# The Men's Rumble showed what lack of star power they have.



## RLT1981

crowd did'n give a shit about most of the entrys. I know I was bored it did pick up a little when Drew came out but for most of the match is was boring felt like the 1995 Rumble.

It also shows WWE has done a terrible job making new stars and keeps going back to the same people (Brock) to bail them out.


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## Geert Wilders

They can build stars. Strowman, Wyatt, Joe, Keith Lee, Fandango, Rusev, Morrison, Jeff Hardy

Wait nevermind, I just realised all those guys were fired or left.


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## holy

Geert Wilders said:


> They can build stars. Strowman, Wyatt, Joe, Keith Lee, Fandango, Rusev, Morrison, Jeff Hardy
> 
> Wait nevermind, I just realised all those guys were fired or left.


You just got me thinking about how awesome Jeff Hardy would've been in the match last night. They could've had Jeff start the match as #1 or #2 against Styles, and then have Jeff go all the way until atleast the Final 4 where a heel tosses him out to a chorus of boos from the audience.

So unfortunate how the match shaped up last night...


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## RLT1981

Geert Wilders said:


> They can build stars. Strowman, Wyatt, Joe, Keith Lee, Fandango, Rusev, Morrison, Jeff Hardy
> 
> Wait nevermind, I just realised all those guys were fired or left.


well they can build some people up but for whatever reason always backout on going all the way with them and always going back to the same people they always do.


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## Shaun_27

After AJ at #1, it took until Drew at #21 to see another guy who had any chance of winning. I think it could have been better if they paced it out a bit more. Big E got 6 mins, Orton 2 mins.


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## VodooPimpin

Ya for a majority of the match when happy Corbin was in it was like a bunch of guys you know 100% would not win. At around number 20 I knew Brock would show up . Anyone who complains about Brock winnin, it’s like who else would win


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## RainmakerV2

Needed more Karrion Kross.


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## BigRedMonster47

No surprises really either, was really boring.


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## toon126

They have a huge roster with so many experienced guys... But no stars. There was legitimately nobody there you'd think "I hope he wins and main events Mania." 

Horrific Rumble match. One that was actually desperate for old timers to return and be in it over a lot of the current roster, just to salvage some excitement.


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## MEMS

RainmakerV2 said:


> Needed more Karrion Kross.


Proper booking (Like anyone could have done) and he could’ve been a very credible rumble winner.


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## RainmakerV2

MEMS said:


> Proper booking (Like anyone could have done) and he could’ve been a very credible rumble winner.


Well we agree on something. Those releases definitely showed in a match like the Rumble.


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## Seafort

RLT1981 said:


> crowd did'n give a shit about most of the entrys. I know I was bored it did pick up a little when Drew came out but for most of the match is was boring felt like the 1995 Rumble.
> 
> It also shows WWE has done a terrible job making new stars and keeps going back to the same people (Brock) to bail them out.


One thing that stuck out is the lack of fresh talent on the roster, and that is the result of the destruction of NXT 1.0 and the stupid behind the scenes power struggle that ended with Levesque sidelined. Who were the talents who have been on the main roster for two years or less? Riddle. Otis. Ridge. Boggs. Madcap. That’s it. When you go back to the 1997 Rumble it was filled with young talent, many who would become Hall of Famers. Watching this version you get the impression that this is a somewhat stale, certainly attenuated roster. Dolph, Randy, and Kofi were all competing in their 12th (or greater) Rumble. Most of the Rumble participants have been on the main roster for at least eight years. Watching it, there is little impression of a future crop of talent waiting to main event in the next few years outside of Riddle.


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## InexorableJourney

Had WWE dropped the matches, they could have added Roman, Seth, Edge, Miz and Bobby to the Rumble.

They'd have all ended up looking like losers, but strangely thats what you appear to want.


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## DanielBryanfan96

They had too many of the popular stars appear at the end. Drew should’ve been 30 IMO. Lesnar 29. And RKO-Bro in the 10s. It felt like AJ and a bunch of jobbers for half the match, and then AJ gets randomly thrown out and kills the crowd.


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## Chan Hung

They got rid of: Kross, Lee, Stroman, Wyatt, Bryan, Black, Etc....they prefer to push Reginald.


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## yeahbaby!

RainmakerV2 said:


> Needed more Karrion Kross.


And how about the guy in your sig FFS! Just send Bron out there to put him in front of the big crowd and have him throw people around. Even if it's 5 minutes for the commentators to put the guy over and make it a struggle to eliminate him. It's a no brainer to put the guy out there.


Agreed with everyone the roster in the Rumble was just awful and thus most of the match was just boring unfortunately. I don't watch week to week so I'm like who the fuck are these tossers? Why not have Orton mid rumble to pop the crowd and be there for 15 minutes rather than 2? Was a shit show.


