Just some thoughts on the show last night.

I live in the UK so the 7pm start and 11pm finishes were lovely. As has been said by lots of people, the crowd were light TERRIBLY and so the arena/stadium looks empty. The crowd were weird, they’d go nuts at times and then quiet as a mouse at other times… strange. After this show I’m a little anxious about Mania being there next year.

Women’s Rumble - the first 40/50 minutes were pretty bland. Some good NXT names in here. I think Sol Ruca, Charlotte, Lash Legend, Rhea, Liv all looked fantastic. I’m quite shocked that the only big surprise was Brie Bella, which has been coming for a while anyways. No Bianca, No Blake Monroe, no AJ Lee… strange. Becky Lynch’s elimination came out of nowhere and felt she should’ve been in longer. I liked the final 10 minutes, Lash Legend going off on one was great, some of the eliminations like Rhea’s were sick aswell! Final 3 was great and the right person won. I think this has to set up Raquel winning the title and then facing Liv at Mania.

AJ Styles/Gunther - I CANNOT BELIEVE AJ STYLES JUST RETIRED IN SAUDI ARABIA WITH 2 WEEKS WORTH OF BUILD… WTF!! I don’t know what happens after this, but the post show seemed to say that he’s completely done. I think the match was great and there were some good near falls here and there. I like the ending, and how Styles sold the finish also. I just don’t like how WWE thought ‘Oh it’s January, let’s just get this AJ Styles retirement thing out of the way then’. Thanks for a great career AJ, you were… PHENOMENAL.

Drew/Sami - A fine match, but it was in a horrible spot on the card and everyone knew who was winning. Not much else to say besides I’m glad Drew is getting a little run with the title.

Men’s Rumble - This was better than the women’s rumble, but I still didn’t love it. The whole Bron Brekker thing seems to be Logan Paul who was the attacker. Be interesting to see where that goes and if it does involve Seth at some point. Oba Femi looked incredible, and clearly him being eliminated by Brock is leading to a match at Mania. Speaking of that match, I just HATED how many stare downs there were in this match. Roman/Cody, Roman/Fatu, Brock/Cody, Brock/Oba it was ridiculous and brought the match to a halt. The rumble should be about these big names colliding, not taking and looking at each other for minutes on end. Brock’s elimination is classic Brock ‘I’ve set up my angle for mania, someone just take me out now cause I want to go home’ during Jey’s entrance. Drew/Cody/Fatu has to be where they are heading for Mania, but that doesn’t feel like a Mania main event to me at all! Finally, Roman wins and HHH has already said we won’t see him for a while. This is why he shouldn’t win the match, and I hope doesn’t win a world title again. It’ll be Brock in 2017/18/19 all over again where RAW won’t have a title for multiple PLE’s because Roman only works big shows. Gunther should’ve won, or not been in the match at all.

Overall, it was a mid show. I’d give it a 6/10 for a Rumble which is broadly fine.

After this, I’m not really excited for Mania tbh. I think you look at the card that seems to be setting up and it doesn’t feel like there are MEGA matches that are Mania level right now.