Greatest Royal Rumble Review

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia invites the world

to witness history an iconic event live from

the world -class King Abdullah Sports City Stadium

seven championships will be defended retribution

for the WWE Championship. A highly anticipated

rematch from WrestleMania. The Intercontinental

Championship hangs above the ranks. Will it be

Seth Rollins, Samoa Joe, The Miz, or Finn Balor?

The WWE Cruiserweight Championship? The Raw and

SmackDown Tag Team titles. Both championships

on the line. Smackdown's Jeff Hardy defends the

United States title against Raw's Jennifer Hall.

Two of the best in -ring performers of all time.

Are you ready for the biggest event in this business?

You want some, come get some. The dead man has

risen. Undertaker, Rusev. The eyes of the universe

turn to the beautiful city of Jedi as 50 men

battle in the biggest Royal Rumble match in history.

Welcome to the greatest Royal Rumble. Welcome

to the podcast arena coming to the ring at this

time Hello and welcome to Mayhem Mikes. This

is episode 36. Holy crap, folks. Three episodes

in a row in the last three weeks. I am, of course,

TF2 and Mike. Joining me is Ryan, you know, even

Flo Merkley. Hello, sir. Hello. And I missed

one of them. Yeah, yeah, it's okay. Doesn't happen

often. It was seven hours too long. Too long!

I'm the, yeah, and I'm the... And I'm the fill

-in guy, and I've only missed one of them. But

we are here folks to talk about the event that

happened in Jeddah Saudi Arabia this past Friday

Afternoon here in the states because it aired

at 12 Eastern time here in the states WWE's the

greatest royal rumble or greatest royal rumble

hashtag on Twitter WWE grr Yeah, I'd like to

thank the WWE app for telling me the ending of

the all of the matches while it was at work,

that was great, but whatever, it happens. Yeah,

I don't have the app on my phone, thank God.

It's handy, so I can't remember what it was,

I was missing, I was gonna miss it, and I had

wanted to catch it live, so I threw the app on

my phone, and it... just watched it. I think

it was at work for one of the pay -per -views

or something, and I've just left it on there.

It's actually pretty convenient, though. It's

not a bad... Anyway, this isn't the Chill the

App. That's Michael Cole's job. This isn't the

Chill the WWE App podcast. One thing I'll get

into before we start actually talking about the

pay -per -view, I don't want to skip over this,

so just address it now. I'm not real pleased

with WWE accepting the Saudi money and This is

a company that doesn't need the money. They're

not struggling for cash or anything else they've

just decided to do it and There's some so I mean

first of all obviously there's no women on the

card and that is because women are not allowed

to wrestle in Saudi Arabia and They're basically

well not basically screw it. They're second -class

citizens Next, we have noticed that Finn Ballard's

Ballard Club multicolored tights and everything

else are suddenly missing. That is because being

gay is illegal in Saudi Arabia. Next, we have

Sami Zayn not appearing. Sami Zayn is a Syrian

Canadian, or he's a Canadian by way of Syria.

That's where his family is from. And due to issues

there, we'll say, he did not appear for fairly

obvious reasons. Saudi Arabia is not a good country

from a moralistic standpoint. They are not in

the 20th century, much less the 21st. And they've

got a long ways to go. And WWE taking their money

and kowtowing to it doesn't help things. Mean

they want to talk about the women's revolution

divas revolution Maybe stand up for the women

a little bit here Yeah, I love that part of it.

Yeah, it's not wrestling's job to change The

world or change people's opinions of things But

the entertainment can go a long way mm -hmm and

this anyway I love that the part of the Greatest

Royal Rumble event that we're going to talk about

the pay -per -view here in a minute where it's

basically cuts to several women over there, right?

Yep. And like, seriously? Really? They got it.

They got edited out and they had to issue an

apology in case you hadn't heard. Oh, really?

OK, so yeah, the... You mentioned that and, you

know, get into that too. That portion of the

rumble was cut out as quickly as they could and

they had to issue an apology nationally for having

scantily clad women and it being not... Wow.

