WWE Royal Rumble 2021 (Jan. 31, 2021) -- Results & Afterthoughts

The 2021 Royal Rumble was a professional wrestling pay-per-view and WWE Network event produced by WWE for its Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. It took place on January 31, 2021, and was broadcast from the WWE ThunderDome, hosted at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. It was the 34th event under the Royal Rumble chronology. It was also the first Royal Rumble since the death of Pat Patterson, who created the Royal Rumble match.

Six matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, Edge won the men's Royal Rumble match for a second time, last winning it in 2010, thus becoming the eighth two-time winner, the third wrestler to win it as the number one entrant, and the first wrestler to win it after being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. The women's Royal Rumble match was won by Bianca Belair. In other prominent matches, Roman Reigns defeated Kevin Owens in a Last Man Standing match to retain the Universal Championship and in the opening bout, Drew McIntyre defeated Goldberg to retain the WWE Championship.

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Match Results:

Kick-Off: Tag Team Match for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship

Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler def. Asuka and Charlotte Flair (c)

This was one of the rare occasions where I actually watched the kick-off show. This was a nothing match, despite the women all working hard to make SOMETHING out of this match, but the finish came after Lacey Evans (accompanied by Ric Flair) came out to distract Charlotte. Charlotte knocked Lacey off the ring apron the first time following her interference, only for Ric to hand Lacey a gimmick and hit Charlotte with a loaded Woman's Right to allow Nia Jax to steal the win from right under Charlotte's nose.


Given Lana's return later tonight in the Women's Rumble Match I can't be too surprised that they put the belts back on Shayna and Nia, especially following the result from RAW (2/1/2021) where the new team of Naomi and Lana won the right to challenge the new Women's Tag Team Champions after beating Asuka and Charlotte that night. I guess WWE wants to give Lana the baby face comeuppance that she deserved in this story all along with a Women's Tag Team title win.

Singles Match for the WWE Championship

Drew McIntyre (c) def. Goldberg

This was the match where I was worried that WWE would do something stupid going into this PPV. They don't have fans in the building and control the crowd reactions with their piped in crowd noise during these empty arena shows in the ThunderDome. They could have Drew McIntyre drop that title right to Goldberg just like how he beat Kevin Owens a few years ago and exactly how he beat The Fiend in Saudi Arabia just to walk into WrestleMania as WWE Universal Champion.


Fortunately, WWE did the right thing and Goldberg took the L for Drew - like he should. I started laughing when Goldberg hit Drew with at minimum of FIVE goddamn Spears and a Jackhammer, only for Drew to kick out. Goldberg ate about two Claymores and that's all she wrote, folks.


In hindsight, I should have known that Goldberg wasn't coming back out for the Rumble later in the show as he was more gassed than Chris Jericho doing matches on AEW Dynamite on a weekly basis after this over. Drew had to help him up for he could stand up and celebrate post-match.

Singles Match for the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship

Sasha Banks (c) def. Carmella (with Reginald) by submission

After Carmella's showing against Sasha Banks at TLC, I thought she left fans satisfied with her "improvement" of sorts - if you could really call it that (especially when she had a capable opponent to cover her shortcomings, much her time in NXT). Don't get me wrong. I thought Carmella is a talented worker, but she was among one of many women at the Performance Center who were called up to the main roster before her skills could truly be polished and fine tuned on NXT. She has one hell of a submission finisher (Code of Silence) that doesn't get as much props that it should and they don't protect that move enough either, but that's totally different issue altogether. From the clips and snippets of what I have seen of what she has been doing lately on the SmackDown! brand, I love this new direction for Carmella's character. It's a vast improvement from Discount Nikki Bella/Boujee Jersey Shore wannabe. She finally has her own identity that separates her from the dime a dozen blondes in that company. 

Carmella, oof pic.twitter.com/IyEj1LJo3J

— GIF Skull SIX (New Backup) (@gif_skull) February 1, 2021

As for this match though? I can't say that I enjoyed it as much as their original encounter. I was worried for Carmella during that faceplant she pulled off when trying to execute a dive out of the ring. That is just another reason on the growing laundry list of reasons that modern wrestlers need to tone down the goddamn dives and high spots. That being said, I didn't care for Carmella using the Code of Silence here if she wasn't going to win off of it. Sasha Banks retaining was the right decision though and Carmella shouldn't be getting another shot at the title when she's failed to capture the gold in two consecutive PPVs either. 

