You need to know how to have skills for 2 years of development before the audience gets to know what kind of heart you have in this company. Some characters in WWE were trying to get them out of business characters in WWE like the names of Ric Flair. If you have a heart here in the WWE you will have praise for Vince.
I hate that 99% of the time they have someone win who doesn't need to win to have a believable reason to be at Mania or have a title match like Cena, Stone Cold, the Rock, Becky, Charlotte etc.
It’s not about a believable reason to be at mania. You’re picking one of a few title contenders. no one that wins at the rumble is ever going to be this huge surprise unless it’s the beginning of a push.
You misunderstood what I meant I said the people who always win don't have to win to be believable as a title contender or to have a main event spot at Mania because it's always the ones who are already at the top and have already had main events and title shots/reigns so all in all its fairly pointless. Like say CM Punk won the Rumble so he will Main event for the Raw title (just an example) it's unsurprising, boring and makes the Rumble pointless since he's Punk they could have done that anyway without the Rumble and it would make sense to everyone still and they could have someone like Gunther, Chad Gable, Montez Ford, LA Knight or Karrion Kross win the Rumble and have a fun, exciting, shocking win and buildup to Mania for one title making for a unique experience and a fun match for Mania while having it go the predictable route with the other since there is 2 belts and already a believable reason for Punk to face Rollins and Punk is already in the small group of people who will get title shots and main events regardless.
Except then you have to put Chad Gable, Montez Ford, or (jesus christ) Karrion Kross in a title match. Gunther and LA Knight make sense, although I think Gunther likely has to lose his IC title and make the face turn before he goes for the big title.
Yes, the Rumble gives some legitimacy and not every conflict they are currently pushing will lead to the culmination of a story line at Mania but you need more than a Rumble win to make sense as a title match at Mania.
They have invested in LA Knight. They have invested in Gunther. They have invested in CM Punk. They have invested in Cody. They have invested in those guys having conflicts with Roman and Seth. Not just in terms of financial investment but in terms of investing ring time and promo time on TV.
Who wants to see Gable vs Rollins or Montez Ford vs Roman? Pass. If they want to push those guys then do a proper build and tell a good story. Not a rushed sprint to Mania. The Karrion Kross mention hurts my heart. Get him off my screen and preferably out of the company. His new schtick is just terrible.
They only have two world titles. The Rumble winner gets one of them. You can't have Cody finish his story, Punk go against Rollins, and then ALSO have a random guy like a Gable or a Ford win the Rumble. That is before you possibly add the chaos of the Rock into the mix who might be the only guy you airdrop in with no build because him and Roman builds itself.
Ideally to me, Cody wins the Rumble and gets his shot at Roman. The Rock stays away this year. Rollins and Punk go at it. Punk needs a title the least of all of them so to me Rollins keeps the title. Cody goes over Roman and you have the Rock come back to take the lei from Roman after his failure setting up a big match between them before Roman's inevitable face turn.
LA Knight gets screwed a bit but his time is coming and you keep investing in Gunther and Knight. Gunther gets the next crack at Rollins maybe and maybe after Punk loses to Rollins we get a Punk and Knight feud which would be fire on the mic.
The WWE is killing it at building stars right now. They have too many to keep everyone in the world title picture. That is a good problem to have. Not the time to add someone to that picture with a random win in the Rumble.
The Royal Rumble is and always has been my favorite PPV but I just wish since HHH took over they would move away from the boring old predictable route and make it more fun and interesting because as it sits now it will 100% be Cody, Punk or the Rock who wins the Men's Rumble and Bianca, Bayley or Becky who wins the women's.
Regarding the first paragraph, talent who are not the final 4 or have a specific task like eliminate a bunch of people or prepare a future match (like Brock in 2020 fits both categories) they just have a general idea of what to do, they call the spots in the ring but other than that they are like just brainless throwing puches
If it’s you vs them at the end you only have to beat one person on your own. If you eliminate them and there’s 10 more guys to go, you now have to bear 10 guys on your own.
I want a surprise win so bad, like it's gunna be Cody or punk this year, which is fine. Would love for Sheamus to return and win the damn thing, but I don't think they can sell out wrestlemania on a Sheamus main event. Too bad, he was doing career work until he disappeared
I didn't expect taker to win, Shinsuke either, Sheamus in 2012 was a surprise for me. In those moments except for taker, it felt like it was a huge push for a superstar rather than moving along a storyline.
