In terms of Rumbles I enjoyed watching when they happened, 2012 has held up the worst. You had seven mystery entrants (Ricardo Rodriguez, Kharma, Lawler, Booker, Cole, Duggan, Road Dogg), a previously announced special appearance from Foley, and Ziggler and Big Show were in despite having world title opportunities earlier in the show.

But when you look at the other 20 entrants, there are just so many nondescript undercard guys. Alex Riley, Justin Gabriel, Primo and Epico, David Otunga, early Jinder Mahal, and Jey Uso but not Jimmy Uso.

The surprise entrants were fun in the moment, but watching back it really just highlights how weak the roster was at the time.

What's great is the same people marking out over a surprise entrant from the past are the same people bitching about part timers taking up spots at Wrestlemania.

To be fair a bit, the main difference is how WWE handles it.

For the Rumble, part-timers usually don't have a major role in the match itself beyond being a nice surprise for the crowd and some crowd pleasing spots. Also usually are just replacing spots that would have went to low tier stars. Only Rumbles in recent years where WWE mishandled things was 2014 with Batista winning and the first Women's Rumble because McCool and the Bellas had way too much focus in it.

For Mania, WWE's biggest problem is having part-timers constantly hog up the marquee or notable spots on the card when that would have been more useful as a rub for some of their regular stars.

It's still taking away a PPV pay day from a regular.

True.

Not sure how pay breaks down for the Rumble itself outside of maybe the Final 4 and winner but I'd assume its a lesser evil than locking away "main event" level spots that have a much higher pay to part-timers.

Eh, I think that's a generalization. I don't mind the part-timers and I don't honestly care who we get in the Rumble. Do people still get bonuses for PPVs?

If the women are main-eventing this year's Wrestlemania, I want to see Daniel Bryan versus Rey Mysterio or Daniel Bryan versus Shinsuke Nakamura.

Both those matches would be fucking sick. I've seen the Bryan/Mysterio picking up steam around the place, not that that necessarily means its any more or less likely.

We had Diesel in 2011. I'd love to see Razor Ramon one more time. I'm sure he's well enough to pull it off. also Jake Roberts would be a great surprise. DDT a few jobbers , clear the ring with a snake.

Introduce Sonjay Dutt as the third Singh brother :yes:

Yes, more teaming people up because of their race. NEW ERA!

I just realized that Ranjin Singh and the Singh brothers might be related or something (kayfabe).

You're mocking the idea and not its likeligood, right?

More like it's just the default name WWE gives to Indian talent

A counterpoint to my own observation - ridiculous and detrimental to the main roster as it was, at least stuff was constantly happening.

Many recent Rumbles have been stacked with "important" people the company feels the need to protect and it leads to a pretty standard formula. Someone comes in, gets a shine, then stands around in the corner and does nothing until it's time to be eliminated.

UNCAGED 7 RELEASED

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Surprise Legends, Free Agents etc have always been my favorite part of the Royal Rumble Matches

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The tickets for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RoyalRumble?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RoyalRumble</a> are incredible. <a href="https://t.co/Knu51wyUvy">pic.twitter.com/Knu51wyUvy</a></p>&mdash; Derek Montilla (@Cap_Kaveman) <a href="https://twitter.com/Cap_Kaveman/status/1089203927118110720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 26, 2019</a></blockquote>
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One of these days they will release the New Midnight Express theme. One of these days.

Poor dude's head landed in the Chattahoochie.

Jack Swagger won his MMA debut

Good for Hager. He needed something like that. It's hard to really get that WWE stank off him, but being a big-ass good ol' boy from Oklahoma that seems like he could accidentally win a fight against most people, trying to get a legit rep behind him is a good idea. They seem to be booking him in a clever way.

I've got no interest in seeing Hager in AEW right now, because of that WWE stank, but if he washes it off with this run in Bellator, MLW and maybe does some work with ROH and New Japan, I could get into him. I could buy him in a ROH World TV Title feud with Jeff Cobb and/or an IWGP US Title program with Juice Robinson.

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LOL @ RP

https://www.mma-core.com/videos/Jake...r_214/10279835

Jake's fight.

Jake did pretty good. Solid wrestling of course and struggled with a kimura, hit some nice ground and pound and sunk in an easy head and arm. His opponent was nothing special, but it was a good debut. You can see where he can grow but also where he has brute strength and athleticism.

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I love Daniel Bryan, but I can't imagine anyone seeing a little shaggy man yelling on the morning news and being compelled to go to the Royal Rumble to see him fight.

CM Phil has to love that another pro wrestler has a MMA victory.

Lesnar
Lashley
Batista
Nakamura
Del Rio
Swagger

All have wins, while ole tough guy Phil got his ads kicked twice lol

One day he will fight Jason Thacker and win by DQ.

Thanks for linking that. I am not too knowledgeable about MMA, but it seems like they made a smart decision giving him a scrub. Hager looks to be in great shape and healthy. Not sure if he left himself too open going for that submission. It looks like he can get guys down easy enough. That elbow looked vicious.

From a production standpoint, they seem to be taking care of Hager. Dropping a lot of his connections and the commentators took good care of him. It also sounds like the fight was actually in Perry. Lol at him doing the “We the People” taunt.

Bryan’s so fucking good.

I need Monica Garcia to smother me with dat ass.

He's been working in Lucha Undergound also. As Jake Strong, He's their current Champion.

Good for him, I guess, but LU doesn’t really count for me anymore.

<img src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/af/b2/6e/afb26ee59b392e7674c9c538fae9754a.jpg" alt="See the source image">

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Billy Sharp's Mr Socko WWE celebration is the best thing you'll see all day ��<br><br>Does <a href="https://twitter.com/RealMickFoley?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RealMickFoley</a> know that you've kidnapped Socko, <a href="https://twitter.com/billysharp10?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@billysharp10</a>? <a href="https://t.co/ZgfuLPghKR">pic.twitter.com/ZgfuLPghKR</a></p>&mdash; Soccer AM (@SoccerAM) <a href="https://twitter.com/SoccerAM/status/1089210105705328640?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 26, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Oh, this is TREMENDOUS! Thank you <a href="https://twitter.com/billysharp10?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@billysharp10</a> &amp; <a href="https://twitter.com/SoccerAM?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SoccerAM</a> <a href="https://t.co/fSEhpm68IJ">https://t.co/fSEhpm68IJ</a></p>&mdash; Mick Foley (@RealMickFoley) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealMickFoley/status/1089235256434192385?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 26, 2019</a></blockquote>
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I forgot about Gentleman Jack, who in a shoot fight would destroy Phil