30-woman Royal Rumble Match for a Women's Championship Match at WrestleMania 37

Bianca Belair won by last eliminating Rhea Ripley

Women's Royal Rumble match entrances and eliminations

  – Raw

  – SmackDown

  – NXT

  – Hall of Famer (HOF)

  – Freelance

  – Winner

Draw	Entrant	Brand/ Status	Order	Eliminated by	Time[32]	Elimination(s)
1	Bayley	SmackDown	12	Bianca Belair	29:08	1
2	Naomi	Raw	22	Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler	47:39	0
3	Bianca Belair	SmackDown	—	Winner	56:52	4
4	Billie Kay	SmackDown	3	Ruby Riott and Liv Morgan	08:11	1
5	Shotzi Blackheart	NXT	1	Shayna Baszler	03:46	0
6	Shayna Baszler	Raw	24	Nia Jax	41:46	6
7	Toni Storm	NXT	4	Rhea Ripley	11:21	0
8	Jillian Hall	Freelance	2	Billie Kay	08:03	0
9	Ruby Riott	SmackDown	7	Bayley	10:53	1
10	Victoria	Freelance	5	Shayna Baszler	07:15	0
11	Peyton Royce	Raw	10	Charlotte Flair	13:40	1
12	Santana Garrett	NXT	6	Rhea Ripley	04:32	0
13	Liv Morgan	SmackDown	8	Peyton Royce	06:37	1
14	Rhea Ripley	NXT	29	Bianca Belair	39:06	7
15	Charlotte Flair	Raw	28	Rhea Ripley and Bianca Belair	33:47	1
16	Dana Brooke	Raw	9	Rhea Ripley	02:58	0
17	Torrie Wilson	HOF	11	Shayna Baszler	03:59	0
18	Lacey Evans	Raw	20	Shayna Baszler	19:21	1
19	Mickie James	Raw	14	Lacey Evans	07:20	0
20	Nikki Cross	Raw	17	Carmella	07:37	0
21	Alicia Fox[b]	Freelance	13	Mandy Rose	01:48	0
22	Mandy Rose	Raw	16	Rhea Ripley	03:49	1
23	Dakota Kai	NXT	15	Rhea Ripley	02:06	0
24	Carmella	SmackDown	18	Tamina	00:47	1
25	Tamina	SmackDown	23	Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler	08:31	1
26	Lana	Raw	26	Natalya	09:58	1
27	Alexa Bliss	Raw	19	Rhea Ripley	01:02	0
28	Ember Moon	NXT	21	Nia Jax	01:51	0
29	Nia Jax	Raw	25	Lana	02:44	4
30	Natalya	SmackDown	27	Bianca Belair	02:00	1

Bayley and the returning Naomi starting this match off was a pleasant surprise, but I'm sure Bayley felt like a colossal dumb ass after going out of her way to get "COLE" cut into her hair, thinking that he would be calling this match. Instead, Cole was regulated to calling the Men's Rumble match instead. Bianca Belair would come in at the #3 spot and this match would honestly stagnate for a while as it was obvious that they were padding the ring for a "big" spot later in this match with more women involved. 

I definitely marked out with laughter at Jillian Hall making her WWE return here in this match. From as much as I cringe and roll my eyes at Billie Kay's "attempts" at comedy and bad acting with her "resume" nonsense on these shows, I did enjoy the unlikely pairing of the two in this match - at least until both members of the Riott Squad joined forces later on. We even got a brief IIconics reunion in this match for a hot minute. 

I still hold my opinion that Jillian Hall's in-ring work is criminally underrated for one of the many talented women during the Diva Search era of WWE's women's division. Thank god that she got all of that bad plastic surgery corrected on her face too. If you have seen her on social media or on that one token appearance on one of IMPACT/TNA Wrestling's Knockout Knockdown PPVs, she looked fucking horrifying at one point. If memory serves, she was going through a rough time in her life personally at the time, so I'm glad that she was able to turn all of that around for the better. 

Victoria makes her WWE return in the 2021 Women's Royal Rumble Match. Too bad she didn't come out to her old entrance music though. 

I was sad that both Jillian Hall AND Victoria, who made her return in this match, couldn't do this in front a crowd of screaming fans. Victoria was on WWE's black ball list for years now for some unknown reason and her entrance in this match was much welcome surprise. If she's not a lock for the Hall of Fame class for this year, then these people are nuts. Besides, who wouldn't be game for some up to date Victoria Mattel WWE figures? She hasn't had one since the Jakks days, right?

Santana Garrett was another welcome surprise in this match because I have absolutely NO idea why this company that has her signed but seems adamant on not doing a damn thing with her in the slightest outside of enhancement or dark matches on either brand. 

My personal pick to win this match, Rhea Ripley, came in at #14. I thought it was hilarious that while Rhea got a little offense in when she arrived into this match, she was floored like a random jobber when Charlotte Flair came in at #15. I was like Jesus Christ, talk about a drive-by. For the duration of the match, Charlotte and Rhea were dead set on completely ignoring each other until the final moments of this match. 

Poor Dana Brooke was murdered by Rhea with a Riptide on the ring apron. 

Torrie Wilson looking as fine as ever. 

Torrie Wilson came in at #1 and hit all of her signature moves on the opposition. Torrie's beauty is timeless, I swear. She looks better and better with age. 

Bayley being eliminated by Bianca was missed by the cameramen as they had to do a replay of it since they were covering Torrie being tossed out by Shayna on the other side of the ring at the same time. 