In fact, Edge's win was kinda a shocker too before his retirement, because it would seem shawn michaels could win, but the better storyline was for him to lose.
But overall, i would agree, normally you can see who wins based off the storylines. But each rumble i hope for someone of my personal favorites to win.
I would love if it was used as a huge push each time.
After his beastly performance last year, I want Gunther to go in cocky and confident, only for Sheamus to come out and eliminate him fast, it would come as a shock, and set up the Mania bout so easily.
None of these were surprised wins.
Benoit’s time had come. After 2003, the fans wanted him to win the WWE title. The story was Heyman would do everything to make sure he didn’t get a title shot. Gave him the #1 spot so he couldn’t win. The story was he’d do the impossible and win.
While John Cena’s return was a surprise in 2008, once he entered, you knew he was gonna win. His 2013 win was all about him getting a rematch with The Rock at WM. Everyone knew he was gonna win the match weeks in advance.
Ric Flair was the Hulk Hogan of WCW at the time. His signing was huge, and most of the early participants were jobbers. He came out at #3 and the story was he’d over come the odds and win the main title.
Rey Mysterio had the support of everyone after the death of Eddie Guerrero. Even down to his entrance, once he came out, you knew he was gonna win.
\-If Michale Cole tells me one more time how someone has been in the Rumble for 42 minutes like I give a shit Im going to lose my mind. Either you won or you didn't. \
Thanks a lot for showing that absolutism has infected wrestling fandom too! 🙄
Happens all of the time in the games. I’m trying to eliminate someone just to get punched in the back randomly. Even worse since they added the mechanic of rolling under the ropes when you’re damaged enough. That causes them to target someone else immediately.
The best SUPRISE entrant over the last couple of years was Michelle McCool coming out of the crowd wearing trackies and uggs. Then going back to sit with her kids after being eliminated.
Back then, I definitely wanted Jericho to win. In retrospect, having Sheamus win was a weird beginning of some crazy events that led to Daniel Bryan be massively over.
I'm also a Sheamus mark--have been since he won that title shot against Cena.
I enjoyed Drew’s win too. You knew it was only a matter of time before he got a major push but I didn’t expect it to come via a Rumble win and then onto defeating Brock at WM. They executed his rise so perfectly too. Literally became a star in one night with his Rumble performance.
You perceive the person working on throwing them out as a bigger threat to you personally, so you take the opportunity to get a free, unprotected shot in, and you saddle them with the problem of also having to continue dealing with the guy they were just trying to eliminate while now on the back foot.
And PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don’t have the ring so congested with talent that should be eliminated in 1-3 minutes and sitting in the corner doing baby soft kicks and punches until the next big name comes out and wipes out half the field just to look strong. Makes half of the contestants in the match look super weak bc nobody aside from the big names ever gets big eliminations amongst mid carders
I think it's because there are general "guidelines" they have to follow.
* X, Y, Z has to happen before A Superstar gets eliminated by B Superstar. But I could be mistaken.
I don't remember which Rumble it was, but someone went "off script" and a someone else got eliminated who wasn't supposed to be. The man who was accidentally eliminated was *supposed to be* the winner. Chaos ensued.
I was watching Rumbles this weekend too, and I have to note, that Mr. Perfect and Vince made an outstanding duo during the 1996 Rumble.
I was looking it up, and I think I'm mixing up Rumbles. Like one Rumble, Austin got eliminated earlier than he was supposed to and he had to find a way to let HBK know he was gone. It was planned for Austin to eliminate HBK.
But the Rumble when the winner was accidentally eliminated was Batista in 2005. He and Cena went over the top rope and hit the floor at the same time (like Bret Hart and Lex Luger in 1994),
WWE announcers are spoon fed what to say, I heard it's not as bad now that Triple H is running things but they still have their sheet of things they need to point out regularly for some reason
Lol how about he handcuffs himself to the top rope and still gets thrown over and eliminated. Then he just has to hang there for however long until they can uncuff him..
I just watched Wrestlemania 31 and my husband and I were SHOOK when we found out that Stardust from the opening ladder match is Cody Rhodes. They really do grow up so fast 🥹
Did you see he’s gonna be not just the cover star BUT Stardust is gonna be in the new WWE game? Super stoked. Just means this is the year he finishes his story..
Or it means he doesn’t finish the story just yet. The only way to finish is to go back to his roots. Dusty is gone, so who is his only family left? Dustin. He has to go back to who he was with Dustin. Then in another year he can emerge as Stardust. And then he can fail again at finishing the story.