Yeah, it being not acceptable. well okay so let's

uh... let's get into this thing uh... yes so

that's not good and so i don't want to just skip

over it no no with this no like i'm just saying

that i'm not real happy with this event or the

fact that w two eight so they've also opened

a performance center over there which yours will

not accept women and nor will it accept anybody

LGBT or anything else and that's WWE is essentially

getting into bed with these guys and they know

the Lay of the land and I'm not pleased with

them for it. So yeah, no, this is not good. Like

I Mean, I know Vince is getting old but he has

other people around him. He has Triple H He has

Stephanie. He has Shane. He has all these people

around him that can tell him this is not a good

business decision no i mean well we'll see if

it actually affects them and one of the things

is let's be on wrestling has waned since the

attitude era they'll never get those ratings

that they did at that point yeah in the meantime

they should really work at trying to be inclusive

as they can because they can't afford to limit

their audience and most of the time they have

been except for this yeah that's the issue is

that suddenly deciding to take the money that

they really don't need all that badly yeah to

do this just seems like it's kind of a misstep

well now we'll see what happens I mean maybe

as time goes on things will change But this event

and the fact that if you watch WWE programming

and then all of a sudden everything involving

the women is taken out It's pretty jarring right

now. It also doesn't help that some of the women

are their best performers at the moment. So Whatever

anyway, it's crazy. I want to bring up one of

the thing before we get into this Are they like

you say they're not hard up for the cash? No

they must be because i got an email like a week

before like last week before this event happened

uh... or as people are hearing this the monday

after the events you know about a week and a

half two weeks ago that said hey you can get

you you can resubscribe the w w e network three

months for ninety nine cents the only time i

have ever seen a three month for ninety nine

cent deal is on audible okay i've seen the nine

ninety nine i've seen this i've seen that you

know they're now promoting it to where it's like

nine ninety nine and you get this free you get

that free you get that free the network itself

has been a pretty consistent earner for them

now with the subscriber base of roughly just

under two million consistently And that doesn't

necessarily include the free subscriptions. You

know, you sign up for a month and you get the

first month free, that sort of thing that they

have. They're making good money from that. And

people can talk about how house show attendance

and that sort of thing is down. But the network

itself, again, is a more consistent earner and

gauge for them at this point than that is. And

as well as different TV contracts and that sort

of thing. I mean you look at the The NFL is a

terrible example. Let's try this again. Look

at Major League Baseball especially at actually

where salaries are consistently going up Attendance

is consistently going down, but owners are still

making a crap ton of money And the issue is TV

rights, different network rights, and that sort

of thing, and that's where your money is. So

yeah, attendance may drop, but you can still

make money other ways. And WWE for streaming,

we've seen it time and time again, their streaming

stuff is cheap to put on. And something like

this, this one event, earned them, ah jeez, I

can't remember the number, it was one of the

highest box offices they've had. It was millions

and millions and millions of dollars plus the

contract money plus They get to throw it on the

network essentially for free. Yeah This is something

they're putting on anyway, so it's good money

for them. They're not struggling for cash. They've

done a lot of cash cutting measures. I mean,

I don't know about you or anyone else listeners,

you can let me know. But I think this is the

most fireworks I can remember. It's WWE events.

Plus, they've gotten rid of all the intro intro

pyro until now. So it's really kind of Yeah.

It's really kind of jarring that they had all

this going off. Well, the one thing I kind of

liked about it was the fact that it was another

open, it wasn't totally, it wasn't like Florida,

you know, in WrestleMania 24 or WrestleMania

33 or wherever the last one at Florida was, whatever

event it was that was in the same place as WrestleMania

24. The whole thing is open air. but it's not

totally open because you still have the crowd.

It's basically an oval -shaped roof, but it's

basically open, and I always dig when WWE does

that. I was going to say that too, that yeah,

kind of like the open -air stuff. It made it

feel more special for some reason yeah If you

were to just look at this card and the and how

things turned out I've seen some people say oh,

it was just basically how show it didn't feel

like a show No kind of special it felt like something

different, and I liked that it was different

It was special no matter what the behind -the

-scenes crap was with the money and the cutting

and the this and that and whatever else the event

was special because as I said a second ago never

I've been watching WWE faithfully since WrestleMania

23. That was 2007. In almost 11 years, I don't

think I've ever seen them do anything with national

anthems unless somebody has passed or unless

they're doing a moment of silence thing or something.

But I've never seen them at any of the pay -per

-views do national anthem stuff. And they did

both Saudi Arabia and the USA national anthem.

It was instrumental, thank God. It wasn't Janet

Jackson, you know, popping her boob out or anything.

Not that that would fall over in Saudi Arabia,

but... I don't know, I was taking a knee for

both. uh... you want to put an arrow in that

the for you uh... but what i'm saying is this

is the end of the event though yeah i enjoyed

this quite a bit yet eliminate the other stuff

for you the rest of this Yeah, pretty much. All

right, we started off with people who have not

faced each other in eight years or so. Yeah,

also, what the hell? Talk about an opening match.

Yeah, like... Like, okay, I get it, like... When

you look at the WWE pay -per -view schedule like

I have and like you have and like some other

people have, okay, they've stopped doing the

separate branded pay -per -views. They're now

gonna be doing co -branded pay -per -views starting

with Backlash. So we're basically getting one

pay -per -view a month. Well, WrestleMania was

like three weeks ago or whatever. And now we

have this and I'm like. Wait, I thought it was

one pay -per -view a month. What is going on

with this and this whole pay -per -view it seemed

like All the storyline was thrown out like in

most of the match like to a certain city Yeah,

it seems like a lot of stuff was just done as

a setup for backlash to You know, we had the

Nakamura for example, we'll get into it then

but we have Nakamura Styles and Double count

out. Yeah, just so we could go into backlash

and I think the hunter Cena thing is just they

wanted big names Yeah, they wanted big names

and we don't know what scene is doing going forward

Well, who knows what yeah the under the storyline

wise he got squashed by the undertaker Yeah,

I mean he lost in three minutes, which was pretty

surprising And as for Hunter, they'll probably

keep him off TV for a while to continue the rousy

storyline. He and Steph are probably going to

take some time away, so you want some extra star

power. It's fine to kind of throw this out, but

this match ends up that it's just kind of there.

But it was such a good match. and then by the

way we've seen a look just completely slobber

all over the crowd at the end yeah uh... this

is so great the great part of the world level

of law well i mean it's him being himself i don't

know if he was he was just happy that there are

no women around around so he couldn't say that

he didn't have to see nicky Feel bad about every

Wow, that's really low blow even for me. I'm

just gonna stop. Yeah We're gonna talk about

low blows later cuz Macklemore is thing now.