After this entry, Ric Flair's music hits and I immediately burst out laughing thinking that the Nature Boy is actually entering this match, but it's a distraction for Lacey Evans' arrival wearing the same robe that Charlotte came out wearing earlier. 

Happy to see Foxy back, but did they REALLY need to shoehorn in a 24/7 title comedy spot into this match?

Alicia Fox would come in at #21, only to be followed into the ring by R-Truth who was shouting, "MY BAD! WRONG RUMBLE!!" She pins him for the 24/7 Championship which was a complete waste of time to be doing in the middle of this match. Foxy is another person, much like Jillian Hall, who has been vastly underrated and under-appreciated in hindsight. She wouldn't last too much longer after this spot. 

Naomi and Bianca had one creative as hell spot to save themselves in this match. That was something you have to see to believe, even though I though Naomi was about to pull Bianca's weave/hair extensions out during that at one point.

I laughed my ass off at Rhea Ripley tossing Alexa Bliss out of the ring before she "transformed" into The Fiend. If all of these women had to sell for her tiny ass acting like Kane and no selling their offense then that would have completely ruined this match. Good riddance in that regard. 

(Groans) I STILL hate that they changed Ember Moon's music. 

The only thing good that came out of Lana's return in this match was that she was able to get revenge on Nia Jax for putting her through all of those tables last year with an elimination. It didn't mean shit because Nia and Shayna Baszler (who Nia threw out not too long prior to that) came back in to lay waste to the remaining women, including Natalya (who I could have sworn was walking out nude for a second there from the flesh colored gear she was wearing) who walked out at the #30 spot. 

Great callback from NXT programming about a year ago.

After all that was said and done, the final 3 of this match came down to Rhea Ripley, Bianca Belair, and Charlotte Flair - a clear callback to their encounter together on NXT last year. Rhea and Bianca worked together and got Charlotte out, but it was Bianca who got Rhea out of the ring to become the winner. 

I wasn't mad with this result as WWE did it right with booking the women in this year's Rumble match. Rhea and Bianca being the final two was a defining career moment for both of them. Rhea still has the chance to debut on the main roster and earn her way into a shot for the RAW Women's Championship - something I'm sure Charlotte will win from Asuka before WrestleMania. That way the stage will be set for Charlotte vs. Rhea II as this comes full circle for Rhea to avenge that loss to her from last year's WrestleMania. 

Over on the SmackDown! brand, the obvious money match is Bianca versus Sasha Banks for the SmackDown! Women's Championship. That's the only match-up that hasn't been exhausted at this point, unless they want to make that a triple threat between Bianca, Bayley, and Sasha but that would be overkill at this point to me. 

Bianca Belair's post-match in-ring promo should be praised too as it's very rare that we get raw, authentic emotion from talents like this. You could tell how much this moment meant to Bianca Belair and the skies the limit for her stardom at this point. 

Last Man Standing match for the WWE Universal Championship

Roman Reigns (c) (with Paul Heyman) def. Kevin Owens

As far as these Last Man Standing matches and street fights tend to go in terms of modern day professional wrestling, this wasn't as bad I thought it was going to be going into this show. 

Admittedly, I was still bitter about Adam Pearce being robbed of his opportunity to compete in a WWE ring - where it would have been vastly different than WWE's other part-timers and former stars coming back to relive their former glory as we KNEW Pearce wasn't going to win. It was just the novelty of seeing what this former NWA and PWG World Champion could have done in the ring with someone like Roman Reigns. It would have made for a great narrative to complement an already stellar reign for the "Tribal Chief". In the end, they could have had a wealth of babyfaces come to Pearce's aid in the losing effort when things turned ugly too. Instead, WWE got cold feet to this idea and switched the narrative for Kevin Owens would have yet ANOTHER title shot at Roman's title. What is this, the third losing effort for him? 

To both men's credit, this wasn't that bad of a match. There were a lot of great - yet VERY stupid - spots in this match that I have absolutely no doubt that they will be feeling for the next few days. The thing that ultimately killed this match though was the finish that saw Paul Heyman fail to unlock the handcuffs from around Roman Reigns' wrists for he could answer the ten count. That is, if the referee didn't stop counting to buy them more time to get the cuffs undone. Meanwhile, Kevin Owens is slumped over in the corner stupified like he was dealing with prolonged exposure to the Orb of Confusion, attempting to sell like he was still buying time for the finish. I hate to say it, but those guys put their bodies through the ringer for nothing here after that clusterfuck of a finish. That one botch killed the entire match for not just me but for everyone watching at home. How could you focus on anything but that stupid finish?

The only positive that I could take away from this is that I hope this means that we don't have to see anymore of Kevin Owens going for the title when I'm sure he's going to get slapped with the heat for putting the cuffs on the wrong way, which caused Heyman to be unable to free Reigns in time. 

