Royal Rumble reaction: Were you fooled by Roman Reigns too?

Zach and I hit the Fourth Wall podcast waves right after Sunday night’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view, which we agreed was a decent show.

Here was our breakdown of the men’s Royal Rumble match:

Pete: “I wasn’t in love with the match at the beginning, but as it went on, it got more and more fun. I thought there were some really good spots. I love the Heath Slater moment where he couldn’t get in the ring and all of a sudden, he eliminates Sheamus. I love Kofi standing on the pancakes. I loved seeing Hurricane Helms, Rey Mysterio. And for how big of a moment it should be, I think they nailed the final four, having Roman Reigns, John Cena, Finn Balor and Shinsuke Nakamura.”

Zach: “I thought it was really great. You nailed it. They did a good job working in fun, interesting little bits early on. The booking of these Royal Rumble matches, it’s different than anything they do all year, so they have to get creative. How do you create distinct, little moments? They are a little hamstrung in terms of what they can do when the ring gets really crowded, so they have to get creative with these spots. Like you said, with Kofi’s pancakes—hilarious, really fun. Heath Slater not being able to make it to the ring, that was hilarious. That was really well done and then by the time they get down to it towards the end, then they can really start doing some storytelling. My inner mark, I was getting worked. I was getting worked as soon as I woke up this morning. I’m thinking, ‘I know Seth Rollins has a storyline right now with Jason Jordan, but you never know. He could win the Royal Rumble,’ and then he makes a little run and he kind of makes it late, and I got my hopes up and I thought Seth could maybe do this. And, I haven’t been as angry about wrestling as I was this evening in a long time when Roman eliminated Seth. I hate Roman Reigns now. I never felt super strongly. I’m not going to get in the Roman Reigns debate, but when he eliminated Seth, I was like, ‘That’s it. I’ve had it with this guy,’ and when he made it to the final four, I was like, ‘You better not.’”

Pete: “I think the final two between Reigns and Nakamura was so good because you can feel, I think, the tension in Philadelphia, and even as a wrestling fan in general. I think the general consensus for people our age—late 20s, been fans of this forever—really, really don’t want to see Roman Reigns win in that spot. So you’re so scared he’s going to win and then right at the end, Nakamura does it.”

We discuss the rest of the pay-per-view, including the women’s Royal Rumble, Ronda Rousey’s debut and more. You can listen on the player below, or if you can’t see it, by clicking here.