Yeah No, this is a good match and yeah, it's

It's probably the best that it's it's two kind

of part -timers at this point But I think Cena

winning was the right call. He had the rough

loss at WrestleMania. I think having this in

another pay -per -view essentially is a really

smart move yeah and yeah it was a solid all of

the matches on this card by the way were pretty

solidly entertaining which is another reason

why I think people should check it out even if

the results weren't super shocking or anything

it's worth a watch absolutely the next one we

had the cruiserweight championship Cedric Alexander

versus Kalisto Don't watch the Cruiserweight

division. So I yeah, I just don't have the time

for 205 live and that's kind of a downer because

it's there's a lot of good performers and Yeah,

it's just unfortunate. I don't have enough play

time in the week. Yeah, exactly between this

and Transformers comics. It's you know Then there

was the Raw Tag Team Championship. What did you

want to mention? I mean, Cedric Alexander, A,

retained, and B, it was a good match, again.

Yeah, it was a really good match. The Raw Tag

Team Championship, The Bar, versus the Wolken

Whites, or the Wolken Hardys, or Hardy Wyatt,

or whatever you want to call them, the Deletion

of Worlds. And this was the only title change.

Yep. it's surprising to me for a couple reasons

it is and it isn't I know they're trying to push

Matt and Bray but what the hell with the poor

bar so first of all they get beat by they get

beat at WrestleMania by Braun and a 10 year old

kid or whatever yeah by the way still would have

given anything for Cesaro to he should have at

least put the kid in the airplane spin and just

spun him for about 10 minutes or something You

know, maybe if WrestleMania were running behind,

they could have just, you know, make up extra

time by having them just swing Nicholas around.

Missed opportunity there. But basically the bars

kind of looked like a bunch of losers for a while

now. Especially since Cesaro had his teeth knocked

out or knocked in or whatever. Yeah, I mean they

haven't won many. matches or high -profile matches

or anything and I feel kind of bad for them because

they've been consistently two of the best performers

on the show. Yep. And they're entertaining together.

It's given to guys who basically were going nowhere

for a long time. Something or two. Yeah. Although

I guess you could say the same about Bray and

Matt but... Well, here's the thing like... I've

been the one on this show that's been extolling

the virtues of Bray Wyatt. Mm -hmm. I don't know

that I really care about this There's something

but there's also something about Matt Hardy and

the way they're using him that I'm just a lot

less it feels like they're not going full tilts

with the whole broken Matt Hardy thing the way

TNA Did and it just it doesn't come across as

much fun or anything? I don't know see there's

something missing from this it, you know, it's

missing Can tell you exactly what's missing Jeff

It is delightful to see you and I am so glad

you have overcome your broken condition I'm sure

it accidentally got deleted until I knew you

were preparing for Andre's Battle Royale of Giants.

Yes, I was. And I won due to an all too familiar

film. Brother Nero. Wonderful! I'm so glad my

brother rendered Sister Abigail Obsolete! How

are you feeling? I feel... Wonderful. What was

that all about? the uh... you know the the new

united states champion jeff hardy you know that's

the like what shows so i guess it's sort of makes

sense well there are different shows now because

of the superstars shakeup but when jeff came

back there was like when he just came back and

he won the championship on raw off of uh... off

of gender and he met up with matt and bray and

jeff was doing the whole woken thing i'm like

who woken hearties i get it with the two of them

i understand it i think it's kind of cool with

both of them doing this doing the stick with

bray there the deleter of worlds it just doesn't

well they had the whole family to raise in tna

they had matt's wife yeah join in as well and

it just it something about it works in the the

company went all in they're not here It doesn't

help that Jeff Hardy's been in this, well, sorry,

it's only been two matches, but oh geez, hell

with it. So the bar loses that one, that was

a good match. The Jinder Mahal versus Jeff Hardy

match that we're talking about came up next,

a United States title rematch. This match was

terrible. It was bad. And they both botched a

ton of things. Oof, ever since losing the title,

so we were pretty critical of Mahal when he had

the title, but oh man, he was a million times

better back then than he's been in the last few

months, because he's been dreadful. And even

worse, they keep teasing that maybe he's gonna

have another matchup with Orton, which yip -dee

-doo, I'm really looking forward to that after

the crapfest that they had for an entire summer.