30-man Royal Rumble Match for a world championship match at WrestleMania 37

Edge won by last eliminating Randy Orton

 

Men's Royal Rumble match entrances and eliminations

  – Raw

  – SmackDown

  – NXT

  – Hall of Famer (HOF)

  – Free agent

  – Winner

Draw	Entrant	Brand/ Status	Order	Eliminated by	Time[34]	Elimination(s)
1	Edge	HOF	—	Winner	1:00:32	3
2	Randy Orton	Raw	29	Edge	1:00:32	0
3	Sami Zayn	SmackDown	2	Big E	13:04	0
4	Mustafa Ali	Raw	4	Big E	13:18	1
5	Jeff Hardy	Raw	1	Dolph Ziggler	03:25	0
6	Dolph Ziggler	SmackDown	9	Kane	20:30	1
7	Shinsuke Nakamura	SmackDown	12	King Corbin	22:01	0
8	Carlito	Freelance	5	Elias	08:26	0
9	Xavier Woods	Raw	3	Mustafa Ali	03:42	0
10	Big E	SmackDown	19	Omos[c]	29:45	4
11	John Morrison	Raw	8	Damian Priest	08:14	0
12	Ricochet	Raw	10	Kane	11:37	0
13	Elias	Raw	6	Damian Priest	02:30	1
14	Damian Priest	NXT	16	Bobby Lashley	15:34	4
15	The Miz	Raw	7	Damian Priest	01:02	0
16	Riddle	Raw	25	Seth Rollins	31:17	1
17	Daniel Bryan	SmackDown	24	Seth Rollins	28:50	1
18	Kane	Freelance	11	Damian Priest	01:51	2
19	King Corbin	SmackDown	14	Dominik Mysterio	03:34	2
20	Otis	SmackDown	13	King Corbin	00:53	0
21	Dominik Mysterio	SmackDown	15	Bobby Lashley	02:00	1
22	Bobby Lashley	Raw	18	Big E, Christian, Daniel Bryan, and Riddle	04:03	3
23	Hurricane Helms	Freelance	17	Big E and Bobby Lashley	00:30	0
24	Christian	Freelance	27	Seth Rollins	18:12	2
25	AJ Styles	Raw	23	Braun Strowman	10:27	0
26	Rey Mysterio	SmackDown	20	Omos[c]	03:47	0
27	Sheamus	Raw	22	Braun Strowman	05:56	0
28	Cesaro	SmackDown	21	Braun Strowman	04:10	0
29	Seth Rollins	SmackDown	28	Edge	08:48	4
30	Braun Strowman	Raw	26	Seth Rollins, Christian, and Edge	07:24	3

When WWE announced the entrants for the #1 and #2 spots on WWE Backstage over the weekend prior to the Rumble, they said Randy Orton and Edge were starting in that order, but when this match started it threw a lot of people off, myself included, that Edge came out first instead. By the time it was over though, I get why they did that. 

I'm going to be blunt here though. The vast majority of this match was downright boring in comparison to the Women's Rumble Match. 

Orton was taken out early in this match after Edge brutalized his knee with a steel chair, causing Orton to be taken to the back by two referees to get checked out. Meanwhile, the commentary team kept saying over and over that he wasn't eliminated from this match, so you KNEW he was coming back at some point. WWE has done this tactic time and time again over the years and rarely fools anyone anymore. Most of this match was spent with me (like most other viewers watching at home) waiting for Orton's inevitable comeback. 

Carlito definitely jacked to the max. Those apples doing wonders for his physique.

Carlito made his WWE return at the #8 spot looking as jacked as ever. You can't tell me those guys from the WWE roster back in 2005-2007 weren't on the juice from how huge those guys now, even now. Carlito works as a bodyguard these days, so the size gain shouldn't be too much of a surprise in that regard. 

I was getting worried too because a lot of fan-favorites poised to win from a lot of predictions floating around online were coming out early into this match too - Shinsuke Nakamura, Ricochet, and Big E. Daniel Bryan (my personal pick to win this match) came out at #17, only to be followed by the return of Kane of all people. We got a brief Team Hell No reunion only for Kane to chokeslam him to the mat like everyone else upon arrival. 

King Corbin got tossed out by Dominik Mysterio... Thank god. Dominik didn't even have time to pat himself out on the back before being tossed out like yesterday's garbage by Bobby Lashley shortly thereafter. To say that he's pushing 44 years old, Lashley's in the best shape of his life. It's now or never to have him headlining some PPVs. He's already doing great things with the Hurt Business. I'm anxious to see what they have planned for him this year at 'Mania. If he's not going to get that Lashley/Lesnar match that he's been pining for (like me), then what are they waiting for? Neither man is getting any younger. 

No amounts of "hurri-powers" were going to make this feat a reality.

Hurricane Helms being in there made for a hilarious spot as he attempted to double chokeslam Lashley and Big E.

Welcome back, Christian.

Comeback moment of the night had to go out to Christian though. He joins Victoria and Jillian Hall of being robbed of an actual live fan reaction (due to this global pandemic) to his return to the ring after a decade away from competition. I still prefer his ring work over Edge if I was given a choice between the two. He came in here and didn't miss a beat at all. It was like he was never away from competition in the least. I hope we get some more matches with him for he can have a proper send-off for his career.

