[2015-01-25-WWE-Royal Rumble] Brock Lesnar vs Seth Rollins vs John Cena

[cactus]

This has a crazy pace which rarely slows down that makes this an absolute treat to watch. Everyone brought something unique to the table. Cena is the powerhouse babyface, Rollins is the sneaky high flyer who will try and steal a victory and Lesnar is the video game end boss. Lesnar and Cena are great as always, but I thought this was breakout performance for Rollins. He uses his insane atheism  to make this mostly hoss fight stand out. He successfully pulls off that counter to the AA that made CM Punk fall on his arse on MITB 2011 and I think he hits the first ever phoenix splash in a WWE ring. The match loses some steam after Lesnar is taken out by the sick announce table spot, but this is still a classic between three of the best wrestlers of the 2010's. 

★★★★½

[DMJ]

I haven't seen this match in forever and I never did a full review on my blog, but I did "score" it at 4.5-out-of-5 and include it in my database.

Stone Cold called it the best triple threat match he'd ever seen on his podcast soon after and I remember watching it with non-fans who were also thoroughly engaged (the last Rumble party I think I ever hosted/attended, not that they were ever an annual event). 

 

[Chess Knight]

Found this to have several cool ideas, and a triple threat where all three are decently active for most of it is nice, but I came away disappointed with the match. I know Lesnar is Lesnar but he straight up no sells the AA aside from maybe looking sweatier and redder after it. Then he gets laid out near the steps for a moment and instead of Cena taking the opportunity as quickly as he can, he's having to take even longer on the five knuckle shuffle because the crowd are more boo-ier than normal (who's fucking idea was it to have this Reigns victory Rumble in Philly??). Lesnar being the looming threat makes a three way actually super interesting to me when I usually don't care for them, and I think with him out for a bit they missed an opportunity to have Cena try to really bum rush Rollins before Lesnar gets back up (or have try to Rollins bum rush Cena). I liked the elbow drop spot that ACTUALLY (almost) takes Lesnar out though, even if I started drifting away during the Cena vs. Rollins bit. I wouldn't say this wasn't good because it does have a lot of positives (they did a great job of diversifying Lesnar's suplex routine with having two guys, and shout out to Rollins' awesome knee on both opponents), but really did feel it missed a few opportunities that could have pushed it up.