You knew. He's just been bad, and... I don't

I really hate criticizing guys who can do I've

seen this live so this stuff that these performers

do is astounding and it's amazing to me that

there's not more botches so I always feel crappy

when I criticize somebody but he has not been

good lately and getting the title off of him

has been a good call Maybe they need to repackage

him or something like this. I don't know the

whole Modern -day Maharaja thing. Yeah. Yeah

has not been particularly entertaining There's

an answer. There's been an underlining racism

to it. There was that crab feud with NASA Nakamura

Yeah, which was just garbage and did not lead

to any particularly good matches for anybody

either Not at all It's repackage him because

he's got talent. Yeah and get rid of the second

brothers completely Yeah, that stick feels like

it's kind of run run its course at this point

Then there was the smackdown tag team championship

match the bludgeon brothers versus the Usos so

this was kind of man because Well two reasons

one is we got a really long break Yeah In between

this and they had Jericho Come out and give not

a bad Interview but not as best and then we got

a whole bunch of hype and chatting with JR King

and Booker T Yeah, I mean I like that but like

if I want to see that oh, yeah I wanted to skip

it. And so well, let's be honest. I was that

work when this aired originally so I did skip

a good portion of it and I don't feel that I

lost anything so then we come out of that and

we get the Bludgeon Brothers basically beating

the crap out of the Usos again which was kind

of a downer it was essentially a squash match

and something in this one didn't click either

it wasn't a great match or anything It's I don't

know in The USOs have had great matches for months

now mostly with the new day, but really everything

they've done has just been Near perfect and to

see them kind of get squashed in a mediocre match

is Mildly unpleasant. I don't know the Bludgeon

brothers winning is the right call. I like what

they're doing with them I'm hoping maybe this

is gonna lead to big matchup cross promotion

matchup with them and authors of pain or something

eventually but we'll see yeah I I don't know

this match just but the IC title match that was

cool as hell that was a great match guys who

are all pretty familiar with each other for the

most parts uh... i don't think joe has faced

miz much uh... but he's definitely worked with

ballard before he's worked with their allens

in the past as well so this is a really good

match and probably the yeah i'd say it was the

best on the card in the end it was the best on

the card in the end when it came to current full

-time performers Because if this match wasn't

here John and and hunter would have been the

best As far as the actual singles matches not

counting the actual rumble part But yeah, no

I loved it and I thought what Seth was pretty

damn fast at the end there. I was not expecting

that so getting he He's really seemed energized

in the last few months now that he's kind of

got his mojo back i wonder too if some of it

was getting used to what is essentially a reconstructed

knee and yeah getting to work with guys like

battler helps them a lot too because i mean finn

battler could have a good match with me uh that's

you know meant to point out how good he is not

necessarily how terrible i would be but Well,

maybe a little both, but anyway he He's really

good. He's been really on his game Miz is one

of the most entertaining guys in the company

right now and Joe Joe when he left was near the

top of his game to doing some really good stuff,

but then got injured and kind of took us Momentum

away. It's nice to see him back again though

He's a guy I hope they do good there are big

things with in the future yeah i want to see

i want to see joe was going to save this for

later but i'll say it now i want to see joe versus

brock i want to see anybody other than roman

versus brock at this point yeah yeah we'll get

into that but yeah we will but yeah seph Rollins

retains here and that was fine and it was really

it was well done and it was a good ending too

i like that you know they let baller So first

of all, he looked tough because I mean he had

the bleeding Above his eye. Yeah, and I like

how impressed he was or shocked that Rollins

managed to just Just run up and grab the title

and just leave basically pretty much knows and

yeah, it's just well done I liked that a lot

and I don't think it diminished the ending didn't

diminish anybody It makes Rollins look like a

fantastic athlete, which oh, yeah. He is he is

yeah Yeah, exactly and then what was next The

low blows AJ. Yeah So it ended in a double countout

So AJ retains because he has championship advantage

This was solid and I thought like I thought it

worked a little better than their WrestleMania

match did but then the fact that it was and Pointless

ending essentially kind of hurts it like I Thought

with Nakamura as a heel though, it feels like

they've kind of rejuvenated him a little bit

I like the whole thing after the low blow where

on ron the next night ronnie goes to try to talk

to me goes sorry no speak english like i like

that i like that part of it but the constantly

relying on the low blow thing let's get like

we've talked about this before we specifically

talked about it with uh... and what uh... why

to a j and and uh... jericho There are points

where a storyline or something or one part of

a storyline goes way too far too long Well, it

hasn't even been like they haven't even had their

rubber match against each other yet for this

championship for the WWE Championship and the

damn low blows are already too many for me I

like I'm sick of it or I don't I don't even care

about these two it should be something that it

becomes a Part of the body you work over You

know, they've they try to work the leg and that

kind of thing. They should just add it in just

you know, oh Shinsuke working on AJ's groin Somebody

call Axel Braun for a you know Triple X porno

over here. Oh my god. No Yeah, no But yeah, I

I still enjoy AJ. I still enjoy Shinsuke when

he's not punching people in the nuts But overall

the two of them right now I could give a shit

less about this Here's what you do with John

you put him wherever you have to put him because

he can go wherever he wants to have him go after

that 17th title at this point because right now

the ship between AJ and and Nakamura means nothing

For the championship. Anyway, it means nothing

Yeah Then there was the casket match Which another

so I mean it happened eventually which is nice

the We had a Rusev and get pulled out at one

point and it's nice though to give Rusev something

Big because obviously a match against the undertaker

is huge a yeah be a matching against the undertaker

in the casket match is all is even bigger Mm

-hmm. So it's nice. I mean Rusev's been cheered

for forever. Even when he's not on TV Yeah, it's

a good time. They did something with him and

yeah, he loses which he should but It's a good

match it was nice to see taker in something longer

too cuz yeah yeah the scene of match wasn't like

you said it was basically done in three minutes

yeah it wasn't really like to do i was wondering

what to expect from this just because of that

yeah no they actually had a good like pretty

long match where he still he hits all of his

moves and that sort of stuff again um what do

you think the rest of the year is going to hold

for taker are they going to put him in more Things

do you think? Are they gonna have him show up

at Summerslam or Survivor Series? I have no idea.