 

The feels for this Edge & Christian reunion.

AJ Styles came in at #25 with his bodyguard, Omos, at ringside clearing house for most of the competition, including Big E and Rey Mysterio before Braun Strowman came out at #30 to throw out Styles on the side of the ring where Omos wasn't standing for he couldn't catch his boss like he was doing up to that point. 

Seth Rollins came in at #29, still hanging onto that dreadful "Messiah" gimmick and groaned out loud so loud in disgust that I'm sure that I woke my neighbors at that point of this PPV. 

When this match came down to Edge, Christian, Braun Strowman, Daniel Bryan, (Matt) Riddle, and Seth Rollins, I was starting to get a bad feeling. Sure, we escaped Goldberg coming back out to win the match from the #30 spot, I didn't care for a laundry list of these options in these final competitors. 

To my dismay, Bryan, Riddle, and Christian were quickly thrown out by Rollins, then Rollins was tossed out by Edge after Strowman wanted nothing to do with a makeshift partnership shortly thereafter. 

We did get a brief E & C reunion out of this, so there's that since Rollins, Edge, and Christian worked together to get Strowman out. I know that I didn't want to see him in another WrestleMania main event anyway. He lucked out into that spot last year and WWE Creative booking after the fact shit the bed with that opportunity last year. Whatever magic that there was to be had with him has been lost thanks to his shitty booking over the past two years and WWE has only themselves to blame on that one. 

Edge is seemingly the last man standing until Orton comes out of nowhere to hit an RKO. He went to dump Edge out of the ring, who completely no sells it and dumps out Orton instead to win the 2021 Rumble from the #1 entry spot. 

Yay... I guess?

I'm going to go in-depth about Edge winning in my closing thoughts, but overall, this men's Rumble match pales in comparison to how well the women's Rumble was booked. This year's Rumble this highlights the point even further that WWE has damaged their own product and perception of a lot of their own talent to the point that it's irredeemable. That's no fault of their talents either. It's their own creative vision - or rather Vince McMahon's vision (or lack of thereof) that is screwing up his own product. From the start to the finish of this entire match, it magnifies all of the glaring issues with their male talent(s) that have not been used nor presented to the masses in the best conceivable way possible. 

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Closing Thoughts:

Both competitors were in their respective Rumbles for all of that time and they only managed to eliminate 3-4 other people is pretty bad if you think about it. In hindsight, that just tells people that you hung back and waited around until the end.

With WWE looking to draw in some new viewers with the move of the WWE Network onto NBC Universal's Peacock streaming app in March, it's time to do a drastic overhaul to this product. But they won't. Why? Because this is a company that relies on temporary band-aids.

I'll start off this rant by sharing two great articles from NoDQ.com that I had the pleasure of reading yesterday morning following the events of this Royal Rumble. 

NoDQ.com - Jay's Ways - Edge/Rumble Hypocrisy?

NoDQ.com - MR. TITO: Triple H's Incompetence Helped Edge Win Rumble

"Make no mistake about it, I am an Edge-Head and have been loving every minute of his redemption/comeback story. The journey just to get back, much less the impossible of winning back a title he never lost ten years ago. it writes itself and is inspiring to many who have never given up. All very heartwarming and wonderful. I just...I don't know. When Bianca Belair won the Women's Royal Rumble Sunday night, I FELT that. When Edge came back last year, I FELT IT! The goosebumps, the chills, the emotion. Edge, now 47, taking all of that to yet another Royal Rumble win and future WrestleMania title shot...

...I didn't feel it."

That right there that quote from the first article that I linked above is EXACTLY how I felt with the conclusion of the Men's Rumble Match. It's nothing against Edge at all - even though I won't say that I was ever one of his biggest fans over the years, but I guess we can be thankful for the fact that we were spared from Goldberg getting the spot instead. 

Is it because everyone loves Edge so much that he gets a pass? For the second year in a row, he's comeback from a career-threatening injury to a breakout performance at the Royal Rumble. There's no doubting that he's going to do well at WrestleMania again like he did last year. No one is doubting that. All that I'm saying is that does he NEED to be winning a championship opportunity when there's so many under-appreciated and up and coming talent on that roster that could desperately use that elevation like it did for Drew McIntyre last year? Edge is a legend in his own right and no one is going to take that away from him at this point. He doesn't need to win the Rumble to earn a title shot. He could have walked in and demanded one like every other part-timer seems to do these days and no one would have batted an eye. 

In that regard, I give Edge props that he earned his shot, but there's already a storyline here in his promo before he even entered the Royal Rumble match. He NEVER lost his World title before he was forced to retire. He could lay claim to an title shot to either Drew McIntyre's WWE Championship or Roman Reigns' Universal Champion anytime he wanted. 

