WWE Royal Rumble Review - January 28, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Cody Rhodes Won the 30-Man Royal Rumble Match

While this won't go down as the one of the best Rumble matches I've seen in the last decade, it was a very good on the whole and a definite improvement over last year's installment. Gunther and Sheamus starting out was brilliant given their history and they carried the early goings of the match as well as Drew McIntyre once he entered a little bit later. The first chunk of the Rumble suffered from nothing overly exciting happening, but Brock Lesnar woke the crowd back up when he came out and starting obliterating dudes before getting eliminated by Bobby Lashley (which was well done). There weren't any surprise entrants until Booker T returned, followed by Edge and Logan Paul. Although those were cool moments, I think fans (myself included) expected more than the obvious. Also, I wouldn't have had Rhodes enter at number 30. That's way too late. Maybe they wanted him to take it easy coming off his injury, but he ended up wrestling a mini match with Gunther at the end, anyway. That was terrific and shades of Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker from the 2007 Rumble. Rhodes was the right winner and he was heavily cheered by this crowd.

Bray Wyatt def. LA Knight in a Mountain Dew Pitch Black Match

No one knew what the hell to expect from this except that the lights would be out. Honestly, I didn't mind that as it looked awesome visually. The problem with this match was that there wasn't anything remotely memorable about it and they didn't have a chance to get out of first gear before it ended abruptly. It certainly did LA Knight no favors. This was a five-minute disappointment, though I don't know if it would have been any better had it been longer. Whatever the hell that post-match angle was supposed to be was also a mess because Uncle Howdy missed Knight by several feet when jumping off that platform. Above all else, the fact we didn't get a reveal of Uncle Howdy was incredibly underwhelming. The storyline has all but lost my interest by this point.

Raw Women's Champion Bianca Belair def. Alexa Bliss

This was slightly better than Wyatt vs. Knight but was equally lackluster. It came across like a match you'd see on Raw (a la their original encounter from the first Raw of the year). I didn't expect this to be a five-star mat classic, but I was left wanting more than what we got, especially since Belair won clean and that was it. We again got an Uncle Howdy tease for Bliss following her loss, but it amounted to nothing. That was lame.

Rhea Ripley Won the 30-Woman Royal Rumble Match

Of the two Rumbles, I'm not sure which I enjoyed more. This had more surprises but was formatted similarly in that the first half was fairly uneventful and the second half was strong. There were plenty of people the crowd hardly reacted to, but Damage CTRL dominating the field was a nice story and Becky Lynch entering in the middle helped. Asuka coming out in her Kana makeup was the highlight of the match for me if not the entire show aside from what happened at the end of the night. She was long overdue for a a character change and I appreciated that she was in there up until the end. I loved seeing the NXT talent getting chances to shine. We'll see what comes of Chelsea Green's quick elimination and how they plan on handling her. Nia Jax being number 30 had me rolling my eyes, but her spot was actually executed perfectly. Ripley lasting the entire time and then winning the whole thing was wonderful and only cements her status as a total badass. She definitely deserves this and I'm looking forward to her taking gold at WrestleMania.

Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns def. Kevin Owens

I was skeptical like most people when it became apparent that this was closing the show over either of the Rumble matches (marking the first time Royal Rumble has been headlined by a non-Rumble match in a decade when The Rock faced CM Punk for the WWE Championship), but it ended up being the right decision. Not because Reigns vs. Owens was a barn burner by any means (it was actually the weakest of their three matches at the Rumble since 2017), but because of what happened afterward. Reigns vs. Owens was still very good and had its moments, but it was fairly obvious Owens wasn't winning and that hurt some of the suspense. Sami Zayn obliterating Reigns with the chair shot to the back post-match in Shield-esque fashion was masterful, though. Everything about that angle was brilliant and everyone played their roles remarkably well, including Jey Uso walking out on The Bloodline because he didn't want to see Zayn treated like that (the same way he was treated by Reigns back in 2020 at the beginning of The Bloodline). This may be one of the best pay-per-view endings this company has ever done, at least in the modern era.

Overall Show

I'd say the first Triple H-booked Royal Rumble show was a success. The two Rumble matches weren't outstanding, but they were entertaining enough, were well-structured, and had the correct outcomes. The two undercard matches were extremely forgettable letdowns, but the main event thankfully delivered. This show wouldn't be regarded as highly without that show-closing angle, though. It was amazing to witness live and I'm so excited for what's next for that storyline. All in all, the road to WrestleMania is off to a solid start.

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