It might as well be.

It had a stacked card, and there were plenty of memorable moments throughout the five hour long event (seven if you started with the preshow). However, there were some duds in their too, and given that it’s the WWE, they might as well be expected.

The Kickoff Show

The preshow matches started off awkwardly with the Raw tag champs Roode and Gable facing off against a randomly thrown together tag team of Akam from AOP and Scott Dawson from the Revival. It felt meaningless and just thrown together for the sake of another match on the preshow.

The next match, Shinsuke Nakamura vs Rusev for the United States title, was surprisingly good that worked well with the two competitors’ contrasting styles. The finish with Rusev accidentally hurting Lana’s ankle and Nakamura capitalizing with a Kinshasa to the head was great. It’s good to see Nakamura win back the US title.

It’s a bit bittersweet that Nakamura won last year’s Royal Rumble and is in the preshow in this one.

It’s a small consolation that he went on to have a small but notable stint in the Rumble match later on.

The Cruiserweight title Fatal Four Way was criminally great, and it’s unfair that the cruiserweights continue to get shafted to the preshow. There was fast paced action and a lot of visually pleasing high flying spots. Hideo Itami was my favorite to win this, so it’s a disappointing that Buddy Murphy retained. However, Murphy is a good champ, and it will be interesting to see how things progress for him going forward.

The Women Steal the Show (and Shane’s Punches are Still Bad)

The proper show opened with a fantastic encounter where both women looked strong and determined to come out on top. There was some constant back and forth between the two, and the story going in about Asuka being possibly unable to overcome the white hot Becky Lynch created a sense of urgency. The finish included both trading each other’s submissions, before Asuka locking in the Asuka Lock for the win.

It’s great that Becky put Asuka over, because she needed to look strong after getting lost in the shuffle for a while.

I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of the next match, with Shane McMahon and the Miz taking on the Bar for the Smackdown Tag Team titles, but this match was as fun as it could have been under the circumstances. The Bar looked good, as usual, and Shane McMahon’s punches were as bad looking as ever. The finish was surprising, with Shane hitting a surprisingly good Shooting Star Press for the win.

The next match, with Sasha Banks taking on Ronda Rousey for the Raw Women’s Title, had great storytelling. Sasha had established going into this that she was a much better and more accomplished wrestler than Ronda was, and it was up to Ronda to prove her wrong.

From very early on, Banks targeted Rousey’s arm, even locking in a few armbars. She looked great and like a legit threat again, and although the finish with Ronda retaining after a Piper’s Pit was disappointing, it’s understandable.

The Women’s Royal Rumble match started off slow, although the steady stream of NXT entrants such as Kairi Sane, Io Shirai and Candice Lerae made the match more interesting. Seeing Rhea Ripley, the former NXT UK Champion, was a nice surprise as well.

Lacy Evans got a strong showing, entering at number one and lasting a good while. Natalya was the Iron Woman of the match, lasting a good forty five minutes. Kacy Catanzaro and Naomi had some cool spots with preventing their eliminations and getting back to the ring.

Things started to pick off once Nikki Cross and Ruby Riot came in. Ruby Riot’s teammates, Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan (both previously eliminated) dragged multiple competiors down from the ring and beat them up. Zelina Vega had a hilarious spot where she hid under the ring, periodically poking out and smiling devilishly, before spotting Hornswoggle peeking out as well and scarily scurrying back to the ring. A later spot between Alicia Fox and Maria Kannelis where Maria destroyed Alicia’s hat, who subsequently threw a tantrum, was cringey and a sore spot in an otherwise good match.

The arena exploded when Becky Lynch came out to replace an injured Lana.

When she eliminated Nia Jax, however, Jax retaliated by hurting Lynch’s knee, which made the final two struggle between her and Charlotte more precarious.

Becky overcoming the odds was a great moment, and probably the best feel good moment of the night.

Can the Men Follow?

The next match, with Styles facing off against Daniel Bryan for the WWE title was put in a bad spot. They also worked a slow and methodical match, which left the already exhausted crowd dead silent. Their work was decent, although not as good as their previous encounter at TLC. The finish with Rowan interfering and costing Styles the match was surprising, and hopefully this bodes well for this feud going forward.

Finn Balor taking on Brock Lesnar was gruesome to watch. He flew back every once in a while when Brock connected with his strikes, and the way he grimaced in pain after being thrown around with belly to belly suplexes was something to see. Brock, however, was hurting after being shoved into the corner of an announce table, in a call back to his issues with diverticulitis. This allowed Finn to make his comeback, hitting three back to back tope con hilos followed by the Coup de Grace. Brock countered soon after with a Kimura lock to win the match.

The post match beatdown illustrated Lesnar’s frustration of having come this close to losing. It was pretty good for a Lesnar match, but it still feels a little weak compared to the other showings so far.

The main event, the Men’s Royal Rumble, started off with a surprise pairing of Elias and Jeff Jarrett. Seeing Elias break his guitar on Jarrett’s back was so satisfying!

There was also plenty of attention paid to running feuds, with Mustafa Ali eliminating Samoa Joe and Dolph Ziggler eliminating Drew Mcyintre. I was surprised by that one as I expected Mcyintre to last till at least the final four. It was also great to see several NXT folks such as Johnny Gargano and Aleister Black in the Rumble, and even Pete Dunne who snapped many people’s fingers in the match. Black snapping his fingers back was a great moment.

It was a bit clear from the moment Lashley laid Rollins out on the announcer’s table that Rollins was going to win. The last minute swerve with Nia Jax taking R Truth’s spot also led to what is maybe the best random moment of the event, with Jax eating a RKO from Orton after getting hit with a superkick and 619.

The final exchange between Braun and Seth was fraught, and the final tumble outside the ropes, ending with a curb stomp to eliminate Strowman was a great touch.

It’s great to see Seth win, but this match wasn’t as good as the women’s rumble this time.

The Verdict

Overall, it was a highly entertaining PPV that kicked off the road to Wrestlemania 35 in earnest. It’s great to see the promise of a new era starting to be borne out in earnest. Here’s to seeing what the next few months bring.