You'd have to ask Vince. There's been reports

that he's in much better shape. I mean, he clearly

looks in much better shape since the hip surgery

and he could apparently appear quite a few more

times, they've said, but who knows? Who knows

no idea but it was nice to see him and it's nice

to see him Look good. I think I'd mentioned that

before WrestleMania that I was worried about

him considering his last appearance against Roman

was not That wasn't great. He had trouble lifting

him up and that sort of thing He looked a hundred

times better against Cena and he looked even

better than that. I'd say Against reset. So yeah,

I think I think that's kind of why when John

was trying to go to me like the whole storyline

lead up to mania Why John basically pointed out

at one point, you know, oh you're posting, you

know workout videos on your wife's Instagram.

Oh like day. Oh So, I don't know yeah, but Taker

did look amazing Honestly, the Undertaker is

the only person any wrestler should be going

against in a ca - Like, you should - Casket matches

are not normal. Casket matches are, should be,

and always should be reserved for the Undertaker,

because, hello, dead man. Um, but yeah, no, Rusev

looked good, Taker looked good, yeah, Rusev lost,

but Rusev's been losing a lot lately. uh... which

is sad because rusev is really what he's not

doing the whole russia is burl whatever bulgaria

whatever is better than america thing i like

rusev i don't necessarily like the rusev day

gimmick but i like rusev in general he's got

comedic timing and it's clear that he enjoys

What he does. It's just he had been really unfortunate

that they haven't done much with the poor guy

We saw his potential though. I mean when he was

fighting Cena Way back when now which seems forget

seems forever ago. It was at this point But when

he came out on the tank, for example, holy cow

were people and he'd think with the whole Mmm

with the whole Russia thing going on in the states

for example It might be a good time to pick up

on that they obviously won't because you know

who is Vince's buddy, but Yeah Yeah, I'm just

waiting for another battle of the billionaires

at this point anyway Okay, so after that we had

the tryout segment okay oh okay all right well

actually so the tryout segment was actually before

that which okay either way yeah whatever whatever

no sorry the trial was before AJ Nakamura that's

right whoops it was after this that's wrong that's

right we that's right yeah and yeah whatever

yeah and the Davaris came out Yeah, and they're

like, ooh Iran is better and I'm like really

they really went there really come on Yeah, so

after the after the taker match we got to the

taker exits with the lightning and Right that

sort of thing and then we had the steel cage

with the rock and the steel cage get lowered

for Brock and Roman which Alright, let's just

get into this. Okay. So first of all, okay. He's

got a new contract fine, whatever Does his contract

actually state that he has to always retain the

frigging championship? The problem here is that

They've written themselves into a corner that

Reigns just can't seem to beat Lesnar. A. B.

Reigns is not getting over. C. Their matches

have not been exceptionally entertaining with

both of them just trading their finishers over

and over again essentially. D. I don't think

anybody really wanted to see this. I just don't

have like somebody else Why is it always Roman

and why does Roman get a title shot? Anyway,

he lost the last one. There was no reason for

this. Yeah, suddenly get a rematch Yeah, cuz

it's a crap beat out of him last time. What was

the point? Yeah Have anybody else? Yeah, and

then the higher stakes thing of the steel cage

Like, this has been the most unimpressive steel

cage match since I was nine years old watching

WWE and the A -League. Like, seriously. We'll

get into that later once we get into, I think

it's Entrant 45 or 46, but it's one of those

things where it's like... Okay, Brock has a new

contract Brock can do whatever is in his contract

He doesn't have to do whatever is in his cut,

you know, whatever is in that contract Brock

will or will not do and he'll do whatever the

hell he wants to because he's Brock Lesnar He

doesn't give a shit Here's the thing. Like you

just said why does it always have to like just

because Dean is on the shelf right now? Which

sucks absolutely sucks Why does it have to be

Roman Reigns? Why can't Roman do something else

have? Roman and because for whatever they want

him at the top Consistently look they want him

at the top consistently, but here's the problem

putting in the church They're trying to get him

over for some reason cuz like hasn't he gotten

wasn't he getting over already what like Since

he started doing this CM Punk John Cena thing

of calling everybody out and calling Brock out

and calling the contract out and doing this and

getting suspended and all, wasn't he getting

over at that point? Wasn't the crowd actually

cheering for him when he was doing the whole

thing part of the storyline of, oh, Brock isn't

here, but I am. I'm full -time. Brock is part

-time. Why does Brock get out? I thought he was

getting over, but now after seeing this match

it's like everybody hates him again and he didn't

do anything different! Well he was, he was, and

then the WrestleMania match happened where they

let him kick out of, what was it, five F5s including

one for table? Which was just dumb because when

you present something... I think wrestling works

best when you can at least pretend it's real.

