Royal Rumble 2023 aka 30 years of pointing at sign as Mania main event booking

[hammerva]

Jesus this show is already 3 1/2 hour long, we don't need this Kid Rock wanna be having a concert in the cool down spot

[WingedEagle]

This nonsense is enough to turn the best Mania or Wrestle Kingdom into a thumbs down. FFS.

[Blehschmidt]

This guy looks like Kid Rock fucked Weezer.

I'm longing for the Pitch Black match right now.

[WingedEagle]

2 minutes ago, Blehschmidt said:

This guy looks like Kid Rock fucked Weezer.

 

Would rather watch that than him "performing."

[WingedEagle]

Roman and KO have great chemistry.

[hammerva]

This beatdown is almost longer than the match itself.  Kevin better be out for a couple weeks

THAT FUCKING POP 

[sek69]

That pop, goddamn

[hammerva]

Don't fucking tell me that Sami Zayn can't be the "face of the company" after that pop. 

[C.S.]

Remind me again: Why the hell are we getting Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes?

This is the match everyone wants to see!

[sek69]

That's some nuclear fucking heat Roman is getting

[hammerva]

Just now, C.S. said:

Remind me again: Why the hell are we getting Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes?

This is the match everyone wants to see!

That was why they had to put Cody in the first match.  Because of they did this angle before the Rumble match then he would have been destroyed

[WingedEagle]

I still think Mania should be Roman/Cody and Sami/KO vs. Usos.  

[strobogo]

This is storyline literally could not possibly be handled better than it has. Absolute GOAT tier sports entertainmenting.

[sek69]

Just now, WingedEagle said:

I still think Mania should be Roman/Cody and Sami/KO vs. Usos.  

That would be weaksauce considering the fans REALLY want to see Roman/Sami. If they do literally anything else the crowd is going to hijack the shit out of it. 

[KawadaSmile]

Roman is thr actual GOAT. Argue with yourselves

[flyonthewall2983]

I haven’t cried this hard since Up

[WingedEagle]

4 minutes ago, KawadaSmile said:

Roman is thr actual GOAT. Argue with yourselves

He is the goddamn man.  A true all timer.

[hammerva]

Even if you think it should be Cody vs Roman how do you transition from the hottest angle in WWE since Daniel Bryan at WM 30 that just reached it's boiling point to a match against someone you never dealt with and never interacted with in two months

 

[sek69]

10 minutes ago, strobogo said:

This is storyline literally could not possibly be handled better than it has. Absolute GOAT tier sports entertainmenting.

it's amazing how *everyone* involved has been amazing in their roles. 

Also I think this also settles the debate if Heyman books the angles he's involved in since KO got Raven'd 

[Migs]

Isn't the play to do Roman vs Sami in Montreal?

Also, Cody got a monster pop and apparently sold insane merch. This is not a Batista scenario. I can see the argument for doing both matches, but at the very least, one night is Cody getting the win and fully getting the rocket strapped.

[WingedEagle]

1 minute ago, Migs said:

Isn't the play to do Roman vs Sami in Montreal?

Also, Cody got a monster pop and apparently sold insane merch. This is not a Batista scenario. I can see the argument for doing both matches, but at the very least, one night is Cody getting the win and fully getting the rocket strapped.

Yeah.  It doesn't seem that hard.  Whether you do Roman vs. Sami to set up KO/Sami vs. Usos or EC with the Bloodline + ??? there are ways to work that match/story and still save Roman/Cody for Mania.  There are options beyond simply dropping one story and moving onto the next.

[Strummer]

They are going to have to be super careful and really make people want to see Sami/KO v Usos if they aren't doing Sami v Roman

[sek69]

They spent so much time building up Sami standing up for himself against Roman that's it's going to be hard to not feel like a rug-pull to give us Cody instead.

They've also been referring to the Raw and SD tag titles separately again instead of "unified tag champs" which makes me think two they are going to be splitting them up again. That wouldn't seem to go with a KO/Sami vs Uso program. Maybe they'll do something that costs the Usos the titles, but even with that the best angle WWE has done since the Megapowers exploded paying off with Sami in a tag match seems lame.

[Dav'oh]

4 hours ago, hammerva said:

Don't fucking tell me that Sami Zayn can't be the "face of the company" after that pop. 

He hasn't hit the gym in three years, looks like Dustin Diamond and is unknown to the wider world, who the "Face of the Company" is meant to draw in. Those non-fans that do know him, know him as the comedy guy Johnny Shitsville pinned with a giant mousetrap.

Number 1 babyface? Sure. Company representative you send to meet potential buyers and media players? Nah. Not ever.

[Tetsujin]

They dropped the ball. They should have done the title match the opener, with the very exact same post match angle, and then have Sami come into the Rumble by surprise (have him take Rey's place, whatever) and win it. But they're cowards and they almost never accept when the flow of things have changed and that they need to rewrite some stories.

That said, there's still some chance we might get Roman/Cody for the WWE Title (the one Dusty never won) on night 1 and then Roman/Sami for the Universal Title (the one Roman's being with since the very beginning of this run, HIS true title). Roman losing both championship in two nights in a row could be a very satifying end to his legendary run, like a "the higher you go, the harder you fall" situation.

I'm not sure we're getting KO/Sami vs Usos though. Jey is clearly conflicted, and he might get out of Bloodline sooner or later. A proper way for Bloodline to end should be everyone realizing they're alienated by Roman, who doesn't really care about family if is not in his own interest, and stepping up for themselves. That's been the whole point since the initial Roman vs Usos storyline two years ago.

Cody is over now because he just returned, but this RTWM is very fragile it seems. I won't like it if they just do Sami/Roman in Canada and then drop their storyline like nothing happened in order to quickly build a one-month Roman/Cody feud. Anticlimactic.