Recap and Review of WWE Royal Rumble 2022
Tonight, was the annual Royal Rumble premium live event. It’s been a wild year with fans finally coming back to the shows, a lot of releases, and a lot of changes to programming. I was very intrigued by who would win the Rumble matches and who was going to show as a surprise for one night or try for more one run at glory during WrestleMania season. Here is what went down at the Royal Rumble
-Seth Rollins defeated Roman Reigns by Disqualification (Reigns keeps the Championship).
-Ronda Rousey wins the Women’s Royal Rumble
-Becky Lynch defeated Doudrop to retain the Raw Women’s Championship
-Bobby Lashley defeated Brock Lesnar to win the WWE Championship
-Edge and Beth Phoenix defeated The Miz and Maryse
-Brock Lesnar wins the Men’s Royal Rumble
The opening match of the night was for the Universal Championship between Roman Reigns. Rollins came out to the old Shield music and gear. It was a very an amazing nostalgic moment that made for an amazing match. Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns have always brought out the best in each other and tonight was no different. I love the story of Reigns not being able at beat Rollins and that story continued with Reigns getting disqualified due to the mind games and frustration that caused by Rollins. I’m curious to see if Rollins gets another shot on the road to WrestleMania. I still think Rollins is going to have a major role at WrestleMania, but it remains to be seen if it’s as champion.
The Womens Rumble was up next, and it started off with Sasha Banks and a returning Melina. That return was very shortly lived as Banks eliminated her before Tamina came out at #3. I was shocked that Sasha Banks got eliminated as early as she did, and it was by the #7 entrant Zelina Vega. Another surprise that came out was Cameron who was a former Funkadactyl with Naomi. She also has a very short-lived return. One of the loudest ovations of the night was Mickie James, who is the current Impact Knockout’s Champion. She had a good showing, which a lot more then I can say for a lot of the other women who returned tonight. I feel like there were a lot of wasted spots that could have been used on women in NXT. One spot that was not wasted was #28 and the returning Ronda Rousey. I was really shocked not to see Bayley or Alexa Bliss in this match with how many wasted spots there were. The final two women were Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey, and it was the returning Rousey who ended up winning the Rumble match. Rousey now has option to choose her opponent for the main event of WrestleMania.
After the Women’s Rumble, we get a Women’s Title Match. It was Becky Lynch defending the Raw Women’s Championship against Doudrop. When WWE originally brought Doudrop I didn’t think it was going to go well when she was stuck with Eva Marie. When she finally split from Eva Marie, she began to shine and found herself on the big stage against Becky Lynch. She and Lynch had a very solid match, and it was nice to see Doudrop get the spotlight that she’s been working hard towards for a very long time. Becky took Doudrop’s best shots and managed to come out on top once again. With Ronda Rousey winning the Royal, one must wonder if a Lynch versus Rousey rematch for WrestleMania is imminent.
One of the most anticipated matches in recent WWE history was for the WWE Championship between Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley. This was a hard-hitting dogfight throughout the entire match, but big story was Roman Reigns interfering in the match and Paul Heyman turning on Brock Lesnar. This allowed Bobby Lashley to win and becoming the WWE Champion for a second time. There is no doubt in my mind that Lesnar and Reigns are heading on a collision course to WrestleMania in Dallas. These two have had a long-storied history dating back to 2015, but Reigns has evolved so much since that time. I am very intrigued by Heyman’s explanation and role going into this WrestleMania season. The other factor in the outcome is who challenges Bobby Lashley? He’s ran through so many stars on Raw that there isn’t many left.
In WWE, there are not many real-life couples but tonight two real life couples went to battle. The Miz and Maryse took on the Hall of Fame couple of Edge and Beth Phoenix. This match was good for what it was. It was fun, entertaining, and was a feel-good moment. With Edge getting the upper hand on Miz for the second time, I wonder what happens from here. With WrestleMania season upon us, I’m guessing Edge is going to want to be in a big-time match. The Miz also usually has a significant role on WrestleMania, but I don’t think they will be facing each other again.
The Main Event was the Men’s Royal Rumble. The match started off with AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura. At the halfway point, I didn’t feel there was much excitement. Nothing really stuck out to me that was exciting. There was only major surprise, and it was the return of Shane McMahon. Brock Lesnar came out at #30 and eliminated Drew McIntyre to punch his ticket to WrestleMania. I think Lesnar’s obvious choice is going to be Roman Reigns. That’s part of the reason this Royal Rumble fell flat. It was very predictable, and the booking was very lazy. At the end of the night, the Royal Rumble get a 5 out of 10. For an event that is supposed to be epic, there was nothing epic about it. One can only hope that the Road to WrestleMania gets a lot better from here.
