WWE Royal Rumble 2020 | My Coherent Review.

via WWE

First off, rest in peace to Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna. I'm not the biggest fan of basketball but I do recognize his impact in the sport and how he puts out a show like no other. It is a devastating day indeed. 

My friends over at Daily DDT tweeted about this whole thing best especially as a wrestling fan going into the biggest pro wrestling show of the year.

Wrestling can be the greatest escape sometimes, and tonight is one of those nights where many of us need an escape.

So I hope everyone enjoys tonight's Rumble. The surprises, the returns, the feel-good moments...let's all enjoy it together as one community. 💜

— Daily DDT (@FanSidedDDT) January 26, 2020

Now, let's talk some wrestling. Royal Rumble 2020 was a great show as a whole. Both Rumble matches were tied on being the best of the night while a fantastic universal championship strap match came in second. 

Also, I actually watched the entire pre-show. Yayyy. For those not familiar, I haven't reviewed the pre-show matches in months. 

PRE-SHOW: Shorty G vs Sheamus. 

It was okay but what's disappointing about this is that with the feud being a bit intense, I expected at least some brutal spots but we didn't. The Celtic Warrior wins with the brogue kick. 

Andrade vs Humberto Carrillo For The United States Championship. 

A far better match than the first bout of the night, Humberto Carrillo was this close on beating Andrade with the hurricanrana from the top rope but Andrade retains the championship with a roll-up with no assistance by Zelina Vega. That's rare. More of that, please? 

By the way, Tom Phillips replaces Vic Joseph on not only as a play by play guy but now, he replaces Vic on talking about momentum like he's a physics teacher. 

MAIN-SHOW: Roman Reigns vs King Corbin In A Falls Count Anywhere Match. 

Shout out to the production team for that opening package for the Royal Rumble because it was to put it simply, great. The match itself was surprisingly watchable. 

Roman and Corbin brawled mostly in the crowd area. Dolph Ziggler, Robert Roode got involved but Roman's bloodline in The Usos showed up to even the odds. Reigns stood tall in this bout and honestly I hope it's the last of this feud. 

Kevin Owens and Samoa Joe talked about how they're against each other except when Seth Rollins interferes. Kayla Braxton interviewed Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose about the women's Royal Rumble match and speaking of which……… 

The 2020 Women's Royal Rumble Match. 

I'm not gonna describe everything that happened in that match because you got pretty much all of the sites for that but I'll describe my highlights. Molly Holly showed up with her Mighty Molly gear. 

Mercedes Martinez makes her main roster PPV debut at number 6. Otis caught Mandy Rose and the Houston crowd went bananas for it (rightfully so). 

Bianca Belair got rid of the 3 out of 8 eliminations in her record in Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville and Alexa Bliss surpassing Michelle McCool's number of eliminations. Naomi made her in-ring return that got a hugely positive reaction from the crowd. 

Flair eliminated Bianca Belair with a big boot to which it was the GOAT Kelly Kelly to show up (yes, that's what she is. Don't @ me not because my Twitter has more activity than an empty glass but because of that so). Naomi pulled out a 2011 John Morrison by catching herself on the barricade. 

This match also saw the return of Santina Marrella and Santina had an interaction with Beth Phoenix only for "her" to be eliminated (a decision so awful, John Travolta looked at it saying "it was aight"). Shayna Baszler was the final participant in this match-up and you thought that she won the whole thing but nope, it was Charlotte Flair. 

I don't know if I want to see Charlotte vs Becky for the gazillion time or if I wanna see Charlotte vs Bayley for the gazillion time. Either way, it is not a move that made me look forward to either women's championship match at the show of shows unless something drastically changes for the better. 

I will say that the match was fun overall. Everybody in that match played their roles perfectly. 

Bayley vs Lacey Evans For the SmackDown Women's Championship. 

The match was mediocre. Bayley retains by reversing the moonsault from Lacey Evans and pinned Evans. 

"The Fiend" Bray Wyatt vs Daniel Bryan For The Universal Championship. 