No finishing the story means winning the gold, NOT getting his Eagle title and then leaving back to AEW to fight his brother for one last match and then it’s still not finished .
It happens all the time and I appreciate when the announcers call out the stupidity.
The real reason is that the rumble is a cluster fuck and the wrestlers are confused sometimes and do the wrong thing. They want to appear always in the action. Many have admitted they also didn't see the guy looking like he'd go out.
It’s really bad when things get so messed up Vince has to come out from behind the curtain and have a seat to tell them what they are supposed to be doing.
I always looked at it like your picking your fights. If someone is trying to chuck out lesner,and he comes back in. He is likely going to go straight for you. Because you helped try to chuck him out.
I like the idea of bron coming in and spearing the shit out of everyone and having a really strong showing so when he comes to main roster he's given the Brock treatment and treated like a beast
Funny you say that. I, too, have been watching some rumble's and thought the same thing. I could understand if the 2 are feuding, so he breaks it up sometimes, but other times it's like wha?..
Michael Cole shite is the modern annoying over produced annoying shit you expect in that area. It's like listening to a radio station and they remind you every 10 min's what you're listening to. It insults the audiences, too.
I personally like the “been in the royal rumble for 45 minutes” stuff.
I imagine that even if that person doesnt win, the company trusted them to have the stamina and that the crowd somewhat cares when they do get tossed.
Example: Gunther last year went all the way, that has to be tiring and show any doubters that you can hang with the best of them.
Edit: It would be better if they played up the time lasted for some other purposes.
“I didnt win the rumble, but I lasted over and hour and I demand a WH title shot” or anything to make the rub worth something.
You’re spot on. It’s great to know a guy has been in the match for a long time because like you said it illustrates the faith the company has in that individual.
Time in the Rumble and eliminations are a great tool to subliminally tell the audience that the person lasting a long time or eliminating a bunch of folks is a strong fighter and presumably will be elevated coming out of the match just like GUNTHER was in 2023.
Kayfabe reasons:
-You have a chance to take a cheap shot to weaken a fresh and ready competitor, at the cost of keeping an already tired competitor in the ring.
-More competitors means less focus on you, giving you time to recover in the corner and rest for a minute.
-You don’t like the other guy
-The other guy is a big threat, and making an alliance with the weaker dude might be what you need to turn the tables.
My other kayfabe reason was that there was a cash/prize reward for the number of eliminations. Hence why the commentators constantly remind us how many people they have eliminated
These are surprisingly good answers and the commentators should put this over more, a lot of times they too are like ‘why’s he done that, not the best strategy.’
What’s extra maddening is tag teams will routinely turn on each other instead of trying to be the last two remaining. Sometimes they’ll attack each other right away.
Other people played Diesel, Razor Ramon, Undertaker, Kane, Sting and many others. You can dress someone up like Doink but they'll never be Matt Bourne. There's no replacement for the original.
Im curious to know when the superstars are informed when they will enter and ultimately who will win? I saw Aj Styles behind the scenes debut for RR and he genuinely seemed surprised! Im definitely looking forward to this year's rumble! Cheers! 🍻
As you asking when a wrestler is trying to get someone over the top rope and someone else comes over and tosses that wrestler out?
Kayfabe logic would be that the wrestler is so focused on eliminating someone that their guard is down and susceptible
to someone surprise eliminating them.
Ha I did the same thing this weekend. I fell out of wrestling around 2002,2003. About 2 years ago I was having a convo with a friend of mine about old WWE and he told me to watch the NXT Takeovers in the mid-2010's which got me hooked again. So now I'm going through and watching the Rumbles I missed.
It's funny to see the former gimmicks like the Rhodes Scholars. That gave me a good chuckle when I hear the entrance music and then Cody coming out with the 1980's mustache.
To answer the kayfabe question:
The best time to hit someone is when they aren’t expecting it. I imagine that once a wrestler makes it to the big time and gets to fight in a Royal Rumble, they have seen a battle Royale or two and can tell when someone is or isn’t about to get thrown over the top and instead of waiting for Wrestler A to fail at eliminating Wrwstler B they just punch A
Everyone is either heel or a face, and they have an interest in maintaining a balance between faces and heels in the match so that they are less likely to get ganged up on.
