Remembering The 2017 Royal Rumble

WWE told us to “Remember The Rumble” leading up to the 2017 Royal Rumble. Here are the rememberable moments from the 2017 Royal Rumble.

Remember The Long Entrance: And the awkward moments it led to during the Rumble match. Guys just stood/laid around, waiting for the next participant to make his way down the ring. Couldn’t they cut that thing in half? It gave the show a big time feel, but the weak Raw set immediately took away from that feel.

Remember The Club: Sure, the title switch came six months too late, but at least they are the championships. And now, they can feud with…New Day? There are Enzo and Cass as well. MORE BIG ANDY JOKES! OR OLD DAY SKITS! At least the Raw tag champs got on the show. What has American Alpha done lately?

Remember The Apron Being The Hardest Part Of The Ring: Because it meant something in Bayley vs. Charlotte and wasn’t some transition spot for Michael Cole to freak out over.

Remember Braun Costing Roman: WWE seemed to forget about it two hours later when they did nothing to follow up during the Rumbles, but it made Braun a star in the moment. Amazing what destroying Roman Reigns can do for your career. Too bad Kevin Owens couldn’t just destroy him and needed help at every turn. That would have done a little too much for his title reign.

Remember The Chair Pyramid: It was a cool visual, they teased the spot for the majority of the match, and they finally delivered. Owens and Reigns went all out and delivered the best match during Owens’ reign.
Remember Heel Neville: Neville was floundering a face for the longest time, but the red arrow always popped the crowd. So, heel Neville deiced to cut that move out from his arsenal and start using a submission as his finish. Fantastic. That’s a great heel move that not enough recently turned faces do.

Remember AJ vs. Cena: All of it. It was perfect. AJ Styles is perfect and the best professional wrestler today. Cena is perfect and best professional wrestler of all-time.

Remember #10: They had one job at #10: Debut Tye Dillinger. And they delivered. I don’t have high hopes for Tye on the main roster because they’ve given me no faith that they know what to do with NXT call-ups, but Tye will get himself over. He’s a good worker, solid on the mic, and very charismatic. Put him on Smackdown, have him feud with Dolph Ziggler, and call it a day.

Remember William III: The star of the Rumble.

Remember Braun Strowman: What a performance. I really hope WWE doesn’t sacrifice him to Roman in the coming months because he’s been built so well since the brand split. He’s getting over and improving before our eyes. When Braun finally takes a clean pin, it should be a big deal and it should happen against someone who could use the rub.

Remember Chris Jericho: Because that was the least memorable hour-long performance since…Roman Reigns last year.

Remember Goldberg vs. Lesnar: WWE has booked Goldberg vs. Lesnar so well. Lesnar is the cocky and confident ass kicker, ready to avenge a loss and put a beating on an old man. Goldberg is an ass kicker who knows he can beat Lesnar. So, they have Goldberg destroy him at Survivor Series, and destroy him against at the Rumble. Lesnar gets more and more pissed before he finally ends Goldberg at Wrestlemania. Or Goldberg will just keep destroying him.

Remember That Part-Timers Still Rule: It was honestly a bit troubling seeing Goldberg, Brock, and Undertaker toss guys over like they were nothing. They have ten eliminations between them in the span of about 10 minutes. In fairness, Goldberg did toss Brock and Taker did toss Goldberg, but the other eight were full-time workers just thrown aside.

Remember The Anticipation For #30: Would it be Kurt Angle? Samoa Joe? Finn Balor? Shinsuke Nakamura? Nope. It was Roman Reigns. Why was it Roman Reigns? Who knows. I’m sure it won’t be explained on Raw, but maybe they’ll surprise us. Vince just couldn’t resist putting Reigns in the Rumble. I don’t dislike Reigns, in fact, I think he’s a really good worker, but when are they going to learn that less is more? The whole thing was used to set up Reigns vs. Undertaker, which is sure to piss off the Mania crowd when the match is bad, due to Taker being 52 when the event happens, and Reigns winning. But hey, at least it keeps Undertaker from dragging down Smackdown.

Remember Randy Orton Winning: It seemed like a long shot a couple of weeks ago. Then the odds came out, and Orton was a favorite. Then it happened. Is it necessary? Probably not, but it could be fun if Bray Wyatt does indeed end up with the title next month. I can’t imagine Orton vs. Bray headlining Wrestlemania, though. Unless both guys get moved to Raw. The good news is that Randy got a positive reaction when he won thanks to Roman. Who cares if Randy is a heel.

What moments did you remember from the 2017 Royal Rumble? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter @jeremylambert88