Want more wrestling news, rumors, and results? Be sure to visit PWInsider.com and PWInsiderXtra.com.
Royal Rumble Road Report
A week later and we are at the airport again. I don’t want to jinx it but the comfiness of my flights has been amazing as another flight and another empty middle seat. Mean Mark and I have spent the last few days re-watching old Rumble matches and debating on what were our favorites. We have newfound appreciation for how great 89 was as the intrigue of what Andre could do kept us fascinated for the first 10 entries and watching him absolutely abuse Jake Roberts from the second he got in was amazing. The second half with Savage (who we both agreed has to be the dumbest participant in Royal Rumble history) and Hogan with the Twin Towers opposition was also great. Mean Mark’s favorites were a toss up between 1992 and 1998 while I was between 1992 and 1997 although 1989 surprised me.
We have also been debating what will happen tonight. In the definition of irony as I post this to PWInsider, I have been doing my absolute best the last few weeks to avoid spoilers. My 30,000 foot view sees Reigns screw Lesnar during the Lashley/Lesnar title match to see Brock lose and then have to win the February Elimination Chamber to challenge Reigns, Reigns retaining against Rollins, AJ winning the men’s Rumble and challenging Lashley at Mania with a potential stop off against Omos in February, and Lita being a dark horse to win the women’s Rumble and main eventing against Charlotte at WrestleMania night 1. Mark is going a different route and thinks Lesnar will lose his title but show up and win the Rumble, Reigns beating Rollins, and Rousey returning and winning the women’s Rumble.
We have also heard the news of Davey Richards and Jonathan Gresham off of the Battle of Los Angeles card which is a shame but Wheeler Yuta (after seeing him live in that match with Penta El Cero Miedo last week) and Blake Christian (after seeing him live in that match against Lio Rush last week) are both great replacements albeit I am still disappointed I’m not going to get to see the original Ring of Honor championship belt live twice in two weeks. Richards is also someone who I have really enjoyed watching over the years and outside of seeing The American Wolves wrestle live once last year in Iowa, I haven’t been able to see much of him live.
Everything about the travel was easy enough. Hotel shuttle runs 3 times an hour and is a five minute ride from the airport, the MetroLink runs directly from the airport to the stadium (and pretty much everywhere else), and it runs until about midnight. Unfortunately the area around the stadium has clearly been distressed by the Rams football team leaving the area.
After a quick workout and freshen up, we catch the hotel shuttle back to Terminal 1 and then hit the MetroLink down to the stadium. It was $5 for a day pass but the entire trip appeared to be on the honor system as we were never checked for our ticket once. After a 30 minute ride, we got the the area around the stadium with a plan to check out a local smokehouse (Which was apparently everyone else's plan too). The line to the smokehouse had at least a 3 hour wait and having not eaten earlier, that wasn’t going to work for us.
A literal two hour walk around the stadium shows the remnants of the damage done by the Rams (and potentially COVID). Restaurants closed or with extremely limited hours due to the area seemingly empty outside of wrestling fans and the occasional St. Louis Blues fans wandering away from the arena. We attempted to go to a Next Level Steakhouse (actual name) but like the Rock in Dallas, it unfortunately didn’t deliver as we accidentally walked in one what I am pretty sure was a wake. In the middle of the steakhouse. It was awkward.
We end up at a small Irish pub full of wrestling fans, wrestling theme songs, and great drink specials. Even still, there was a 40 minute wait as it was one of the few places actually open. The Ribeye sandwich was decent and I opted for water but it was a great atmosphere and it is always fun to just sit and listen to the conversations around about speculation about what is going to happen with the occasional spoiler being heard.
When we initially walked up to The Dome, there was a queue at the main entrance that wrapped around the building. By the time we got back (about an hour after doors opened), the queue had died down and we were able to walk right in. The Dome had recently been used for a Monster Jam but seems like outside of a random Rolling Stones show, it has been used for monster truck and dirt bike shows. With that being said, it definitely felt like they were not equipped for even this ~30K crowd. We walked through the metal detectors and the ticket takers were overwhelmed by the crowd. We ended up at the escalators before realizing that we had actually walked past the people scanning the tickets, it was that overwhelming for the few people they had working.