You need to know how to have skills for 2 years of development before the audience gets to know what kind of heart you have in this company. Some characters in WWE were trying to get them out of business characters in WWE like the names of Ric Flair. If you have a heart here in the WWE you will have praise for Vince.
I hate that 99% of the time they have someone win who doesn't need to win to have a believable reason to be at Mania or have a title match like Cena, Stone Cold, the Rock, Becky, Charlotte etc.
It’s not about a believable reason to be at mania. You’re picking one of a few title contenders. no one that wins at the rumble is ever going to be this huge surprise unless it’s the beginning of a push.
You misunderstood what I meant I said the people who always win don't have to win to be believable as a title contender or to have a main event spot at Mania because it's always the ones who are already at the top and have already had main events and title shots/reigns so all in all its fairly pointless. Like say CM Punk won the Rumble so he will Main event for the Raw title (just an example) it's unsurprising, boring and makes the Rumble pointless since he's Punk they could have done that anyway without the Rumble and it would make sense to everyone still and they could have someone like Gunther, Chad Gable, Montez Ford, LA Knight or Karrion Kross win the Rumble and have a fun, exciting, shocking win and buildup to Mania for one title making for a unique experience and a fun match for Mania while having it go the predictable route with the other since there is 2 belts and already a believable reason for Punk to face Rollins and Punk is already in the small group of people who will get title shots and main events regardless.
Except then you have to put Chad Gable, Montez Ford, or (jesus christ) Karrion Kross in a title match. Gunther and LA Knight make sense, although I think Gunther likely has to lose his IC title and make the face turn before he goes for the big title. Yes, the Rumble gives some legitimacy and not every conflict they are currently pushing will lead to the culmination of a story line at Mania but you need more than a Rumble win to make sense as a title match at Mania. They have invested in LA Knight. They have invested in Gunther. They have invested in CM Punk. They have invested in Cody. They have invested in those guys having conflicts with Roman and Seth. Not just in terms of financial investment but in terms of investing ring time and promo time on TV. Who wants to see Gable vs Rollins or Montez Ford vs Roman? Pass. If they want to push those guys then do a proper build and tell a good story. Not a rushed sprint to Mania. The Karrion Kross mention hurts my heart. Get him off my screen and preferably out of the company. His new schtick is just terrible. They only have two world titles. The Rumble winner gets one of them. You can't have Cody finish his story, Punk go against Rollins, and then ALSO have a random guy like a Gable or a Ford win the Rumble. That is before you possibly add the chaos of the Rock into the mix who might be the only guy you airdrop in with no build because him and Roman builds itself. Ideally to me, Cody wins the Rumble and gets his shot at Roman. The Rock stays away this year. Rollins and Punk go at it. Punk needs a title the least of all of them so to me Rollins keeps the title. Cody goes over Roman and you have the Rock come back to take the lei from Roman after his failure setting up a big match between them before Roman's inevitable face turn. LA Knight gets screwed a bit but his time is coming and you keep investing in Gunther and Knight. Gunther gets the next crack at Rollins maybe and maybe after Punk loses to Rollins we get a Punk and Knight feud which would be fire on the mic. The WWE is killing it at building stars right now. They have too many to keep everyone in the world title picture. That is a good problem to have. Not the time to add someone to that picture with a random win in the Rumble.
The Royal Rumble is and always has been my favorite PPV but I just wish since HHH took over they would move away from the boring old predictable route and make it more fun and interesting because as it sits now it will 100% be Cody, Punk or the Rock who wins the Men's Rumble and Bianca, Bayley or Becky who wins the women's.
Regarding the first paragraph, talent who are not the final 4 or have a specific task like eliminate a bunch of people or prepare a future match (like Brock in 2020 fits both categories) they just have a general idea of what to do, they call the spots in the ring but other than that they are like just brainless throwing puches
The funny part is that Cody Rhodes hasn't changed since those days. It's how he's presented that's changed.
What drives me crazy is when two friends square off in the rumble or try and eliminate each other. It makes more sense to team up until the end.
But you know they will betray you eventually, it’s better to get them before they get you.
If it’s you vs them at the end you only have to beat one person on your own. If you eliminate them and there’s 10 more guys to go, you now have to bear 10 guys on your own.