And when you present something just ridiculously...

out of For months we were shown nobody can kick

out of an f5 it one of them beat brawn one of

them beat Joe and Role superhero Roman can take

five of them including one through a table It

was really really silly Yeah, and it did Roman

no favors. He's written to be this badass But

instead of ever showing us or letting him be

a badass he gets to talk about it He gets beat

up and they they paint him as the Daniel Bryan

guy when he should be the Brock Lesnar Basically,

they should let him kick ass. They shouldn't

have him. He gets beat up for 90 % of the match

and then can hit a move pins anybody you know

Kevin Owens Miz Rollins whoever Joe no let him

actually kick ass that's when he was starting

to kind of get over but no they just they go

back for some reason he's got to be the resilient

baby face it doesn't work when you're you know

six whatever he is you're huge you're jacked

Yeah, look like you could beat up anybody and

you get your ass kicked for 20 minutes of every

match Yeah, it's just crazy I don't know in the

ending too. So the end is rain spears Brock through

the cage which we've seen seen that spot before

we'll say and Yeah, rock wins because he hit

the cage first or sorry hit the ground first

It's just and sure it's frustrating as all hell

like Like I want to see I know I can't cuz separate

shows but like Joe and Lesnar or something something

different you want to do resilient baby face

story have Daniel Bryan face Lesnar I Think it'd

be a really good match. We saw AJ versus him

and that was a great match yeah and that's the

story they told AJ was resilient and it was really

enjoyable but don't do it with a guy that we

can't believe or isn't believable that he's going

to get mauled for 20 minutes and then hit one

move and it's over yeah so not counting raw and

smackdown episodes between the time of wrestlemania

and the time of greatest royal rumble In the

month of May, WWE's two pay -per -views that

happened in May, in total, minus pre -shows,

are ten hours. Five hours each for WrestleMania

and Greatest Royal Rumble. That's too much. That's

just way, like, I wasn't expecting Greatest Royal

Rumble to be... Just a two -hour show or a three

-hour show. I was expecting maybe four I was

not expecting another five -hour pay -per -view.

It took me Two days again to watch this now WrestleMania

this year because WrestleMania I believe was

a much more interesting card for the first half

of it at least up to the rousy match It took

me maybe one and a half days to watch WrestleMania

this year, unlike last year where it took me

two days, because hello, seven hours, too long,

too long. But the fact that this was another

five -hour pay -per -view was ridiculous. Now,

what do you think? Royal Rumbles generally are

30 men, or 30 women, whatever. What did you think

of the 50 -man thing? Did you... I don't know.

It was enjoyable it was a little long, but I

thought it was neat how they kept a lot of the

They kept a lot of the feuds. They remember that

Jericho should hate Owens They remembered that

Shane should hate Owens. They remembered that

everybody should just hate Owens, but they also

remembered that Big Cass is gonna be facing Daniel

Bryan soon. They remembered that That Titus O

'Neil likes to trip and fall under the rig. No,

anyway, that was the funniest thing. That was

the best moment of the night. I couldn't not

say that. But, no, they did a lot of good things.

And I really liked that they let Daniel Bryan

get something out of this, because he, of course,

got to break the record for the longest time

in a rumble. And part of that, too, is this is

a 50 -man, but... Yeah. That was nice to Nice

to give him something while also obviously making

brawn look good Because brawn was out at 41 but

gets to break the elimination record. Yeah Alright,

so I'm gonna run down all the entrance so we

stop and go as we please and I'm just gonna run

down who entered at what position and if you

want to talk about any of them fine, we don't

have to but Obviously Daniel Bryan was number

one dolph ziegler at number two sinker at number

three uh... credit is excellent number four mark

henry at number five that's kind of awesome mike

and alice at number six which you know is the

shortest uh... yet he broke time on you know

broke uh... sentino's records uh... sue me on

number seven he and mark henry went face to face

and then mark henry threw him out Victor from

The Ascension at number 8, Kofi from The New

Day at number 9, Tony Nese at number 10, One

Half of the Revival -Wilder at number 11, Hornswoggle

at number 12! I was hoping he would - go further

than what he did. I was actually hoping... I

was actually hoping he was going to climb under

the ring and just stay there for a while. I just

think it's funny. I mean, I just think it's funny

as well. Well, you and Vince would get along

great then. Primo from the Colognes at 13, Xavier

from New Day at 14, Bo Dallas at 15, Kurt Angle

at 16. I will note, by the way, we got the woods...

er, woods, sorry. we got the kofi saving himself

after xavier came out yeah i saw that that was

where is within the basically jumping on xavier's

back or something yeah those layers and then

the uh... you mentioned we're at sixteen and

and where angle came out to the course the eliminated

one of the original participants which is also

a good Yep, which be interesting to see if they

continue that with Dolph's kind of running roughshod

with Drew McIntyre Oh, yeah, and I mean angles

their GM. So I'm wondering if this is gonna lead

to them Feuding with him or see if they go anywhere

with this Exactly man, you're tired already of

this no, it's Scott Dawson was next at 17 yep

and then gold does that eighteen the other half

of the ascension connor at nineteen elias at

twenty luke garros at twenty one rhino at twenty

two drew black and twenty three is from nxt tucker

night also from nxt through the last bit on uh...

to a five to five o 'clock okay uh... bobby roode

at twenty five fan dango at twenty six chad gable

at twenty seven Ray Mysterio the 619 at number

28. That was kind of cool. It was I'm a little

surprised that he didn't have More to do with

the finish as in he doesn't last as long as I

thought he might have you know, that's a little

weird It's nice. It's always nice to see him

though and man said it before say it again. Oh,

he's in great shape If you were on 205 live even

if it's for a night, you know, just at some point

just a Be there for one night or if you rejoin

for our smackdown, that would be nice, but we'll

see yeah, it would be awesome Mojo Raleigh at

29 Tyler Breeze at 30 that was kind of funny

how? Fandango tried to save him yeah Biggie from

New Day at 31 Carl Anderson at 32 Apollo Cruz

at 33 Roderick strong NXT right here to a five

and he's also on to a five but uh... really good

wrestler uh... randy orton at thirty five that

guy who has kids he's later at thirty six bob

at sunday at thirty seven barren uh... corbin

at thirty eight titus o 'neill and then we tripped

at thirty nine i think it's a terrible yes uh...

