What has made you think Riddle is a dick backstage?

Grunching, but I watched the Rumble spoiler-free tonight.

Best booked Rumble in the last 2 decades? Was fully invested in the Bork monster squashes and Drew getting the big rub for eliminating Lesnar and winning. Just great booking all around.

I know the resulting Wrestlemania payoff wasn't good, but the 2018 Rumble was far better imo.

Legit question. Why not?

Because Ricochet landed a low blow and Drew eliminated Brock cheaply.

Certainly the totality of Drew's night gives him a big rub. I just hate that they spent the whole first half of the Rumble building Lesnar toward an elimination that they for some reason had to book as a fluke.

I'm positive on this event in general, including the men's match even though last night I was raging at that elimination beyond the point of the show being over.

You wanted Drew to walk up to Brock face to face and scoop slam him over the top? Or is it just the low blow that gets you?


I really loved everything Brock related in the Rumble.

He reminds me of Magnum TA a bit.

The point seems to have been to build Drew toward being someone who could go toe-to-toe with Brock in a one-on-one match at Mania. I'm not advocating that this means that Drew should go and dust him off without a struggle, but in kayfabe Drew and Brock have been on way different levels for a long time; the fact that his kick was strong enough to blindside Brock over the top doesn't do much to change that.

Probably a fair bit of our difference in perspective is how much each of us has followed the product. Brock has been doing the ridiculous dominance thing for six years straight now (being 5.5 years removed from him rag-dolling Cena around the ring with no resistance to close out a SummerSlam), without ever really cleanly putting over a full-time WWE wrestler. The people who run the show can just never bring themselves to put a full-time WWE guy over him cleanly. It's irritating that they can never even entertain the notion that one of their own full-time guys could be pushed as if they're anywhere near Brock's level.

I think it would have been incredibly bad to the point of disbelief had Drew beaten Brock "clean". They'd booked him too strong thus far. There's no story there, it would feel rushed. The same people complaining about this are the same ones who whined about Roman/Cena superbooking. Can't have it both ways.

And again, the low blow helped, but if you consider:

1) how unbelievably powerful his claymore kick on Brock looked
2) Brock's immediate response---Brock did NOT respond with his condescending laugh he has done to people he views beneath him, he gave him a serious look, one of a potential equal, and one that said "I'll see you down the line".
3) Drew winning the rumble including beating Roman clean

the low blow was more than mitigated. I think Brock's booking was perfect, and Drew winning was the icing on the cake. Obv it's gonna suck if Brock just easily wins at WM, but the x% of the time this leads to a DREW coronation is great.

I gotcha.

I also really enjoyed that Cena match, lol.

But yeah, I just watch a couple times a year. My main thing is I want them to look like they're in a real competition and trying to win.

If the Rumble were a real sporting event, nearly every competitor ever would have to be the biggest ****ing moron to strategize the way they do. Not throwing people over the top when they have them, attacking guys who are about to eliminate someone hanging on the ropes, top rope maneuvers, etc.


Big example was when Roman and Edge were on the apron at the end. Huge ****ing lol at not prioritizing getting back in the ring at that point and just slowly trading blows. Talk about a huge ICM punt!

I think it worked really well.

You got Drew (face you're going to push) that you want to win and look legit.

You can't just have him straight up eliminate Brock because the payoff match is him vs Brock and you need the face to be an underdog.

You also can't have Drew eliminate him underhandedly because he's your face.

You also can't have someone cheaply eliminated Brock and gain him sympathy.

So you:

1. Have Brock dominate the early part which makes people want to see him lose.

2. Have drew come out.

3. On the monday before the rumble have brock kick ricochet in the dick for no reason

4. Have ricochet get "revenge" and low blow Brock right back

5. Eliminate him with a big Claymore

Now you have Drew getting cheered while Brock gets eliminated looking strong and getting his comeuppance.

It worked out really well for me anyways.

Do agree with the annoyance of how infrequently brock puts people that are full time over

I don't disagree with any of this, and I dug that Brock/Cena match in 2014 also. Of course, that was only six months after the start of his monster push rather than six years. At that point there was every reason to believe that they were building up a rub to actually be used on something, because they passed the single biggest rub possible his way by giving him the breaking of Taker's streak. By now it just feels like Taker's streak was mostly used up in vain, even though the shock of that moment itself will always be legendary.

You make a good case overall, though I don't really buy the notion that Drew looks like a favorite to the masses if he eliminates Brock cleanly. I feel like the audience is smartened up enough in 2020 that Drew eliminating Brock cleanly would feel like Brock is inevitable to get his win back at Mania, and that Drew eliminating him is just someone getting hotshotted into a pseudo-credible challenger position.

Anyway, despite me arguing my point, I really am over it and am happy with last night's event. Dvo just happened to make a post that was (I truly believe totally coincidentally) all but micro-targeted to get me back to my rant of yesterday.

oh yeah i get you. made sure to double post to reiterate i agree with your overall point

I'm pretty shocked people are upset with the low blow in Brock's elimination and nobody except me is pissed off with the awful booking of Becky.

I did caveat that I grunched the thread when I posted. For a lapsed fan like me, the Brock monster push felt fresh even though it’s now 5.5-6 years old. The problem with Brock’s run is that he’s hardly wrestled for long stretches.

But I am a sucker for the monster heel story. So simple and effective. Mark Henry’s Hall of Pain remains one of my favorite runs of the last decade (a shame an injury cut it short). What made the Rumble so compelling was the very real possibility of Brock squashing the whole Rumble field. So the pop of his elimination was the relief/shock that that possibility wouldn’t materialize. Not a perfect analogy, but it’s liken when Hogan and Andre double DQ’d at WM4, we were guaranteed to have a new champion—which made the rest of the matches incredibly compelling.

Am legitimately ROFL right now....


https://twitter.com/maffewgregg/stat...387201538?s=21

This is because nobody watched raw. Brock low blowed ricochet on raw, hence the payback/comeuppance to the heel.

So it was actually fantastic booking and announcing since they sold it like that too

I'll be checking out now again until Wrestlemania