by secondwhiteline » Mon Jan 25, 2016 12:42 am
Well, the Rumble had high points and low.
High points: Killer Ambrose/Owens match. Just a well-constructed, well-paced, hot match that didn't do more than it needed to and kept up the craziness without getting too dangerous.
Sasha returns! Really wish they had gone with a Becky title win, though. But Sasha leveling her post-match tells me they're thinking about a multi-Diva match for the title at Mania. I could see Charlotte/Sasha/Becky/Paige.
AJ STYLES. Also, AJ getting a huge and sustained reaction. He looked like a big star out of the gate.
Great sequence with AJ eliminated by Owens (who's the one guy who could do that and draw the right kind of heat), followed by Ambrose entering to pick the crowd back up and then Sami entering and tossing Owens for the surprise pop and the karma. Great booking there.
Ambrose in the final two! I wonder if this was a test of crowd response. People actually cheered Triple H against Reigns. Ambrose, though? People were dying to see him win. How long can they ignore his overness? They kept him really strong tonight, so maybe they're paying some attention. They need to call an audible on Mania and make Ambrose the challenger for the title.
A lot of guys looked good tonight - Ambrose, Owens, Big E, Sami, Kalisto, AJ, Wyatt, Brock, and the main names in the Women's division. Keep building new people like this! It's how you're gonna get the fans back.
Low points: Two group beatdowns in the same Rumble match - sloppy booking.
Brock/Wyatt at Mania? I mean, it's a waste of Brock if he goes over. Wyatt winning would make him strong again, but I'm not sure they're going to pull the trigger on that.
Can we put a moratorium on so much Rumble interference? Just this match you had the League of Nations, Wyatt Family, and even the New Day get involved from the outside. Tighten up the match rules some. It wasn't 1999-level ridiculous, but it was getting there.
Reigns continues to look like less than the star they want him to be. He had some alright moments, a couple of hot sequences. But he still got tons of boos, even against Evil Mastermind Triple H. Also, if the guy can't work a 60-minute match, don't put him in a spot where you have to bail him out of working a 60-minute match.