it was interesting to hear the announcers breaking

all other just being was it uh... fire there

not by rinsery uh... corey graves just could

not stop laughing no he couldn't uh... What I

just saw did that really happen? Oh my god, did

that happen? Try to slide into the ring Okay,

no, oh my god, here's the replay Titus Adil try

to get into the ring and Titus Adil tripped and

went headfirst Through the apron underneath the

ring and Titus is ticked off now. I just might

want to check the side This reminds me. Oh my

god That reminded me of what Titus Adil was trying

to carry a keg at the old NXT tripped on the

mat as well I was there for that. I remember

maybe the greatest thing I've ever seen fire.

What is it about the University of Florida? You

don't go there. All right. Oh my god That may

be the greatest moment in Royal Rumble history.

It really might be the greatest moment ever I'm

trying to hold it together radio And then they're

like what is he like six seven six eight he went

halfway under the ring Yeah You forget what a

great athlete he is and how fast he can move

because geez that took some Running like a train

there At 40 Dan Matha and then it was all yeah,

it was all over at 41 folks The Monster Among

Men, Braun Strowman at 41. Oh, I love Braun.

He, yeah, again, he is so much, I was so wrong

about him. When he debuted, I figured he was

never gonna get anywhere. He wasn't a great wrestler.

He didn't have any character with the Wyatt's

or anything, and look at him now. That's because

he didn't have any character with the Wyatt's,

but on his own? Oh my god, he's fantastic. I

genuinely like seeing him. yeah like like i said

before you know when they were doing the whole

brock roman thing with the ambulance and the

this like all of that was like wow bronze bronze

a guy it feels like he's the one they should

be trying to build around not roman because brock

has every or brock well brock has everything

too for the most part but brawn has definitely

has everything he's got comedic timing i mean

he's hilarious when they let him go yeah God

he's obviously got the look Obviously his wrestling

has improved significantly. He's not quite. Yeah,

he's He's not quite at the high level of some

of the other guys But some of the stuff he can

do and we saw him do a dropkick recently Yeah,

and he's very good and he's improving leaps and

bounds seemingly every few weeks Yeah, so it

feels like he's the guy they need to be building

around because the fans obviously both of them

was yes action he gets everywhere including every

time he yeah just really every single time it's

just so great play but his whole thing it was

with wrestle mania after us when it was relinquishing

the tag team belt so because nicholas has school

or whatever it's like you know it's just hilarious

brainstorming thing was funny too yes yes stuff

with alias is funny along us is terrific as well

then i like how he allies had the potential to

be one -dimensional but he just he kind of he's

able to be humorous with whatever he's given

as well right anyway all right we had tied illager

the perfect 10 at 42 thank goodness they didn't

continue the whole he comes out at 10 every 10

every time by the way thank god yay Kurt Hawkins

at 43 Bobby Lashley at 44 and the number 45 folks

the great Kali last time we saw Kali was in the

Punjabi prison match with Jinder last year yeah

I mean Kali is able to drop Braun briefly briefly

yeah but then yes Strowman and Lashley teamed

up to toss him out yep forty six was ko and uh...

uh... uh... i love ko i i think he's awesome

the only time that you have right after him here

comes shane shane o 'mack and the look on chaos

face just the look like how dare you jerry you

bring him out right after me oh my god i have

to go after my if that i'll continue the feud

yeah yeah yeah it's fifty it's to do it again

basically yes yes yeah i will continue on so

forty -six years kevin is kevin owens forty -seven

was shana mac forty eight was shelton benjamin

what the hell are they doing with him like i

don't know but he uh... he'll be a guy that i

think works really well if they put him in a

program against jeff hardy Maybe for the US title

on SmackDown. I think that would go well. He's

got talent. He can talk. I like that they teamed

him up with Gable for a while to kind of give

him a boost. But yeah, now's the time to let

him out on his own again because he's a really

good performer. He always was. Yeah, absolutely.

And then 49 was Big Cass. So you got... K .O.

and Shane O 'Mack still having the feud. Now

you got this feud between K .O. and Brian. I'll

say this for Cass. Why wasn't he talking earlier?

Like, why wasn't he talking? Like, I get it,

Enzo and Cass, it was supposed to be Enzo, but...

I watched him coming up and in NXT he did not

have the confidence he does now. It wasn't a

matter of skill because anytime he talked, so

for example they had him feud with Aiden English

at one point and he got to do sing -off with

him and that was the first time I can remember

realizing holy cow if he gets more confidence

this guy's gonna go far because he's got a great

look but He just didn't have any mic skills and

it wasn't because he and that's when I realized

it wasn't because he couldn't It's because he

just didn't feel like he could but yeah, he for

whatever happened He got away from that and he

got over it. And yeah, he's terrific now. I Really

like him. I'm happy for him. He seems like a

good dude Yeah, and I love this direction that

they're doing with him and brian Yeah, that's

an interesting one. It'll be we My issue is I'm

not sure you want Brian to lose his first feud

when he comes back. True. And I'm not sure you

want to do that with Cass either. So I wonder

who loses in that scenario. I don't know. I am

hoping they don't do double count out stuff.

