cents - Analyzing the 2017 WWE Royal Rumble Match

By RJ Marceau

​The Royal Rumble match wasn’t the best I have ever seen but I think the show as a whole was really good. Charlotte retaining in a good match, The Club won the WWE Raw Tag Team Championships and AJ Styles and John Cena had a match of the year quality match.

When it comes to the Rumble some of the eliminations were head scratching. I would say some of the early entrants were a waste but the whole point of them being in the match was for Braun Strowman to toss them. I will start with Braun Strowman. Braun was in the match for 13 mins and 11 secs with 7 eliminations which isn’t bad. My issue is how he was built coming into the match and where he was eliminated. Braun was a favorite going into the match and had interfered in the WWE Universal Title Match earlier in the night. Strowman easily should be one of the last five people left and being eliminated by Corbin rather than Reigns was stupid. It served no purpose and did nothing for a future feud. His early exit from the match reminded me of Daniel Bryan's elimination in 2015 of how once he was out it sucked the wind out of the crowd because he was a favorite that was eliminated randomly.

​My next point is why were the Raw guys who competed earlier in the night like Reigns, Cesaro and Sheamus in the match but AJ Styles wasn’t? SmackDown got the short end of the stick because they only had 11 entrants in the match. Raw had 18. SmackDown’s entrants were all throwaway besides Orton, Wyatt, Miz, Ziggler, Ambrose and Corbin. I liked the inclusion of Tye Dillinger but they couldn’t have found someone better to take Jack Gallagher or Kalisto's spots?

The eliminations of Ziggler, Ambrose and Miz were comical because they were tossed over with ease by Lesnar and 'Taker. They seemed like normal guys and not the midcard of SmackDown. I hated the elimination of Brock Lesnar because it was as dumb as Survivor Series. Lesnar was tossed by Goldberg in 30 seconds and I don’t know how you could build another match when the last two encounters ended in squashes for Goldberg.

I laughed when Roman Reigns entered at 30 because it was exactly what the crowd didn’t want. I wasn’t pissed Orton won but if the rumors are true and they have Wyatt win the WWE Championship at Elimination Chamber then why not switch the roles? Have it come down to Orton and Wyatt. Wyatt tells Orton to sacrifice himself for the family and he jumps over the top rope. Wyatt wins and at Elimination Chamber, Orton wins the belt. Orton would say you have to earn this title since I gave you the win at Royal Rumble.
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If the rumors aren’t true and they do Cena vs. Orton for the 100th time I might cancel my tickets to WrestleMania. Just kidding I will go but the match will be a repeat from 2007. The Rumble developed more questions than answers so at least the WWE Universe is buzzing. The future for multiple superstars are up in the air right now so it will be interesting to see what the WWE landscape looks like post-Elimination Chamber and Fastlane.  

SEE ALSO: "RJ's Two Cents - Who Will Win WWE's 2017 Royal Rumble Match?"