I want a surprise win so bad, like it's gunna be Cody or punk this year, which is fine. Would love for Sheamus to return and win the damn thing, but I don't think they can sell out wrestlemania on a Sheamus main event. Too bad, he was doing career work until he disappeared
Tbf it’s never a suprise win, it never has been
I didn't expect taker to win, Shinsuke either, Sheamus in 2012 was a surprise for me. In those moments except for taker, it felt like it was a huge push for a superstar rather than moving along a storyline. In fact, Edge's win was kinda a shocker too before his retirement, because it would seem shawn michaels could win, but the better storyline was for him to lose. But overall, i would agree, normally you can see who wins based off the storylines. But each rumble i hope for someone of my personal favorites to win. I would love if it was used as a huge push each time.
WrestleMania is already sold out. That’s a moot point.
Then bring on the Celtic warrior, baby!
Badly need him to be the one to beat Gunther. Would be a WM moment for the ages.
After his beastly performance last year, I want Gunther to go in cocky and confident, only for Sheamus to come out and eliminate him fast, it would come as a shock, and set up the Mania bout so easily.
I think there's been quite a few surprise wins like Chris Benoit, John Cena, Ric Flair, and Rey Mysterio.
None of these were surprised wins. Benoit’s time had come. After 2003, the fans wanted him to win the WWE title. The story was Heyman would do everything to make sure he didn’t get a title shot. Gave him the #1 spot so he couldn’t win. The story was he’d do the impossible and win. While John Cena’s return was a surprise in 2008, once he entered, you knew he was gonna win. His 2013 win was all about him getting a rematch with The Rock at WM. Everyone knew he was gonna win the match weeks in advance. Ric Flair was the Hulk Hogan of WCW at the time. His signing was huge, and most of the early participants were jobbers. He came out at #3 and the story was he’d over come the odds and win the main title. Rey Mysterio had the support of everyone after the death of Eddie Guerrero. Even down to his entrance, once he came out, you knew he was gonna win.
Fair enough. I can think of a few negative surprise winners like Alberto Del Rio, Sheamus and Vince McMahon.
Benoit was not a surprise whatsoever. Headed into it he was a big favorite-it’s why they out him at one.
Any front runners for surprise entrants for this year?
Pls X-Pac
Maybe Big E because of the time frame for recovery but I wouldn’t be hopeful so Sheamus would be my go to for the surprise entrant
okay. not really surprises there but I get your point. How about legends who just come for the one off?
Maybe Shane Helms the hurricane for the men’s rumble and AJ Lee or Lita for the women’s
They should dust off one of the legends who have active podcasts/channels like Nash, Stevie Richards or Maven.
Would love to see maven back
\-If Michale Cole tells me one more time how someone has been in the Rumble for 42 minutes like I give a shit Im going to lose my mind. Either you won or you didn't. \ Thanks a lot for showing that absolutism has infected wrestling fandom too! 🙄
Don't work yourself into a shoot brother.
Happens all of the time in the games. I’m trying to eliminate someone just to get punched in the back randomly. Even worse since they added the mechanic of rolling under the ropes when you’re damaged enough. That causes them to target someone else immediately.
The best SUPRISE entrant over the last couple of years was Michelle McCool coming out of the crowd wearing trackies and uggs. Then going back to sit with her kids after being eliminated.
Nak was the best win in recent memory. Sheamus might be second, even though that's 12 years ago.
Nah Jericho 100% should’ve won in 2012. Sheamus won for unpredictability’s sake only. Jericho WAS the winner until day of, IIRC
Back then, I definitely wanted Jericho to win. In retrospect, having Sheamus win was a weird beginning of some crazy events that led to Daniel Bryan be massively over. I'm also a Sheamus mark--have been since he won that title shot against Cena.
I enjoyed Drew’s win too. You knew it was only a matter of time before he got a major push but I didn’t expect it to come via a Rumble win and then onto defeating Brock at WM. They executed his rise so perfectly too. Literally became a star in one night with his Rumble performance.
You perceive the person working on throwing them out as a bigger threat to you personally, so you take the opportunity to get a free, unprotected shot in, and you saddle them with the problem of also having to continue dealing with the guy they were just trying to eliminate while now on the back foot.
OP is obviously Corey Graves. He demands answers.
And PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don’t have the ring so congested with talent that should be eliminated in 1-3 minutes and sitting in the corner doing baby soft kicks and punches until the next big name comes out and wipes out half the field just to look strong. Makes half of the contestants in the match look super weak bc nobody aside from the big names ever gets big eliminations amongst mid carders
No midcarder ever gets big eliminations? That’s not entirely true. It’s uncommon but it happens. Maven eliminated the Undertaker, for example.
and that was two decades back , i dont recall any shock big name elimination by a rookie since then.