While the second article has a LOT of debatable points, but there's some parts of the article that I agree with, such as the following below:

The fact is that the WWE needs fundamental changes on how they scout and develop talent. Triple H is honestly not the answer as proven by the LACK of World Champions that he personally signed since mid-2012. Until then, the WWE has to make a quick buck in the short-run because they've got NOTHING to work with in the long-run. Short-term, they should consider replacing Matt Bloom as head trainer and consider hiring Rip Rogers in his place. Rip is the one who trained Pat McAfee to look amazing as a non-wrestler and several wrestlers from his training school are popping up here and there. Rip was one of the trainers for Danny Davis and Jim Cornette's Ohio Valley Wrestling for much of the 2000s. Long-term, maybe await Jim Ross's AEW contract to expire during April 2022? Honestly, John Laurinaitis didn't do a bad job in hindsight. If you don't believe me, just revisit my World Champions list above... Mostly John Laurinaitis guys.

Thus, guys like Edge and Goldberg will always be brought back to excite that Median age group of 54 for WWE fans. And it will work everytime until those guys have reached their complete shelf life (Goldberg may have reached it at the Rumble versus Drew, that was rough).

Think of the WWE right now as a failing NFL team that is TERRIBLE with the Draft and also does a TERRIBLE job hiring coaches (Washington, Browns, Bengals, Lions, Jets, and now Texans). But then, that team tries to make a big free agent splash by signing an older name in hopes that he'll carry everything on his back. Doesn't work that way... You need YOUTH and coaches that can put a plan in place for that younger talent to develop. WWE, right now, is doing terribly on scouting athletes to recruit to become potential wrestlers and the Performance Center is doing no favor with the male wrestlers under Matt Bloom as the trainer.

I mentioned on Twitter that Edge's win here was essentially the EXACT same thing as Goldberg winning the spot and people came out of the wood work to defend Edge as what I said was pure blasphemy. It's same thing as in it's another opportunity being taken away from current crop of WWE full-time Superstars. Big whoop that Edge has signed a full-time contract. What's really "full-time" in the current landscape when WWE isn't even touring anymore during this global pandemic with COVID-19 shutdowns and closings with the talents are still drafted to appearing on one show a week. Goldberg is contracted to two matches a year but we still manage to see him pop up all over the year. Same goes for Brock Lesnar when he was still around. 

Edge, just like Goldberg before him, is another temporary band-aid WWE wants to use to get more eyeballs onto their product going into WrestleMania season. They are hoping to draw their lapsed fans back in with the nostalgia gimmick - as usual - to hopefully get you to invest back into the product. I'll give them credit though as this shit works more often than not on me as I tune in for these reunion shows just out of morbid curiosity. 

Don't get me wrong either. I understand that Edge doesn't want to hog the spotlight and genuinely hopes to elevate these talents while he's around, but this win is essentially a double-edged sword. If his win for any of these titles brings back a lot of lapsed fans, then what? It does absolutely nothing for WWE's mindset of confiding into their current crop of talent and continuing to look into the past - rather than forward - for the cornerstones that will carry this company into the future. At the same time, that's not any fault of his own. It's the fault of own WWE's failed system to create new stars to be positioned into being top tier talents. 

All that being said though? I'm not overly enamored with the idea of him challenging for the WWE Championship. WWE Universal Championship, nor the NXT Championship. The ideal scenario for me would be for him to challenge Roman Reigns - in a losing effort - and have Daniel Bryan or Big E challenge Reigns in the build for Summerslam. 

IMPACT Wrestling: Hard To Kill (Jan. 16, 2021) -- Results & Afterthoughts

Hard To Kill (2021) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by Impact Wrestling. It took place on January 16, 2021 at the Skyway Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. It is the second event under the Hard To Kill chronology.

The event crowned the reactivated Impact Knockouts Tag Team Championship's first champions since 2013, with Fire N Flava (Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz) defeating Havok and Nevaeh to win the titles. The main event saw the AEW World Champion Kenny Omega and the Impact World Tag Team Champions The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson) defeat the Impact World Champion Rich Swann, Chris Sabin, and Moose in a Six-man tag team match. Other notable matches saw Manik and Deonna Purrazzo retain the Impact X Division Championship and Impact Knockouts Championship respectively, with Manik defeating Chris Bey and Rohit Raju in a Triple Threat match and Purrazzo defeating Taya Valkyrie. The event also saw Matt Cardona make his debut in Impact Wrestling, defeating Ace Austin by disqualification.

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The pre-show had the reveal of Madison Rayne's retirement from in-ring competition. She just graduated from college last year, so it's understandable that she would want to walk away from wrestling (at least for a while) and figure out what she wants to do with the rest of her life. Her contributions to women's wrestling - not just limited to IMPACT Wrestling but to the wrestling industry as a whole - are legendary in its own right. She doesn't have to prove anything else to anyone in my book. 