Me bitching about the stupid red lights have finally been answered. Wyatt no longer has it in his matches. Forget the women's Royal Rumble match, that right there is the moment of the night. 

There's something about these two that whenever they face each other, they always put on a good match and this was no exception. 

Both men whipped each other with a strap (not a good day for Bryan to hit the showers). Wyatt hits Sister Abigail but Bryan kicked out. 

The Fiend then tries to apply the mandible claw but Bryan successfully transitions into the rebel lock. Wyatt applied the mandible claw for the second time and that led to him keeping the title with the pin. Again, a great match. Hats off to both men. 

Becky Lynch vs Asuka For The RAW Women's Championship. 

Lynch destroyed Asuka with a reverse suplex from the ring apron on the outside floor (that was a ruff bump to take. Hope she's okay). 

After the ref was going to stop the match due to the RAW champion being unconscious, Becky caught the ref's legs so that he doesn't stop the match to which Asuka kicked Becky's head off and Lynch somehow survived that one. 

Becky reversed the green mist and nails a kick on Asuka's face to keep her prize. I would've preferred Asuka taking the title and telling the story of how Becky Lynch gets the title back but that's just me. Overall a good encounter. 

The 2020 Men's Royal Rumble Match. 

Just like the women's match, I'll mention my highlights. Brock Lesnar eliminates Elias, Erick Rowan, Robert Roode and John Morrison, however, Kofi Kingston landed a series of punches on Brock that got the crowd fired up. 

Unfortunately, he was eliminated by the beast with an F5 (disappointing that Kofi didn't eliminate Brock but it is what it is). Brock Lesnar then interacts with his former tag team partner Shelton Benjamin and they hugged each other but he tossed the guy adding another elimination in his resume. 

Lesnar also eliminated Shinsuke Nakamura (which is the closest thing we got to a match between those two), Montel Vontavious Porter aka MVP (nice seeing him in a WWE setting once more. That Black Panther gear though. Lit) Keith Lee and Braun Strowman. 

Brock has fallen to his worst enemy yet again, the low blow from Ricochet followed by a claymore kick from Drew McIntyre and eliminates the beast. OH. MY. BROCKY. BALLS. Ten years after his shocking return to the ring, Edge makes his surprise return a decade after that and I am shaken. 

Randy Orton rushes to the ring and he formed a "Rated RKO" reunion with Edge by teaming up to get rid of Gallows and Anderson. 

Buddy Murphy helps Rollins eliminate Aleister Black and Samoa Joe while AOP helps the messiah eliminate Kevin Owens but the recently eliminated participants took care of Buddy Murphy and AOP. 

The Rated RKO didn't last long as Edge eliminates Randy Orton to Orton's surprise. Drew takes the cake with a claymore kick to Roman Reigns and a toss from the Scotsmen to win the 2020 Royal Rumble match. Another fun Royal Rumble match and WWE made the right decision in giving Drew the big W he so desperately needs. 

It also elevates his position in the card which feels like he's been stuck in that same place for almost two years. In any case, I'm glad WWE gave Drew a path to leave that place and instead, led him to a much successful place. Also, WWE somehow cut Edge's first spear since he speared Elias at Summerslam 2019 which made me laugh for some reason. 

So, to recap for all of you slow mofos. 

Like: The Men's and Women's Royal Rumble Match, Daniel Bryan vs The Fiend, Becky Lynch vs Asuka. 

Didn't like: Santina Marrella in the Women's Royal Rumble Match, Bayley vs Lacey Evans. 

I wasn’t supposed to review this show but I got a week off so why not talk about one of the big 4. By the way, this review was supposed to be up an hour after the show has ended (yea, that early) but as soon as I hit "publish", the electricity around my house was off for hours thinking that my PC slowed down. Boy, that was a stressful 4 hours. Don't why I told this story but there you go. 

The question is, what do you think about the 2020 edition of The Royal Rumble? Sound off in the comments below. Follow the blog for honest pro wrestling opinions as well my Twitter simply @omartheplayaguy. Anyways, stay safe smarks.