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As we have noted over the last several days, the morale with the WWE locker room among talents was down following the Royal Rumble PPV, in great part due to the whirlwind of changes made to the Rumble matches in the days and hours leading up to the PPV. We have had several sources within the company point to two major differences this year vs. previous Rumbles.
*Several pointed to the fact that Paul Levesque, for the first time in many years, was not involved and not present as he's dealing with his health issues. In the past, Levesque would be involved with in an advisory role of sorts, often making Rumble changes to accentuate certain talents and make sure there were little "moments" or highlights after the grand scheme for the Rumble had been locked in. His absence was absolutely felt this past Saturday.
*The other major absence this year was WWE Producer TJ Wilson aka Tyson Kidd who usually takes a massive leading role in producing the women's division in general and would have been a general in putting together the Rumble match. Wilson was not at the Rumble and was not involved in putting the bout together. We are told Wilson, who has not been around in recent weeks, is still officially with the company. With Wilson not there, Dave Finlay was brought up from NXT to help produce the Rumble, in part because he had worked with so many of the returning women who were coming back for Rumble appearances.
So without their involvement, the makeup of the Rumble matches were completely different from past years.
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