Inside the stadium was definitely interesting. I remember when New Japan ran the Cow Palace a few years ago and feeling like the owners dusted off the building for New Japan and had to rush to figure out how to do things like ticketing and concessions. This felt the same way. All the concession stands we passed were serving the same things (hot dog, bratwurst, cookies, chips, soda in bottles with the fountains not in operation). You would walk past and think a place was serving nachos or pizza and then realize they had a cardboard sign in front of the register with the same menu as the previous concession you passed. It felt like the ownership made a big Costco run before the show and bought an estimated amount of food that they thought could suffice the crowd. It didn’t. There weren’t much complaints but by the halfway point of the show, nearly all of the bottled drinks were sold out.
There was not any service inside of the seating and the WiFi was spotty. I was able to change my phone settings to get a connection but most people were complaining they had no signal. This stadium desperately needs regular tenants as it is clear it is not being consistently serviced which isn’t a knock on ownership, what can you do if you aren’t getting regular business?
Sitting in our seats and the common complaint (from seemingly most sections) is the blinding lights. Am I the only one who feels like when I go to a WWE show that I feel more like a prop than a paying fan? Like they want to show off that they have a crowd but could care less if you’re enjoying the show or can see as long as they can prove they have a person in the seat. So many people during the show would stat “We can’t see” chants but it would fall on deaf ears. It didn’t bother me so much but it definitely hurt my enjoyment of the show when I would have to struggle to see between the two blinding white lights that were on the entire show outside of most promos. It felt like a joke that during the Brock/Lashley promo they kept the lights on so that you couldn’t even watch the promo.
WWE Championship match: Seth Rollins beat Roman Reigns
Starting with this match was a surprise. Reigns got a great reaction from the crowd. The second the SHIELD music hit the entire crowd started going crazy and when Rollins appeared over section 112, the crowd got even louder. The mind games from Rollins were great. I am not going to lie, I got a bit distracted during this match as I found myself entertained with Jimmy Smith, Corey Graves, and Byron Saxton attempt to find their way to the announce booth from the crowd. It was like watching Jericho look for the entrance that time he was going out to challenge Goldberg. They had to have gotten turned around 2-3 times before Graves took charge and found their destination. This match ended up being an amazing way to start the show as the crowd was into everything they did and all the big moments came off well. The ending definitely fell flat though and it felt like the crowd was disappointed in the way the match finished. A lot of people started out cheering Reigns and at the end after the disqualification they were booing but it felt like it was more over the way the match ended than actually booing Reigns himself.
Ronda Rousey won the women’s Royal Rumble
This had same great nostalgia moments and shocking moments in it. Melina at number to was a good moment and her splits on the apron got a huge reaction from the crowd. Ivory’s Right to Censor entrance was well received. A lot of the nostalgia moments were the bigger moments of the night. A lot of good action during this although there were definitely some confusing moments like Natalya seemingly getting eliminated by Rousey but running back in to get eliminated again. I’m guessing she must have went through the middle and someone called her out on it but it was confusing. Ronda Rousey though, that had the fans on their feet and cheering. People were definitely excited that she was back and everything she did came off well. There was a loud cheer during a random moment of this match that might have confused people. One of the entrances caused the lights to get stuck with a yellow light covering our section to the point that they had to reset the ring and stage lighting which got a huge reaction from everyone blinded by the lights and then a huge groan when they came back on sans the yellow light. Yeah, the lights on the crowd really were that bad. Rousey winning was Mean Mark’s first correct prediction of the night. I enjoyed this match overall as I think it is what most people think the Royal Rumble is supposed to be but really never has been: surprising returns, shocking moments, and a big win from a name the fans want to see.
