NEWS

And then there were six. With about two months to go before WrestleMania 38, it is time for WWE to start setting up the card. They have already set up what is likely to be the main event, but that match could very well change, as there is still a major event left to air. That event will be held on February 19 in Saudi Arabia with Elimination Chamber, and now we know what is going to be headlining the show.
WWE has already announced that WWE Champion Bobby Lashley will be defending the title inside the Elimination Chamber. This week on Monday Night Raw, Lashley’s five challengers were announced for the match. In addition to Lashley, the following names will take part in the Elimination Chamber match:
Brock Lesnar
Seth Rollins
Austin Theory
Riddle
AJ Styles
Lesnar and Rollins were added to the match by orders of WWE executives. The other three all won qualifying matches, with Theory defeating Kevin Owens, Riddle defeating Otis and Styles defeating Rey Mysterio.
Opinion: This is the k..

Monday Night Raw
Date: January 31, 2022
Location: Heritage Bank Center, Cincinnati, Ohio
Commentators: Byron Saxton, Jimmy Smith, Corey Graves
The Royal Rumble has come and gone and that means we are officially on the Road To WrestleMania. As a result, it is time to start hammering in the pieces for the next elimination based match, as Elimination Chamber is in less than two weeks. Bobby Lashley is the new WWE Champion and that means he is going to need a challenger. Let’s get to it.
We open with a recap of Brock Lesnar losing the WWE Title to Bobby Lashley with the help of Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman. Worry not though as Lesnar won the Royal Rumble later in the night.
Here is Adam Pearce in the ring to hype up the big things we will be seeing tonight. There is a road block on the Road To Wrestlemania though, which is called the Elimination Chamber. Bobby Lashley will be defending his WWE Title inside the Elimination Chamber….and here are MVP and Lashley to interrupt. MVP rants abo..

That’s up next. The Royal Rumble has come and gone with the focal point being on the two namesake matches. In addition to that though, the WWE Championship changed hands as Brock Lesnar lost the title to Bobby Lashley, making him a two time champion. That is the kind of thing that could be an important deal for the future and now we might have an idea of what is coming next.
WWE has announced that Lashley will defend his WWE Title inside the Elimination Chamber at the event of the same name. Elimination Chamber is scheduled for February 19 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. At the moment, there is no word on who will be challenging Lashley for the title or when the contenders will be determined. Lashley has participated in one Elimination Chamber match, winning the ECW World Title at December To Dismember in 2006.
Opinion: This is the kind of thing that you knew was coming and it makes sense in this case. The title is in a bit of a state of flux and there is a real chance that the title could ..

That would have been different. The Royal Rumble has come and gone for the year and that makes for some very interesting possibilities. We now know what is likely to happen when it comes to some of the World Title matches at WrestleMania 38, as there are two brand new #1 contenders set. That being said, there is still time to change things up, and there was almost a very different result for one of the matches.
According to PWInsider.com, the original plan for the men’s Royal Rumble would have seen Riddle winning rather than Brock Lesnar, who entered the match at #30 and won the match instead. Riddle was in the match as well, entering the match at #20 and lasting about twenty minutes with two eliminations before being eliminated by Lesnar. There was also a discussion of Riddle’s partner Randy Orton winning the match in his hometown, which would have tied Orton for the most Royal Rumble wins of all time. There is no word on what caused WWE to decide on Lesnar winning.
Opinion: This is..

Welcome back. There have been a lot of wrestlers in WWE over the years and some of them have been a lot more famous than others. WWE knows how to present their legends as big stars, allowing them to have quite the lengthy careers, both in the ring and after their time in the ring is over. That can make for some great returns, and now we might be seeing another one.
During a recent edition of the Kurt Angle Show, WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle revealed that he will be returning to WWE television for “the next month or so”. There is no word on when Angle will be making his return or what he will be doing. Angle was reportedly brought in for Royal Rumble weekend but did not make an on-camera appearance. There is however a chance that he filmed something for a later premiere.
Opinion: This is something that could work out well, though I do not need to see Angle get back in the ring. Ultimately, he finally got out of the ring and it was a good bit late, as he did not look anywhere close to ..

Brock Lesnar’s win at the 2022 Royal Rumble on January 29 was not surprising to many WWE fans. After all, he is The Beast Incarnate and a heavily featured star in the company. In fact, if not for Roman Reigns, Lesnar would likely be the undisputed face of WWE. Because of this, a Brock victory on one of WWE’s biggest nights of the year is not all that shocking.
But a Brock victory in the Men’s Royal Rumble Match? That’s another matter altogether. Lesnar dropped the WWE Championship to Bobby Lashley earlier in the evening, which opened the door for at least the possibility of a surprise Rumble entry. Reigns’ interference in Lesnar’s match made that surprise a reality. But was Brock’s win the right move?
[This post contains video, click to play]

Building The Beast Very few Superstars have captured the imagination of WWE fans like Brock Lesnar. He’s been called an anomaly, which fits him perfectly. He’s a country boy at heart, with an easy smile and an awkward disposition. He doesn’t s..

