That Wrestling Blog 01/29/2019

8^rth Edition – January 29, 2019

A Ramble about the Rumble

The Royal Rumble is everyone’s favourite event. There is a special feeling you get during the matches as the clock counts down from 10 and we all wonder who the next person is going to be. Will Kenny Omega be there? Batistia? Eugene? There is always the thought of maybe, just maybe there will be a massive return or a special moment, and that’s why we love it. As a smark, it was a highly predictable show, I told my non-wrestling friends who are gambling addicts to bet on the two rumble matches and Buddy Murphy retaining. It’s fair to say that they also love the Royal Rumble. Just because it was predictable, doesn’t mean it still wasn’t very fun to watch. 

The women outshined the men last night and that is a good thing. The disappointing thing was the two-world title matches. No Demon? I mean I know they want to protect the character, but it does not make sense to me. Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed the Royal Rumble, but if you know me I like to look at the negative side of life so for you glass half-fullers out there, don’t read on.

This is mainly going to be about the Royal Rumble, I am summing up the week in wrestling, but the main thing obviously was the NXT Takeover show and the Rumble. With my blog being the way it is, I am not going to give you the traditional review of the weekend. I am going to talk about the spots you may have missed or things that have been overlooked.

Can we talk about the fact that Eric Rowan came out during what was a crowd dead match to literally no reaction as well? It’s obvious that they are giving DB a stable or at least some back up. Which personally I am interested in. The real question is what will they be called? The Vegan Vigilantes? No Meat Maniacs? The Climate Change Crusaders? Whatever the come up with, Rowan adds an extra piece to the puzzle, but what does this mean for the Bludgeon Brothers?

What else was there, oh yeah, the fact that Dean Ambrose is nothing at the moment (editor’s note: I understand he was just in the ring with Triple H so maybe he does have something now). IC champ to being eliminated by Aleistar Black. Now if Black gets called up and they feud then that’s something but if it was just a random elimination, it doesn’t make the moral compass look that good. 

Another question I have about the Royal Rumble is who thought having Jeff Jarrett come out doing his double J gimmick that wasn’t really that over in 90’s was a good thing? You know what I wanted to see? The Jeff Jarrett who used to go around and call people “Slap Nuts” and smack the shit out of people with a guitar (please google Jeff Jarrett and Beetlejuice, it’s the best thing I have ever seen in wrestling). Not the Jeff that comes out and spells his name and looks like a cowboy cross dresser. How cool would it have been for them to both have a guitar and try to hit each other at the same time causing both guitars to smash then Elias throwing Jarrett over the top rope. 

Now, WWE hasn’t allowed a man to touch a woman for nearly ten years now and the biggest surprise of the night for me, once my anger subsided about Truth not being in the match, was the end of the men’s match. Once my Australian brain comprehended what just happened with Truth, my attention then turned to Nia and I was thinking, “hang on, what the fuck is actually going to happen here?” No, it didn’t make sense for Nia to beat up Truth and enter the match. I mean the beatdown she gave him was a couple of throws and a few punches nothing that would put someone out of one the biggest matches of the year.  Anyway, down she walked and proceeded to start beating on the men, she even threw out Mustafa Ali, who earlier had thrown out Samoa Joe. Wait, does that mean Nia Jax is better than Samoa Joe? No, of course it fucking doesn’t, but Ali does have to live with the fact that in his debut Royal Rumble, he was eliminated by a females who wasn’t supposed to be in the match.

Now here’s where things got interesting, Dolph Ziggler kicked Nia in the face, follow by a 619 and RKO. Cue the social justice warriors on twitter “oh my god, WWE are promoting violence against women!” No, no they are not. It is entertainment, and folks I hate to be the one to break it you, but I guarantee you Nia didn’t get one scratch from those 3 absolute professionals in the ring.

The next question is, has this opened things about for future intergender matches, or was this just a one off? In my opinion, which of course after sitting on my arse watching wrestling for twenty years and never having a match is the opinion that should be valued the most, no, I don’t see this becoming a regular thing, but regardless, it was entertaining and probably got the second biggest pop of the night behind the man.

Now we are truly on the road the Wrestlemania, I would like all my 4 readers to keep a count of how many times wrestlers point to the sign over the next two months. I will be keeping count also and if someone can guess the right amount, they will win a prize. What is the prize? A personalised video of me telling you how sick you make me.

Kind Regards,

That Wrestling Guy