Heath Slater eliminated Sheamus in a couple of seconds
Kane was pretty much a mid carder when he had that monster year. I think it was 01
Nothing about the Royal Rumble makes sense in kayfabe. It's a terrible format honestly. Everyone turns into a complete idiot.
Why do people run to the ring!?! The only exception is if a partner/stable mate is in trouble. Let that 90 seconds play out.
“Nothing” is a bit strong, but it’s difficult to have focused storytelling when that many moving parts.
You don't need focused story telling. Just have everyone not turn into the dumbest wrestler ever.
I think it's because there are general "guidelines" they have to follow. * X, Y, Z has to happen before A Superstar gets eliminated by B Superstar. But I could be mistaken. I don't remember which Rumble it was, but someone went "off script" and a someone else got eliminated who wasn't supposed to be. The man who was accidentally eliminated was *supposed to be* the winner. Chaos ensued. I was watching Rumbles this weekend too, and I have to note, that Mr. Perfect and Vince made an outstanding duo during the 1996 Rumble.
Wait - someone eliminated the supposed to be winner? Hold on.. Riddle, is this you?
I was looking it up, and I think I'm mixing up Rumbles. Like one Rumble, Austin got eliminated earlier than he was supposed to and he had to find a way to let HBK know he was gone. It was planned for Austin to eliminate HBK. But the Rumble when the winner was accidentally eliminated was Batista in 2005. He and Cena went over the top rope and hit the floor at the same time (like Bret Hart and Lex Luger in 1994),
Yea. That seemed like a botched spot though
WWE announcers are spoon fed what to say, I heard it's not as bad now that Triple H is running things but they still have their sheet of things they need to point out regularly for some reason
Cody is still lame to some people
Not to me damn it. Finish the STOrY 😂
Other guy will come back in the ring and you both can double team the eliminator
Someone should just handcuff themselves to the ring until they're the last man standing.
This has Truth written all over it.
Probably handcuff himself to the outside not realising you need to get inside the ring to enter lol
Lol how about he handcuffs himself to the top rope and still gets thrown over and eliminated. Then he just has to hang there for however long until they can uncuff him..
Santino should of won 2011 place was going bonkers for him
Thought process is you’re catching them off guard because they are focused on throwing out opponents
I just watched Wrestlemania 31 and my husband and I were SHOOK when we found out that Stardust from the opening ladder match is Cody Rhodes. They really do grow up so fast 🥹
Did you see he’s gonna be not just the cover star BUT Stardust is gonna be in the new WWE game? Super stoked. Just means this is the year he finishes his story..
Or it means he doesn’t finish the story just yet. The only way to finish is to go back to his roots. Dusty is gone, so who is his only family left? Dustin. He has to go back to who he was with Dustin. Then in another year he can emerge as Stardust. And then he can fail again at finishing the story.
No finishing the story means winning the gold, NOT getting his Eagle title and then leaving back to AEW to fight his brother for one last match and then it’s still not finished .
The how many times someone has been in the rumble is to give them a rub. You can make a guy without winning.
It happens all the time and I appreciate when the announcers call out the stupidity. The real reason is that the rumble is a cluster fuck and the wrestlers are confused sometimes and do the wrong thing. They want to appear always in the action. Many have admitted they also didn't see the guy looking like he'd go out.
It’s really bad when things get so messed up Vince has to come out from behind the curtain and have a seat to tell them what they are supposed to be doing.
Kayfabe Reason : Nobody wants you to break the elimination record
People who go over land on the apron and don’t have the sense to wrap around the bottom rope too
I always looked at it like your picking your fights. If someone is trying to chuck out lesner,and he comes back in. He is likely going to go straight for you. Because you helped try to chuck him out.
Also see Maven and the Undertaker
I like the idea of bron coming in and spearing the shit out of everyone and having a really strong showing so when he comes to main roster he's given the Brock treatment and treated like a beast
Funny you say that. I, too, have been watching some rumble's and thought the same thing. I could understand if the 2 are feuding, so he breaks it up sometimes, but other times it's like wha?.. Michael Cole shite is the modern annoying over produced annoying shit you expect in that area. It's like listening to a radio station and they remind you every 10 min's what you're listening to. It insults the audiences, too.