That wouldn’t get him very far. There are a lot of people who have to work together to make WWE run as smoothly as it can. That is not easy to do and a lot of what you see on television comes from the minds of the company’s producers. These people help put the show together, though some of them have different priorities. That was on display over the weekend and it did not go well.
This weekend’s men’s Royal Rumble match featured the return of Shane McMahon, who entered the match at #28 and eliminated Kevin Owens before making the final three entrants. According to Ringsidenews.com, there is a significant amount of heat backstage on McMahon, who was the lead writer and producer for the match. McMahon was said to have insisted that the match be built around himself and being put over and was “fighting with people to do so.” Some wrestlers, including some who never complain, were said to be loudly complaining about how hard McMahon was pushed in the match.
Opinion: This is something tha..

They might want to work on that. With just over two months to go before WrestleMania 38, WWE has already started on the road to the biggest show of the year. That road began with the Royal Rumble event, which saw not only a pair of Royal Rumble matches, but also a new WWE Champion crowned. That should be enough to get them somewhere, but that does not seem to be the case.
The Royal Rumble card included Brock Lesnar defending the WWE Title against Bobby Lashley, who would win the championship with the help of Roman Reigns. According to the WrestleVotes Twitter account, there are currently no plans for the WWE at WrestleMania 38. There is no word on what WWE might decide to run for the title. There is also the chance that Lashley loses the title before WrestleMania.
Lesnar had to be the winner here. I’m told they legitimately have no idea what the WWE Title match at Mania is going to be at this point. Avoid the ol pigeon hole.
— WrestleVotes (@WrestleVotes) January 30, 2022
Opinion: ..

The 2022 Royal Rumble has come and gone, and with it, a number of people who are unhappy about how the event transpired. While some are complaining about the in-ring competition, the majority of the griping has to do with the booking of the show and how things didn’t go down as they thought that they should.
This is where I come in.
This article is the first of what I guarantee will be many in a series during my time at Wrestling Rumors. This new segment is called: Everyone, Just Relax.
Side note, you can find the audio version of this article on The Hoots Podcast, of which new episodes are released every Thursday.
[This post contains video, click to play]

After this year’s Royal Rumble, naturally, Twitter exploded with messaging saying that “this was the worst show ever” and that “AEW is going to buy WWE in a few years”. However, if you just take a step back and think about things for a minute, you will realize that there is some long-term storytelling going on here that will pl..

Royal Rumble 2022
Date: January 29, 2022
Location: The Dome At America’s Center, St. Louis, Missouri
Attendance: 44,390
Commentators: Jimmy Smith, Corey Graves, Byron Saxton, Michael Cole, Pat McAfee
We are officially kicking off the Road to WrestleMania XXXVIII and that means things should be starting big here. First up we have the Royal Rumbles themselves, plus what should be a pair of awesome World Title matches as Brock Lesnar defends against Bobby Lashley and Seth Rollins challenges Roman Reigns. Let’s get to it.
Note that I was in the stadium for this, sitting in the upper deck with the Titantron on my right.
No Kickoff Show matches this year, which was a bit weird.
The opening video looks at the start of the Road To Wrestlemania, with a look at just about everything on tonight’s card. Cool, even if it isn’t breaking new ground.
Smackdown World Title: Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins
Rollins is challenging and comes out to the Shield theme, including in the Shield gear. He eve..

Is anyone writing this stuff down? There are a lot of moving parts to any WWE event and the Royal Rumble might be the most complicated of them all. When a show has so many people involved in a pair of matches, it is going to take some special planning to make everything work out. Not having things work out well can cause quite the mess and unfortunately that seems to be the case again this year.
According to PWInsider.com, WWE’s backstage morale is down after this weekend’s Royal Rumble. The frustration came from the amount of changes made to the card, which were blamed for the quality of the event being seen as poor. This included about twenty changes to the men’s Royal Rumble over the course of the week, including eliminations, the order of the entrants and how the wrestlers would compete during the match. The women’s match included several changes as well. Vince McMahon was said to have been heavily involved with the show’s layout.
Opinion: What do you expect here? The Royal Rumbl..

It had to happen one day. Wrestlers are in a weird place when it comes to their performances in front of a crowd. Not only are they having pre-determined matches, but they also have to make everything they do look as realistic as possible while not injuring their fellow wrestlers. At some point, something is going to go wrong and unfortunately that was the case last night on a pretty big stage.
This year’s WWE Royal Rumble included Kofi Kingston, who has a history of elaborate saves to prevent himself from being eliminated. However, this year saw Kingston eliminated in less than thirty seconds. According to Bryan Alvarez on Twitter, Kingston’s elimination did not go as planned, as he had a major save planned. Big E., Kingston’s New Day teammate, was likely to have been involved, though it is not clear what the spot would have been. Kingston has also commented on the spot, saying that it is better to try and fail than to never try at all.
Kofi's big spot was mistimed and he was l..