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EditorialWWE Royal Rumble 2017 3-Count Review and Post-Show Recap

WWE Royal Rumble 2017 3-Count Review and Post-Show Recap

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The 2017 Royal Rumble event has just completed a few hours ago and emotions are high for a huge number of things. We have three new champions, a Royal Rumble winner most people wouldn’t have predicted and in some ways, no real indication of where WWE is going for WrestleMania.

There are a multitude of great things I can say about this event and unfortunately, some very negative ones as well. You can check out a more in-depth breakdown of both sides of those opinions in the latest edition of the Smark Out Moment wrestling podcast SMACK TALK found at the end of this article, but since this is another 3-count review as well, I figured I would keep things purely optimistic and pinpoint the three biggest positives I had throughout the night. There’s going to be plenty of time to complain about Randy Orton’s win and the lineup we get at WrestleMania over the next two months, so for now, I’ll focus entirely on the couple of things that actually put a big smile on my face:

1. Tye Dillinger at #10

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I absolutely love puns and stupid dad jokes. A clever turn of phrase is infinitely more entertaining to me than something of a slapstick nature, so whenever I think something is both humorous and intelligent, I have to tip my hat to it (says a guy who maybe wears a hat a dozen times in a year, but that’s beside the point.)

The idea of Tye Dillinger coming out as the tenth entrant has been floating around for a while and I’ve been hoping to see it for that entire time. It made so much sense, though, that you could pretty much expect WWE not to do it. Sometimes, they fly in the face of a simple choice or they purposely book something illogical just to avoid going with what everyone could expect or what the easy pop would be. Granted, more often than not, their answer to this is far worse and not in the slightest bit better or even on par, but once in a while, they pull out a surprise that surpasses our thoughts and it’s better for it.

In this scenario, I was expecting them to ignore the opportunity and to just let everybody down. Like an abusive relationship, sometimes we as fans are so used to be disappointed that we’re just happy if it’s not that bad of a let down compared to what we imagined the worst case scenario could be. Here, it wouldn’t have been the end of the world if Dillinger didn’t come out at #10, but it definitely would have felt like a missed opportunity, and I’m so glad they pulled the trigger and did it.

Not only was this just a silly thing to make the crowd pop, it also exposed one of NXT’s most talented roster members to a whole new audience. In my group of friends, I was the only person who had any investment in it because most of them don’t watch NXT—at least, certainly not on the regular enough to have any kind of emotional tie to Dillinger. When I explained to them how his gimmick entirely revolved around the number 10, they quickly warmed up to the idea and by the time he got eliminated, they were upset to see him go.

That’s great! This means he has the support from NXT’s audience and there’s potential for him to take that momentum and apply it to a main roster push if WWE is interested in taking it that far. He could be a great addition to the midcard (particularly on SmackDown) and if it only takes a few minutes to go from “Who?” to cheers, he could end up doing very well for himself.

Even if it doesn’t pan out that well, it was still nice to see WWE hit a home run with an easy pitch.

2. Balancing Out the Big Guns

A frequent trope of the Royal Rumble match is when the monstrous super heavyweights square off, as more often than not, these men don’t get to clash regularly throughout the year. Now with the brand split being in effect, it’s even rarer to see some of them in the same ring at the same time, let alone actually fighting each other.

Even harder to witness is being able to manage how to book these guys so they all still come out of this looking like they’re on the tough side of things instead of devaluing some of them to put over one or two others, which WWE has been guilty of in the past.

Just look at Khali for an example of someone who has been on both sides of the spectrum. He destroyed people in 2007 but just a few years later, he was yesterday’s news while they built up Vladimir Kozlov, who himself was pushed aside. It’s a cycle that can be damaging to their future booking if they look poor, but this year, WWE did a great job giving them all at least something interesting to do.

Big Cass entered at #1 and held his own against Chris Jericho and a handful of other stars. For the opening few minutes, he was the king of the mountain. Mark Henry came into the mix and was able to get an elimination (Jack Gallagher) before both he and Big Cass were eventually taken out by Braun Strowman.

Strowman, mind you, didn’t stop there. He matched up with Big Show and eliminated him and several others, securing his spot as the man who got the most eliminations in this match with 7. Second to him was The Undertaker at 4, and those four eliminations weren’t small ones, either. Sami Zayn and The Miz aren’t slouches, but most importantly, The Phenom was responsible for taking out Goldberg and Baron Corbin of all people.

When it comes to Goldberg, he took out Brock Lesnar, Luke Harper and Rusev—three big guys in their own rights. Even Lesnar was able to eliminate Dean Ambrose and Dolph Ziggler, while Corbin got the honor of getting Strowman out of the match. Roman Reigns was the runner-up who took out The Undertaker, Chris Jericho and Bray Wyatt, and the list just continues to cycle around.

Out of all of the most dominant looking guys in the match, the one who had the worst showing was Big Show and even still, he had a one-on-one confrontation with Strowman that appeared to put them on even ground despite the age difference between the two. In past years, we’ve had R-Truth dump both Henry and Show out on his own volition, Shawn Michaels did the same with Yokozuna and Vader, and people like King Kong Bundy and Andre the Giant haven’t fared as well as they should have. This year, the big men were given their due justice.

3. Every Man for Himself

Another trope of the Royal Rumble that actually hasn’t been utilized over the past few years has been the notion that teammates and turn on each other. This used to happen now and again with Owen Hart eliminating Davey Boy Smith in 1997, Roman Reigns dumping Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins out in 2014, Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie feuding for the majority of their time in the 1999 event and so on. Sometimes, it’s played for laughs like with Team Hell No and other times, it leads to some interesting splits with those teams.

This year, we had two squads run into this problem as Luke Harper defiantly attacked Bray Wyatt and Cesaro and Sheamus got in each other’s way too many times for their own good. Whether Harper has turned babyface or quit The Wyatt Family or just was venting some frustration is still up for debate until SmackDown, but when it comes to Cesaro and Sheamus, I can’t help but feel like their tag team is done. Losing the titles in the same night as Cesaro almost gives the swing to Sheamus and then they ultimately both get eliminated at the same time and bicker about it is a great way to put a strain on their friendship and cause them to go separate ways.

This type of breakup booking doesn’t need to happen every year, but when it does, it feels like something special is going down. Very rarely do tag team members ever fight each other and when they go against the grain, it’s fun to see friends against friends instead of always friends against foes. Here’s hoping some interesting stories come out of this, but even if it doesn’t happen, it at least provided some extra entertainment during this particular match.

Those are just some of the best things to happen in this year’s Royal Rumble match in my opinion, but there’s plenty more to talk about, so if you’re interested in hearing more, check out the most recent PAY-PER-VIEWPOINT episode of Smack Talk which is the 2017 Royal Rumble Post-Show:

Hosted by Anthony Mango along with Shaun Walker

WATCH/LISTEN TO SMACK TALK on YOUTUBE | ITUNES | STITCHER

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