Results:

Singles Match

Brian Myers defeated Josh Alexander

Intergender Tag Team Match

Decay (Rosemary and Crazzy Steve) defeated Tenille Dashwood and Kaleb with a K

This was a cold open for this PPV. This wasn't a bad match, but it wasn't an overly exciting one either. In hindsight, I think that they should have gone with the X-Division triple threat to start things off, but then again, it felt like this show was gradually building up to a crescendo in terms of match quality as the night went on. My biggest complaint about this match is that it felt more at place on one of the weekly television episodes of IMPACT Wrestling rather than a PPV match. 

We would see the members of Decay join Taya Valkyrie at ringside for her match later tonight though. 

Old School Rules Six-man Tag Team Match

Violent by Design (Eric Young, Deaner, and Joe Doering) def. Cousin Jake, Rhino, and Tommy Dreamer

This was an OKAY match, but it was here mostly as a display of force by Violent by Design. Joe Doering is just great and this new direction for Deaner I'm all for instead of him being a stereotypical "southern rassler". Glad to see Eric Young is able to continue thrive as the deranged mastermind of these heel factions.

Tournament Final Tag Team Match for the revived Impact Knockouts Tag Team Championship

Fire N Flava (Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz) def. Havok and Nevaeh

This wasn't the best women's tag team match, but it was a fun match to watch bell to bell. I was so happy for Keira and Tasha to pick up the win here too. Havok and Nevaeh did a fine job putting over these two women for their first taste of championship gold in this company.


Even four days later, I'm a little surprised at the lack of widespread support for these ladies. This is the first BLACK (Tasha's technically Afro-Latina FYI) women's tag team in a major American promotion to win a women's tag team championship. This should be getting more attention and praise... Y'know, "For the culture!" I'm just sayin'. Either way, I'm proud of Keira and Tasha. They worked hard for this spot and it was well deserved. I can firmly support their heel antics without being utterly disgusted by it like I was with Sasha Banks and Bayley last year.

Singles Match

Matt Cardona def. Ace Austin (with Madman Fulton) by disqualification

I had to bust out laughing at the former Zack Ryder's debut since Matt Striker was acting like this was a major signing. No one cared when he showed up in AEW and I seriously doubt he moved the needle when he debuted here. The only thing I can say at least now that he's here that means that the Nightmare Family in AEW has one less member to their not-so-angry mob of wrestlers in association to Cody Rhodes, riding off his coat tails.

Triple threat Match for the Impact X Division Championship

Manik (c) def. Chris Bey and Rohit Raju

I jokingly said this during the PPV on Twitter and I'll repeat myself here again too. This match was TOO damn good for it's own good. Stellar match from bell to bell, with Chris Bey being the MVP of this match without a shadow of a doubt. The action kept you guessing from start to finish on who was going to walk away as the X-Division Champion, but it ultimately came down to Manik retaining.


If you don't want to see anything on this show outside of the main event, do yourself a favor and check out this match as well.

Singles Match for the Impact Knockouts Championship

Deonna Purrazzo (c) def. Taya Valkyrie by submission

This was another good title defense by Deonna Purrazzo. Unfortunately, this wasn't the best Taya match that I had the pleasure of seeing. If this was her last match for the company as she was doing the honors on her way out, it could have been a lot worse, so there's that I guess. I personally got a kick out of Susan (Su Yung's newest gimmick/split personality) recording the match on her phone like a stereotypical "Karen", even while her, Kimber Lee, Rosemary, and Crazzy Steve were ejected from ringside. I didn't understand that decision as them not being at ringside had any effect on the remainder of the match.

On the 1/19/21 edition of IMPACT Wrestling on AXS, Taya was found guilty to the attempted murder of John E. Bravo during his wedding to Rosemary. As Taya was being dragged away by the cops, Tommy Dreamer made a joke about her either going to Jacksonville, FL or going "up north" to Stamford, CT to be locked up for three to five years. That's obviously a reference to either AEW or WWE. It would make sense for her to want to join her husband, John Morrison, in WWE, though. I'm guessing that since COVID-19 has limited, if not eliminated completely, all of her international travel to and back to Mexico to compete with AAA, so that would be the most logical bet. Then again, AEW's Women's Division could use more high profile names to beef up that division of women who are clearly not television ready. She could definitely help in that regard. As for a WWE run, I won't deny that I wouldn't mark out for her being a surprise entrant in the Women's Royal Rumble match, but then I would get sad because I know that company wouldn't have the slightest idea how to book her properly. Hell, I wouldn't mind seeing her as a one-off in a future Mae Young Classic as well. Whenever Taya ends up, she's definitely going to be an asset to whatever women's division that she's a part of. 

The saddest part of this narrative is that Rosemary is never able to hang onto the friends that she makes. First she lost her Bunny AKA Allie, and now she lost the Valkyrie. 

In either case, Deonna continues to shine in this role as IMPACT Knockouts Champion. I honestly don't see her losing that title anytime soon, unless they have plans to build up a new challenger during the next set of TV tapings to setup an opponent for her at Rebellion. If I were to guess right now, it would more likely be Tenille Dashwood since she never lost her opportunity at the gold before her unfortunate injury, if memory serves. 