WWE Women’s Championship Match: Becky Lynch beat Doudrop
This match likely had weird reactions due to a big distraction in the building. After Rousey won and pointed to the WrestleMania sign that had pyro going off from the back of it, the sign actually caught on fire. There were small embers falling down onto the fans underneath with apparently melted parts of the sign falling down into the crowd. They quickly evacuated the floor section under the sign, put up yellow caution tape, and lowered the sign to the ground. They had to get a fire extinguisher to put it out and worked on it for the whole match while the floor seating underneath (an entire section of floor) became displaced and the 100s section had their view obstructed. From the moments I caught, there were some pretty fun moments during the match but, like most of the crowd, I was extremely distracted. Becky didn’t have to struggle to point high at the WrestleMania sign at the end though.
WWE Universal Championship Match: Bobby Lashley beat Brock Lesnar
I think this is what most people had called. For years this was a match that I called a dream match. In the lead up, I didn’t realize just how much bigger Brock was than Lashley. The facial reactions from Brock during this as Lashley had no problem trading suplexes with him were great and got great reactions. This was a lot slower of a match than I am used to seeing Brock have but was still enjoyable. The Reigns interference was predictable but the moment of him asking Paul for the belt and that turn was really fun. If this had a slightly quicker pace and some more “holy crap, they are beating the hell out of each other”, I would have enjoyed it more but still with the suplexes and facials, it was still a good match.
Edge and Beth Phoenix beat Miz and Maryse
I’m not going to lie, I forgot all about this match. I ran up to get in line for the bathroom and talk about a spoiler, the merch stands had already put out Rousey and Bad Bunny Rumble shirts, not that Bad Bunny was a surprise that I needed to see but nevertheless, they gave it away for the sake of merch buys. Edge and Beth’s entrance was great. I liked Beth’s Luna Vachon look but the women’s portion of this match came off a bit rough which isn’t surprising considering neither have had a match in a long while. Double Glam Slam for the pin was cool and Edge and Beth getting to celebrate with their kids was cool.
Brock Lesnar won the Royal Rumble
Did I hear correctly that Booker T predicted Brock winning the Royal Rumble at the beginning of the show? If so, wow. If not, I apologize. AJ starts at 1 and I realize I really have no idea who is going to win. Nakamura out second and if this was a decade ago, this would be a big moment but in 2022, 6 years into Nakamura’s retirement tour, its fun for the music and the occasional spot. The LOUD TNA chant during AJ/Roode was fun but ended pretty quick. Montez Ford is destined to be a star if the WWE let him. Sheamus throws the best knee in wrestling. We were trying to figure out if Rick Boogs is tributing his look to Freddy Mercury, a Putski, Ted Arcidi, or a mix of all three. I really expected Omos to get a big Diesel run in this match but it didn’t happen. Drew was the “big surprise” here which the crowd was into but he was gone for what, less than a month? Riddle got a HUGE reaction from the crowd. Orton too. Felt bad for Kofi on that spot along with feeling bad for Big E who probably had things planned with him. It is crazy how quick Big E is feeling like an afterthough with him seemingly going back to tags with Kofi. Brock at number thirty didn’t feel like a surprise to anyone. Shane was a fun surprise though. I enjoyed parts of this Rumble but, as usual, it didn’t live up to whatever expectation I had in my head.
Sign caught on fire again as we were leaving. Train ride back to our Marriott airport hotel and what may have been my favorite moment of the night, I sat down and ordered food and realized I was sitting near Omos who had a giant protein bowl and salad in front of him. I texted Mean Mark who was about 10 feet behind me to alert him to Omos and he couldn’t see him. He couldn’t see a 7 foot monster of a man sitting literally a few feet from me. Yeah, Mean Mark is getting old. Omos is surprisingly funny and seems like a really nice dude. Ridge Holland joined him after a bit and ordered a Scotch. Again, cool dudes.
Early flight out to Los Angeles for night two of BOLA and we bumped into Kaitlyn in line at TSA pre check and a bit later Kofi. Overall, I was disappointed in the experience of Rumble because of the things like the lighting and concessions but think the show itself was decent. If we weren’t blinded all night, I would have probably been able to provide a more glowing review but as I said earlier, I’m not positive that WWE cares about fan experience live but rather care about how they are perceived on television which makes sense in the sense that so much of their revenue is tied to it but at this point it feels like a better television show than live event.
Anyways, off to LA!
If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!
Bang On Casino