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## ShiningStar

This was worse then the 1995 Rumble in that all these no chancers who were getting no reaction were like random awful new generation gimmick like Kwang,Aldo Montaya,Mantaur,Steve,Duke The Dumpster etc. Most of the dudes getting no reaction where people who feature regularly on tv and Dolph in his 15th rumble match


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## The Quintessential Mark

Shaun_27 said:


> After AJ at #1, it took until Drew at #21 to see another guy who had any chance of winning. I think it could have been better if they paced it out a bit more. Big E got 6 mins, Orton 2 mins.


The whole match lacked pacing with few tidbits that were worthwhile they made Orton look pathetic in his hometown and tbh it was purposely rushed altogether.

AJ being the long lasting Ironman was cut short by a sidekick...now that was a mess.


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## Algernon

I legit thought Ridge Holland had a cowboy gimmick with that mask. My god, what a boring wrestler he is. Rick Boogz and Madcap Moss both have incredible looks but are presented in a such a joking matter that its hard to take either one seriously.


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## Eva MaRIHyse

Yeah it was telling just how little Star Power they have thesedays because they refuse to push 99% of their own roster. There was like 3 people in the whole match that had any chance of winning. Having AJ Styles as the only Star to be involved for the first 2/3s of the match, and having him eliminated early meant much of this Rumble was just full of jobbers that WWE have explicitly told us through years of booking have no chance of winning.


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## ste1592

Algernon said:


> I legit thought Ridge Holland had a cowboy gimmick with that mask. My god, what a boring wrestler he is. Rick Boogz and Madcap Moss both have incredible looks but are presented in a such a joking matter that its hard to take either one seriously.


Dude, they're called Rick Boogs and Madcap Moss; they're telling straight away that they are lackeys and jokes. If they wanted to use them at least half-decently, they'd have different names by now.


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## Interceptor88

the prodigy fan said:


> reginald has more talent and mainstream potential than all of those clown combined


This forum has too many trolls. Please go away.


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## ProjectGargano

the prodigy fan said:


> reginald has more talent and mainstream potential than all of those clown combined


Are you a troll or a clown?


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## FriedTofu

They could have used Cesaro to pop the crowd during the mid-card fest in the middle. They could have gave Austin Theory something to do during his 20minutes to help build up his star power.

I don't think the issue is lack of star power, but nobody has any ongoing feud fans are invested in to make the interaction more interesting besides Styles and Omos. And even that was considered concluded. Everybody is involved in random tag team feuds at the moment.


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## AthleticGirth

The Rumble was crying out for a Strowman type, who at least would have given some energy to the crowd and provided the big man focal point to quicken the pace when the match got flabby. Seems they've cooled on Omos before he's even out the oven. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Strowman's brought back night after Mania.

As well as the lack of star power, apart from Bad Bunny and Brock no one got any shine from this Rumble and there was nothing particularly innovative standing out, it's a shame Kofi botched his spot. Pat Paterson's a big miss when it comes to putting the Rumble together. Vince operates on there being three important takeaways from every show - for this it was Brock v Roman, Ronda's back and Bad Bunny can go in the ring, nothing and nobody else mattered.


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## Dr. Middy

I mean they don't really utilize a lot of guys past a certain point, and once they reach that, they sort of stagnate. Add this to firing a ton of guys, the lack of younger and newer guys in the match, the increasing blandness of the presentation (so many themes and entrances now are just hollow and lifeless, look at Sami, Roode, Ziggler, and others with the generic music), and the lack of any storylines used in the rumble, and of course this would be bad.


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## PhenomenalOne11

Yeah there's a lot of guys there that are lucky to be employed like Ricochet. But at the same time these same people complain that WWE doesn't push new people, but also got upset when Riddick Moss eliminated AJ Styles.


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## qqqwww

Why was it just tag teams and jobbers?

Why didn't they have...

Finn Balor (former Universal champion)
Jinder (former WWE champion)
Cesaro (Has been in a program with Roman Reigns)
The Usos (Ensuring threats to roman get taken out)
Elias (Big return opportunity)
Commander Azeez (for the obligatory Omos staredown)

Also, the following NXT guys that would have gotten a bigger pop than the main roster job squad/tag team lifers they had in there:
Bron Breakker
Walter
Ciampa
LA Knight

I get that the main focus was to have Brock win, have Drew return, and to push Omos and Austin Theory...but why fill a rumble with generic jobbers when you have the above talent available to build a more interesting rumble around?


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## AthleticGirth

PhenomenalOne11 said:


> Yeah there's a lot of guys there that are lucky to be employed like Ricochet.