Singles Match

The Karate Man def. Ethan Page via murder.

This is only a portion of the entire "match" if you could even call this one, but it was hilariously stupid in the same vein as the "Broken" Matt Hardy stuff. I don't understand why Ethan Page was so upset and mad at the editing of this thing either. What else was he expecting with this storyline? Steven Spielberg couldn't even do better with this material. While live-tweeting during the show, I had jokingly suggested editing this match like a mirror match in the vein of the old live-action Mortal Kombat video game motion capture sessions, but they went all in with that apparently. All that being said, this TOTALLY fits the narrative that Ethan Page had went completely into the deep end after losing the IMPACT Tag Team Championships. 

I don't know where Page is going to end up next, but I feel bad that we're not getting The North vs. FTR now in any capacity since he's left the company. I have no doubt in my mind that Josh Alexander will continue to thrive as a singles competitor, but man, that was the match at the top of my wishlist of potential bouts between AEW and IMPACT Wrestling talent during this working relationship. 

Barbed Wire Massacre

Eddie Edwards def. Sami Callihan

The biggest takeaway for me with this match was seeing the unique take on the appearance of a barbwire match in modern wrestling. This didn't look completely low key or "outlaw", but instead, IMPACT clearly put some thought into how this should look visually while having enough foresight to allow the guys to have some freedom to be able to do all of their moves without any restrictions. A traditional barbwire match doesn't have any ropes, so you can't rebound off of the ropes or do moves off the top rope (unless you were just flat out crazy like Sabu). In that regard, I tip my hat to IMPACT for constructing this "playground" of sorts with all of that in mind. 

As for a match though, I can't say that I was particularly blown away by this. Going in, you know what to expect from these hardcore matches involving both Eddie Edwards and Sami Callihan, so there wasn't really much to surprise people with. I did get a good laugh at the Nintendo 64 controller being wrapped in barbwire. Anyone who has played one of those for any extended period of time can tell you that the barbwire is overkill and completely unnecessary when that thing can slice up your thumbs no problem all on its own. 

Eddie managed to win the match with one of Misawa's signature moves, so that was an added plus. 

Main Event: Six-man Tag Team Match

Kenny Omega and The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson) (with Don Callis) def. Rich Swann, Chris Sabin, and Moose

Alex Shelley was originally booked to be in this main event, but had to back out of the event, due to unforeseen circumstances. He stated in a separate interview video on social media that IMPACT shared earlier that day that it wasn't COVID-19 nor injury related, but merely a situation out of his control. I'm not going to dwell on it, but I'm hope that he's okay in the long run. 

As a result of Shelley's absence, Moose was named as his replacement. Earlier in the show, Moose confronts his teammates and kept it real for Sabin and Swann. He reminded them both that when he was in the NFL, he worked with numerous teammates that he couldn't stand but he kept it professional and gave it 110%. Tonight would be no different as he bleeds IMPACT Wrestling. This was very interesting too because Don Callis attempted to court Moose too, reminding him not to do anything rash as he still had two more years left on his contract, but Moose didn't back down and even threatened to take Kenny Omega's AEW World Championship after he was done with Rich Swann for the IMPACT World Championship. 

From the way that I interpreted all of this, it made perfect sense as Moose was protecting his future investments. 

As for the match itself, I dare say that this was the best thing on the PPV if that X-Division match didn't occur earlier in the night. Moose was easily the MVP here, leaving me with the feeling that I want to see Moose against Kenny Omega rather than Omega vs. Swann. IMPACT has a few weeks to set this up, but I rather see a triple threat between those guys rathar than Swann against Omega one on one. I was utterly shocked that Omega pinned Swann clean in the finish as I thought they would have had Sabin eat the pin out of all of the names involved here in this match. Omega pinning Swann inserts him easily into the IMPACT World title picture if his quest of belt collecting is set out to start here in 2021. My only fear is how long is IMPACT going to wait around to pull the trigger on Moose as IMPACT World Champion. Between the win over EC3 in their feud and everything since then, this guy is ready made to take that title from Swann. Please don't repeat the mistake they made back at Slammiversary XVI back in 2018. Moose was ready for the main event run after potentially winning the gold from Austin Aries, but he was beaten by Aries only to become his hired muscle shortly thereafter. That shit made absolutely no goddamn sense and hurt Moose in the long-run until now. If Swann loses the IMPACT title to Omega, then Moose absolutely has to be the one to win it from him. It just depends on how long will IMPACT allow Omega to hold their top title while prolonging the inevitable match-up against Moose until Slammiversary (late summer) or Bound for Glory (fall). 

 

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Closing Thoughts:

This was a solid show, topped off by an excellent main event. There's no clear sight on where this partnership with IMPACT Wrestling is going to end up, it's definitely looking beneficial for the IMPACT talents that get to share screen time with the AEW World Champion. Besides with Kenny Omega continuing to make regular appearances on their programming, it's only going to continue bringing more eyes onto their product, so it's win-win all around.