I have a confession to make…I’m a pro wrestling fan.
I know how it sounds and what some of you might be thinking: “Really? An educated young woman like you watches…THAT?” I know what people say about it “Don’t watch it because it’s fake, it’s barbaric” and other stuff too. I’ve heard all of it and yes, it is scripted for the most part. But for me as an English/Creative Writing person, I see it as a combination of athletics and theatrics. It’s like mixing your favorite sport with your favorite T.V. or comic book characters.
The main reason for this post is that the internet is ‘blowing up’ in a bad way about WWE’s Royal Rumble that just happened and who won. Spoiler alerts are coming and I’ll be talking about stuff and people you might not know about if you don’t follow WWE.
My personal opinion of the Royal Rumble: It was very good!
It wasn’t great but there were amazing things about it.
Number 1: The New Age Outlaw tag team match
I grew up watching WWE in the 90’s during ‘the Attitude Era’ as many call it and one of my favorite tag teams of that time period was The New Age Outlaws. It was great seeing them wrestle again even if they didn’t win against the Ascension. I understand though why they had to lose. The Ascension is a new tag team that debut a month or so back and they haven’t been well received by fans. When I and my mom first saw them in red and black face paint and spiked shoulder pads, we both thought “Road Warriors ripoff”. This is a way to try to earn credit with the fans by having them defeat the beloved six time Tag Team Champions. I don’t know…maybe the Ascension will grow on me.
Number 2: The Greatest Triple Threat Match of the Year
The match with Seth Rollins, John Cena and Brock Lesner fighting for the World Championship Belt was…AMAZING! I admit I wasn’t expecting to love this match as much as I did. It was 23 minutes of awesomeness and believable story telling. When Brock was put through the table and medics were brought out to see him, wrestling and reality became skewed for me. I don’t know if he actually broke his rib or not but if not, great way of playing it up. If so then Cena and Rollins did a great job pulling out all the stops so Lesner could collect himself enough to slip back into the match seamlessly.
Number 3: DDP and the Return of Bubba Ray Dudley
The highlight of the whole Royal Rumble for me was seeing Bubba Ray Dudley of the Dudley Boyz, my other favorite tag team of the 90’s. I squealed when I saw him step out in his white and gray camo and his thick black glasses. I squealed even louder when he worked with R-Truth to perform the iconic ‘3-D’ finisher. I had a small hope that he’d win the Rumble but I think that was just me hardcore fangirl-ing. I loved seeing Diamond Dallas Page come out and be in the Rumble. It was for a short time but again it brought back pleasant memories for me and my mom watching and remembering the family gathering to watch wrestling together not so long ago.
The Winner Roman Reigns and Why this is a Good Thing
Everyone is upset because Roman Reigns won and because the fan favorite Daniel Bryan was eliminated early on. Fans were so riled that minutes after the PayPerView was over, the world wide trending twitter feed was #CancelWWENetwork.
I think that this level of negativity is silly because this is a good thing for Daniel Bryan fans and Daniel Bryan himself.
All of his fans know that last May, Daniel Bryan had to have surgery on his neck because of an injury that caused him to lose all the strength in his dominate arm. He’s been out for roughly six months healing from the surgery and getting physical therapy. He was finally cleared to wrestle a month ago on December 29.
It was because of this injury that Daniel Bryan had to give up the World Championship Belt that he won last Wrestle Mania. Fans were hoping that he would win the Rumble and go back to Wrestle Mania to try to get the belt back from Brock Lesner. I am so glad that management decided to go against the fans on this one because it would have been a very stupid move on their part.
To anyone who has seen Brock Lesner in the ring knows that Brock Lesner has a habit of being rough on his opponents. He’s a former UFC fighter who loves to perform multiple suplexes that can cause much strain to the back and neck area of the other wrestlers. Last Wrestle Mania, the Undertaker had to be rushed to the hospital after a match with Lesner due to a severe concussion. If Daniel Bryan had to wrestle Brock Lesner, or should I say thrown around by Brock Lesner, the chance of him being reinjured is assured.
I’m sure that WWE knows that Daniel Bryan is loved by everyone and that everyone wants him to get his title back. It is because he’s a fan favorite and a very profitable wrestler that they want him to heal as much as possible so that he can have a long career.
I know everyone is still upset at Roman Reigns but think about it, who else besides Rusev would be a good opponent for Lesner. To the ones in the stands who wanted Rusev to win over Reigns, why would he when he’s been hated so much by the fans, even more than Seth Rollins. It was because of losses to Rusev that caused The Big Show and Mark Henry to turn heel.
For the fans that are still upset, I have a prediction for Wrestle Mania that might satisfy all the Daniel Bryan lovers and Roman Reign haters out there. At Wrestle Mania for the match of Brock Lesner and Roman Reigns…it doesn’t matter who wins. If Reigns loses then the haters will be happy, if he wins and gets the belt then they’ll still be happy because there’s a good chance he won’t have the belt for long.
Remember, Seth Rollins still has his Money in the Bank Contract and I believe he’ll take a page out of the Rated-R Superstar Edge’s book and wait to see who wins then cash in and take out a weakened Reigns or Lesner. After Westle Mania, Daniel Bryan will have had a year of healing and has gotten back into wrestling shape by having mid card matches then he’ll be ready to start feuding with Rollins to get the title back. And maybe use a fired up Reigns to help him.
I just wanted to get this out because everyone doesn’t need to get so upset at Reigns or at WWE or at Daniel Bryan. I’m not writing this because I’m a Roman Reigns fan, I’m not (I’m a Dean Ambrose girl). I wanted to write about this because even though I don’t favor Roman Reigns, he’s still a hard working athlete who trying to live up to being born in a very well known family of famous and favored wrestlers. I think and hope Daniel Bryan not winning the match leads to a great comeback and a great downfall for Seth Rollins and the Authority.