Any other promotion (including HHH's NXT) and Ricochet's presented as an attraction - the daredevil who can perform super human feats in the ring. It was no surprise to me that Orton named Ricochet as the guy he'd most like to work with to tap into his potential. 

That Ricochet's 'just another guy' emphasises the problem WWE has in presenting talent to its fullest.


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## PhenomenalOne11

AthleticGirth said:


> Any other promotion (including HHH's NXT) and Ricochet's presented as an attraction - the daredevil who can perform super human feats in the ring. It was no surprise to me that Orton named Ricochet as the guy he'd most like to work with to tap into his potential.
> 
> That Ricochet's 'just another guy' emphasises the problem WWE has in presenting talent to its fullest.


Until Ricochet learns to cut a coherent promo and show an ounce of charisma, he deserves to remain a jobber.


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## Freelancer

They brought it on themselves. You can't focus just on one person. It was the Cena show, now it's the Roman show. The result of that is the jobber Rumble we just had.


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## rollinsnation91

WWE at its worst for the men's roster. The women's roster is actually much better but of course WWE doesnt utilize everyone well.


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## RainmakerV2

FriedTofu said:


> They could have used Cesaro to pop the crowd during the mid-card fest in the middle. They could have gave Austin Theory something to do during his 20minutes to help build up his star power.
> 
> I don't think the issue is lack of star power, but nobody has any ongoing feud fans are invested in to make the interaction more interesting besides Styles and Omos. And even that was considered concluded. Everybody is involved in random tag team feuds at the moment.


Yeah, Cesaro not being in it was a little weird.


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## BlissLynch

Well when you look at the long list of talent they’ve released. That and the refusal to create new stars. No surprises.


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## Trishfever

toon126 said:


> They have a huge roster with so many experienced guys... But no stars. There was legitimately nobody there you'd think "I hope he wins and main events Mania."


The only star in the Royal Rumble I saw who hasn’t main evented a 

WrestleMania was AJ Styles.


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## Awowowow1

FriedTofu said:


> They could have used Cesaro to pop the crowd during the mid-card fest in the middle. They could have gave Austin Theory something to do during his 20minutes to help build up his star power


This is what I didnt get. As someone who is not watching week to week the royal rumble is one of the events i will still check out. This is WWEs chance to showcase the guys I dont know. At the beginning there were two guys i didnt know. Austin Theory and the Irish friend of Sheamus. Both had a reasonable amount of time in the ring but neither did anything. By the end of rumble of the 10 or so unknowns to make any kind of impact on me were Rick Boogs and Omos and of those two Boogs is clearly going to be a goofy clown and Omos is the Great Khali II.


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## FriedTofu

Awowowow1 said:


> This is what I didnt get. As someone who is not watching week to week the royal rumble is one of the events i will still check out. This is WWEs chance to showcase the guys I dont know. At the beginning there were two guys i didnt know. Austin Theory and the Irish friend of Sheamus. Both had a reasonable amount of time in the ring but neither did anything. By the end of rumble of the 10 or so unknowns to make any kind of impact on me were Rick Boogs and Omos and of those two Boogs is clearly going to be a goofy clown and Omos is the Great Khali II.


The worst thing was Sheamus friend was eliminated right in front of him before Sheamus entered the ring. That seem like a botch. Feels like Sheamus was supposed to grab him to save him from elimination initially before dropping him.

Like Alpha academy could have some stupid segments. RKBro too. Ziggler could tease his past relationship with other competitors. Drew just cleared out Corbin and Moss in like a minute before the beatdown. Either make Drew too angry over the two or just purely focus on the rumble, not this 50-50 nonsense. Everybody was just there for Omos or Brock to clear out. When the Bellas and Nikki ASH have more memorable moments in less time than the men, the booking is terrible for the men's rumble.


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## BLISSED & LYNCHED

They're not doing it correctly. Guys like Madcap Moss, Happy Corbin, Rick Boogs, Otis, Matt Riddle should all be in the main event instead of people like Roman, Seth, Brock, Drew...hasn't WWE learned anything from AEWs booking over the last few years?? Put bad comedy acts in the main event and in the title picture, that's what wrestling fans want these days!


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## Dickhead1990

Algernon said:


> I legit thought Ridge Holland had a cowboy gimmick with that mask. My god, what a boring wrestler he is. Rick Boogz and Madcap Moss both have incredible looks but are presented in a such a joking matter that its hard to take either one seriously.


Agreed. There was something quite Colt Cabana-esque about Boogz. Though this is the first time I've watched him since that entrance he made in NXT years ago.

The match itself was okay, but was just a bit boring overall. I feel that McIntyre should have won it though.


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## Rozzop

The men's rumble started with around 50 minutes left of a four hour show.

