WWE Greatest Royal Rumble 2018 Review (Part 2)

The fallout from WrestleMania spills into Saudi Arabia as WWE brings its biggest Royal Rumble event ever with the Greatest Royal Rumble. John Cena and Triple H face off once again in their first match in nearly a decade, Brock Lesnar defends his Universal Championship against Roman Reigns in a Steel Cage and 50 men battle each other in the biggest Royal Rumble match ever!

Match 6: WWE Intercontinental Championship - Ladder - Seth Rollins (c) vs. The Miz vs. Samoa Joe vs. Finn Balor
Seth Rollins defends his Intercontinental Championship in a WrestleMania rematch with Samoa Joe being added to the mix to spice things up. This is certainly an internet wrestling fan's dream with all the internet favorites being in one match. Who would have guessed I would being saying that about The Miz. Fun match here with the crowd really getting behind Rollins here. I mean, whenever you add these guys and ladders to a ring, you get good stuff. Wish this was given a few more minutes and we probably could have gotten a real show stealer here. Finn Balor looked to capture the win and the championship before Rollins would spring out of nowhere onto a ladder and grabbed the title right in front of Balor to retain the gold. Again, really fun match despite them not really breaking out all the stops.
Winner: Seth Rollins
Rating: ***1/2

Match 7: WWE Championship - AJ Styles (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
These two had a fairly disappointing match at WrestleMania and the rematch sees Shinsuke Nakamura going against AJ Styles as a heel. Of course, Nakamura's new finisher is the devastating low blow and had been using it to perfection leading up to this match. Although the crowd barely payed any attention to the action in the ring, they were treated to a solid display of action and a nice balance of offense from each side. Nakamura went back to his mischievous ways as he gave Styles another one of his patented low blows as the referee had his back turned. Here, Styles absolutely snapped and gave Nakamura a beating outside the ring as the referee counted them both out. Afterwards, Styles continued his onslaught and capped it off with a Phenomenal Forearm to Nakamura outside the ring. Solid match here as expected from the two. Loved the double countout finish as this helps build their feud and gives them a reason to have another rematch with a stipulation added at the next PPV.
Winner: n/a (double countout)
Rating: ***1/4

Match 8: Casket - Rusev vs. The Undertaker
This is The Undertaker's first Casket match since 2008 where he went against The Big Show at Survivor Series. His newest victim... Rusev. As expected, this match was more style than actual substance. Rusev was very intimidated by The Deadman and the casket early on before somewhat getting into his groove and supplying a tad bit of offense. Undertaker was able to hit a Chokeslam on Rusev before hitting a Tombstone on Aiden English where he placed both of them in the casket to win the match. This was basically just The Undertaker squashing the popular team of Rusev and Aiden English. Sucks that somebody had to eat the L against The Undertaker here but The Phenom is like a god in Saudi Arabia, they gotta throw him a cookie. As much as I love The Undertaker, I think we are all ready to move on.
Winner: The Undertaker
Rating: *1/4

Match 9: WWE Universal Championship - Steel Cage - Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Roman Reigns
While this is only their third encounter ever, the internet fans still had their panties in a bunch at this point because they were so tired of this same match happening again. Like their previous encounter, this match consisted of the two delivering their biggest blows with F5s, Superman Punches and Spears galore throughout. I mean, I can't really be the only one who enjoys these two heavyweights beating the crap out of each other? For the life of me, I will never understand the hate for these guys. Maybe because they don't do any flips, that'd be my only assumption. After the two beat the crap out of each other, Reigns finally gets the upper hand and goes for a Spear on Lesnar who is lodged between the ring ropes and the steel cage. The Spear breaks through the cage and Lesnar is declared the winner as he "touches the floor first" over Reigns. Interesting finish that certainly sets up a rematch down the line which I love considering how much it annoyed the internet fans.

Winner: Brock Lesnar
Rating: ***1/4

Match 10: 2018 Greatest Royal Rumble
50 men enter the main event here to declare the winner of the biggest Royal Rumble match in the history of the WWE. I don't really even know where to get started with this one. Let's just start off by saying... 50 entrants is way too much and after a very long show, an extremely long match like this one doesn't particularly sound too appetizing. With 50 entrants, you get a good amount of talent that you've never heard of or seen before. While it could be a solid way to get some of these guys over, they were usually just quickly tossed out before I could even remember their names. Keep in mind that everybody's music just about sounds the same and the crowd could not care to even differentiate some of them. The best moments of the match were the times I has hit with nostalgia as guys like Kurt Angle, Rey Mysterio, Shane McMahon and even The Great Khali gave some sparks to the match. But I would be remiss if I didn't mention the names of Daniel Bryan and Titus O'Neil. Bryan shined throughout the match and lasted longer than any other Rumble competitor, fine way to get his star going again since making his return. And of course, Titus gave us the entrance of the century where he slid under the ring when he was running down from his entrance. Truly made this Rumble match stand out from all the other ones. But of course, the biggest star of the show was Braun Strowman who tore everybody apart and even threw Shane through an announcers table from the top rope. Strowman was able to toss Big Cass out of the ring to win the match and close out the night to an impressive display of fireworks. Long and fairly boring for the better part of the match before finally picking up later on. No reason why Strowman shouldn't have been given a title shot after this.

Winner: Braun Strowman
Rating: **3/4

Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
While certainly one of the biggest spectacles the WWE has ever presented, the quality of the show wasn't able to match that energy. There was some good and some bad here, almost like this was the biggest house show the WWE ever rolled out. Watch it for the pageantry of the event and not so much the actual quality of the matches.
Rating: 7.25/10