Now just reserve that for AJ and Shinsuke forever.

So we got 50 and then Jericho and I can't decide

if it's when Shane came out or when Jericho came

out that chaos face got even more upset Shane

helped everybody take turns beating up Owen That

was a nice touch as well. Everybody got a shot

to rough him up like Brian did Jericho did Shane

did Good continuity there. Yeah, I don't predict

and this is just a me looking at the guy I don't

particularly like the cross between old Chris

Jericho look and new Chris Jericho look for his

hair. What the hell was going on with his hair?

I don't know. He's probably just trying to grow

it back in for his... He's doing a tour again

with his band and everything else. Probably just

kind of get that back. Who knows? But no, like...

The whole thing with KO and Jericho, oh my god.

And by the end of it, like... the ending i wish

it like i've seen brought move really fast but

like brockley you know michael cole always like

all randy or with the r k o out of nowhere i'm

like flock that bron strowman out of nowhere

throwing shane through a table like wholly or

the everyone's athleticism is insane yeah everything

you can do and it's not just a strength it's

His ability to run his ability to Just do everything

at all. Yeah and he looks natural at all of it

too, which is so impressive. I think I said that

about Owens way back when he debuted, because

he was doing stuff, you know, he can do a Swanton,

he's done moonsaults, and it looks great. Braun

can seemingly do everything as well, and it's

astounding for a guy that size. It's pretty astounding

for Owens too, who's obviously not a small man

either. Yeah, it's nuts that they have so many

guys that are so athletic you'll get Rollins

who looks Athletic, I think he nicknamed himself

CrossFit Jesus, which is hilarious And yeah,

they've just so many guys that can move so quick

But yeah, you just do not expect it from Braun

who looks he looks like a million bucks and they

let him dump so he booted out Lashley Jericho

and Owens in pretty quick succession after the

After the shame toss which should be an Olympic

event apparently Yeah And then they let Cass

eliminate Daniel Bryan which Bryan had been in

there forever at that point an hour and five

minutes an hour six minutes Remember the exact

time but yeah That was neat and then we get Cass

and Braun Which I mean like that it was neat

to see two big guys go at it and Braun winning

was not really a surprise and it was the right

call Yeah, he's just a lot of fun. Yeah, he is

he's like Just yeah, I absolutely love like what

like you said in the beginning when he joined

with the Wyatt's it was kind of like Silent muscle

kind of a thing but now that he's come into his

own and he is his own singles kind of competitor

at this point and just does you know the whole

thing leading up to anything he did last year

you know going to Kurt Angler going to whomever

I want competition I want this I want you know

just everything about that just absolutely love

the guy like yeah it's uh and this event was

a blast I thought yes it was a little too long

yeah but this was fun it was the rumble was really

fun Yeah, the rumble in particular thought was

a real blast It wasn't a super duper match with

lots of flips and that kind of thing, but it

was just enjoyable and everybody Got at least

a little bit to do which was nice. Yeah, I think

Ray got to dial up twice Yeah, they let him do

the 619 a couple times. Yeah that I remember.

Yeah, yeah and you know Just it was just so fun

as far as the rest of the pay -per -view goes

Honestly the beginning match and the rumble were

my two favorites Yeah, I did I mentioned it before

I enjoyed the four -way quite a bit as well Yeah,

the four -way was good. Yeah, this is a hard

one for me to rate overall Just because it was

just enjoyable and stuff like this is what makes

the network worth it It felt, it didn't feel

like a house show, but it didn't feel like a

normal pay -per -view or anything either, and

it was just kind of fun. I wish that I could

say that about more of their programming. Because

they do have too much stuff that it almost feels

like work to watch. Especially when you've got

seven hours of some of these. But this one wasn't

a real chore. Although, again, it probably helped

that, thanks to the network, I kind of skipped.

I was able to watch it in more than one sitting.

You know, you watch it, you skip some stuff,

and then you go back to it. That was nice. Yep.

Absolutely. Scale to 0 to 5 for the GCR Universal

Rating System. I'd probably give it a 3 and 1

half out of 5, I guess. Yeah, I'd give it a three

and a half with the caveat that it's definitely

worth watching and fun. So yeah, absolutely absolutely

Alright folks, that's gonna do it for us coming

up next I believe Ryan's gonna be back because

we're gonna be discussing the HBO documentary

Andre the giant Speaking of things that are good

watch and enjoyable. Yes, exactly So we're gonna

be doing that after that. I think is another

superstar spotlight I'm not sure who it's going

to be on or it might be something else. I don't

know, I might change the schedule between then

and now. And then after that, episode 39 will

be Backlash, the first co -branded WWE pay -per

-view. What did you think? Did you notice the

advertisement on Greatest Royal Rumble for that,

with the song, with all of, like, Carmella starts

singing? and then they have the whole song bit

i thought that was kind of crazy i don't know

it cut away no just kidding yeah i did let's

do this thing late on me okay i'm in the zone

now this is gonna be phenomenal Again, it just

felt like it was a Felt like a lot of this was

a commercial or an audition for backlash, but

it still works The one that didn't work probably

was Shinsuke AJ. Unfortunately. Yeah, obviously

not no Because that's just no so join us next

time folks when we talk about Andre the Giant

here on Mayhem Mikes on the GeekCast Radio Network

and this week in Geek. You just made the list!

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