Thats not enough time for 30 entrants at 2 minutes apart. So it was rushed. 

This is what you get when you showcase a women's rumble earlier on in the night. A rumble full of horribly uncoordinated botches but that's a whole other argument. 

WWE doesn't have a midcard. It hasn't done for years. Instead that time is devoted to the women.


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## Not Lying

lol. Rumbles and Mania are there to make stars. Yet we see part-timers and celebrities beating full-timers and doing better then them during RTWM, and then morons keep on shitting on the current crop who aren't going over anyone to become stars. It's obvious Vince is running this shit with short term perspective and he'll die before he sees the damage he's done.

2003-2012 Rumbles were ALL first time winners. 
Now out of the last 10 rumbles, 6 of them are repeats!


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## wjd1989

I felt exactly the same.

The lack of star power in that match was really revealing - the only time I felt we were truly in the presence of a star was when Orton came out and when Lesnar came out, and to a lesser extent - with McIntyre. There’s nobody larger than life, nobody you really want to invest in - its really dreadful.


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## AmbroseRanger

With the current Roman storyline, they could have had Ambrose win the Rumble


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## ProjectGargano

AmbroseRanger said:


> With the current Roman storyline, they could have had Ambrose win the Rumble


Who is Ambrose?


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## Geert Wilders

the prodigy fan said:


> third member of the shield,dean ambrose,very famous wrestler,he's currently in some indy bush leagues unfortunately but it is strange u nevah heard of him


I do not know if you could consider AEW as Indy bush league, since even WWE acknowledge the fact that he’s called Moxley now. 

If he went to the indies, they’d still call him Ambrose.


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## Jersey

Geert Wilders said:


> They can build stars. Strowman, *Wyatt, Joe*, Keith Lee, Fandango, Rusev, Morrison, Jeff Hardy
> 
> Wait nevermind, I just realised all those guys were fired or left.


Joe or Wyatt would be interesting choices to see how they get booked after the rumble. Jomo not so much, talking isn’t his strong point and doesn’t really have the crowd behind to have his back


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## Teemu™

PhenomenalOne11 said:


> Until Ricochet learns to cut a coherent promo and show an ounce of charisma, he deserves to remain a jobber.


He also needs to grow at least a solid foot in height.


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## DanielBryanfan96

Trishfever said:


> The only star in the Royal Rumble I saw who hasn’t main evented a
> 
> WrestleMania was AJ Styles.


Styles main evented two years ago.


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## Bobholly39

They had plenty of star power imo, but they did a terrible job building up the event by making them seem as contenders. But here's a list of stars who could have won:

AJ Styles
Omos
Orton
Riddle
Big E
Kevin Owens

All 6 should have been cutting convincing promos going into the event - and should have been confronting actual champions like Lesnar and Reigns - to make people believe they really could win/make it to mania for a match.

I have no problem with Lesnar winning - I just wish they'd do a better job of building contenders going into the rumble. They do a bad job most years


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## Geert Wilders

the prodigy fan said:


> well it's not LITERALLY bush league but it's basically it,it's glorified bush league basically


I don’t think so, since it matches RAWs key demo quite frequently. And the WWE shills love to shit on it, which tells me they feel threatened that it will come and topple the company they brown nose.


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## The Quintessential Mark

Bobholly39 said:


> They had plenty of star power imo, but they did a terrible job building up the event by making them seem as contenders. But here's a list of stars who could have won:
> 
> AJ Styles
> Omos
> Orton
> Riddle
> Big E
> Kevin Owens
> 
> All 6 should have been cutting convincing promos going into the event - and should have been confronting actual champions like Lesnar and Reigns - to make people believe they really could win/make it to mania for a match.
> 
> I have no problem with Lesnar winning - I just wish they'd do a better job of building contenders going into the rumble. They do a bad job most years


Drew could have won as well just to tease a rematch with Roman with a Title on the line this time.


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## tomjh

I have not watched in years, but did watch this show. Is this the first Rumble without a legend appearance?


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## Z3r0fri3ndz

Wwe fired to many people that could have made the rumble a bit more interesting. Cross , Keith , black, andrade, wyatt, strowman, just to name a few . They also couldn’t hold on to Daniel, cole, Jeff hardy , etc. This rumble was weak! That Seamus Buddy forgot his name lasted to long in there. At one point I said wtf is this guy doing there. But you had roode eliminated like a joke . Smh.


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## Bobholly39

The Quintessential Mark said:


> Drew could have won as well just to tease a rematch with Roman with a Title on the line this time.


Yeah I forgot to list Drew for some reason, he was absolutely a contender too.

Point still stands - they do a shit job of building up Rumble winning contenders every year. They could do better.


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