The WWE Royal Rumble is Coming
The first live episodes of Monday Night Raw, and SmackDown Live, started off a promising 2019. Everyone knows that the beginning of the new year also means the beginning of the road to Wrestlemania. We’re well on the way to some really exciting wrestling. Not only, are we on the road to Wrestlemania, but we’re just a few weeks away from The Royal Rumble. With that being said, a lot of title matches have already been announced, along with many Rumble participants.
Quite frankly, there’s still a bad vibe that hovers around Monday Night Raw.
Yes, it’ll take some time to dig themselves out of this hole but with the excitement building for the Royal Rumble, Raw will certainly be heating up. We started Raw with a brawl between Seth Rollins, and Bobby Lashley. John Cena came out and cut a promo but was quickly interrupted by Drew McIntyre. Lashley came out to speak again but was attacked by Rollins.
All of this led to a very good 6-man tag team match that saw Cena, Rollins, and Finn Balor face off against McIntyre, Lashley, and Dean Ambrose.
After the win, Rollins demanded a rematch against Ambrose for the intercontinental championship, in which HHH gladly obliged.
We saw Gable and Roode retain the tag team championships against the revival on another shaky finish. This I’m sure will lead to another match soon. One of the highlights for me was the “Moment of Bliss” segment where Alexa Bliss interviewed Ronda Rousey. Rousey went on to praise, one of my personal favorites, Sasha Banks.
Nia Jax came out to ruin the fun and cut a short promo leading into a #1 contenders match that saw Sasha beat Nia. So now we have a confirmed match between Sasha and Rousey at the Royal Rumble, which could tear the house down.
The main event saw a “falls count anywhere” match for the Intercontinental Championship, and just when Seth had the match won… Lashley was there to ruin it. He cost Seth the match, Ambrose retained, and Raw went off the air with a damn good match.
SmackDown was as usual the hour shorter, and saw fewer matches, but they were great ones!
The Bar faced off against The Uso’s and just as the action was heating up, another shaky finish as Mandy Rose costs the Uso’s the match. Then, The Miz and Shane McMahon challenged The Bar to a championship match at The Royal Rumble, which The Bar accepted. We also saw a great match where Samoa Joe, and Andrade Cien Almas, beat Rey Mysterio and Mustafa Ali.
The highlight of the night of course was Charlotte, Becky Lynch, and Carmella in a triple threat #1 contenders match. Becky was able to win and will have a chance to win back the title she took to the top.
A lot of seeds were planted this week and they should all bloom to some damn good matches at The Royal Rumble. I’m extremely excited for the next few week’s and it’ll be hard for me to be patient. If there’s anything WWE has taught me, it’s that this is the most unpredictable few months. Absolutely nothing is off the table. Buckle in folks, the road to Wrestlemania is about to get very bumpy!
-Joe Pegoraro