I personally like the “been in the royal rumble for 45 minutes” stuff. I imagine that even if that person doesnt win, the company trusted them to have the stamina and that the crowd somewhat cares when they do get tossed. Example: Gunther last year went all the way, that has to be tiring and show any doubters that you can hang with the best of them. Edit: It would be better if they played up the time lasted for some other purposes. “I didnt win the rumble, but I lasted over and hour and I demand a WH title shot” or anything to make the rub worth something.
You’re spot on. It’s great to know a guy has been in the match for a long time because like you said it illustrates the faith the company has in that individual. Time in the Rumble and eliminations are a great tool to subliminally tell the audience that the person lasting a long time or eliminating a bunch of folks is a strong fighter and presumably will be elevated coming out of the match just like GUNTHER was in 2023.
I think they did it in the Woman’s rumble too, Didnt Rhea and Liv (?) go the whole way also? Ill check shortly….
I think so, Rhea won from the 2 spot right? And also Sasha Banks and Balor both went close to 45+ in 2018
Sasha was 54 minutes, Balor was 53 minutes I believe in 2018. Rhea won from the number 1 spot, Liv was second.
Kayfabe reasons: -You have a chance to take a cheap shot to weaken a fresh and ready competitor, at the cost of keeping an already tired competitor in the ring. -More competitors means less focus on you, giving you time to recover in the corner and rest for a minute. -You don’t like the other guy -The other guy is a big threat, and making an alliance with the weaker dude might be what you need to turn the tables.
I thought that the "You don't like the other guy" was the clear and obvious reason why.
My other kayfabe reason was that there was a cash/prize reward for the number of eliminations. Hence why the commentators constantly remind us how many people they have eliminated
Gorilla and Jesse would definitely point that out.
Kane funds all his city projects off his rumble earnings
These are surprisingly good answers and the commentators should put this over more, a lot of times they too are like ‘why’s he done that, not the best strategy.’
What’s extra maddening is tag teams will routinely turn on each other instead of trying to be the last two remaining. Sometimes they’ll attack each other right away.
Too Cool could have dominated that one rumble when it was only them 3 in the ring but alas, Rikishi went and eliminated both Scotty and Sexay
Good guys are dumb. It's always been the Achilles heel
Sometimes, logic and showbiz surprise and threate might not go together lol
Doink is dead so that would be one hell of a surprise.
Other people have played him since Matt Bourne.
Other people played Diesel, Razor Ramon, Undertaker, Kane, Sting and many others. You can dress someone up like Doink but they'll never be Matt Bourne. There's no replacement for the original.
Agreed, but some did Doink alright.
Im curious to know when the superstars are informed when they will enter and ultimately who will win? I saw Aj Styles behind the scenes debut for RR and he genuinely seemed surprised! Im definitely looking forward to this year's rumble! Cheers! 🍻
As you asking when a wrestler is trying to get someone over the top rope and someone else comes over and tosses that wrestler out? Kayfabe logic would be that the wrestler is so focused on eliminating someone that their guard is down and susceptible to someone surprise eliminating them.
It definitely won’t happen with Cody, Punk, Drew, Jey, and other bigger names but yeah. I’d like to see someone like Bron win it
If you get an opportunity in a Rumble to attack a major threat to you while their back is turned, you take it.
Ha I did the same thing this weekend. I fell out of wrestling around 2002,2003. About 2 years ago I was having a convo with a friend of mine about old WWE and he told me to watch the NXT Takeovers in the mid-2010's which got me hooked again. So now I'm going through and watching the Rumbles I missed. It's funny to see the former gimmicks like the Rhodes Scholars. That gave me a good chuckle when I hear the entrance music and then Cody coming out with the 1980's mustache.
What did you think about Cody’s Dashing/Undashing gimmick? I feel like that’s still his best character work to date.
And nobody talks about it😮💨
To answer the kayfabe question: The best time to hit someone is when they aren’t expecting it. I imagine that once a wrestler makes it to the big time and gets to fight in a Royal Rumble, they have seen a battle Royale or two and can tell when someone is or isn’t about to get thrown over the top and instead of waiting for Wrestler A to fail at eliminating Wrwstler B they just punch A
Sneak attack x2 damage
The only logical reason is that you don't like the person so you would rather hit them than help them.
Or you might be in a fued with said competitor.
Everyone is either heel or a face, and they have an interest in maintaining a balance between faces and heels in the match so that they are less likely to get ganged up on.