The Press Box - Ep. 247: 'The Masked Man Show' Royal Rumble Live Review!

Episode Date: January 30, 2017

The Ringer's David Shoemaker, Bleacher Report's Dave Schilling, and "The King of Sad Style" Dan St. Germain react to the 'Royal Rumble' results and answer viewer questions about the pay-per-view and the road to 'WrestleMania.' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Ringer Royal Rumble After Show. Clearly, I picked Randy Jordan in the pool. I don't know if I won or I lost, but let's go, but before we get to the results, let's go straight to the picks that we just made. You can see up on the screen, I felt really lucky, man. I had some good ones, but let's start with Dan. Is that right?

Yeah, that's me. All right, Dan, yeah. I mean, you made some good picks right now. You had a chance to really come strong tonight. Dave? I had Goldberg. We really thought that that was going to be. But you know what?

I felt like from the moment that I picked Braun Strowman, I really felt like I had the lead. And then at the end, we were sitting there, Dan, you had Bray Wyatt. But I was sitting pretty with both Roman Reigns and the much rumored, the much, Ballyhooed, Randy Orton. Ballyhooed, I don't know about that, but yeah, for sure.

No, that's not, that's not a, that's not a reference to any former WWB Bookers. But, listen, it was a, it was a weird finish of the Rumble. The show up to that point had been pretty good. I got to say, one of my favorite rumbles of all time minus the Royal Rumble match itself. Yeah, that's very rare that the Rumble match is the worst match on the card. Without a doubt the worst match on the card. Yeah. And even if we don't want to talk about, like, you know, who won and all that kind of Mark stuff, just the spots themselves weren't exciting.

There wasn't really an exciting Kofi Kingston spot. Yeah. There wasn't an exciting person you didn't think was going to be there that showed up. It was. Well, Ty Dillinger. Ty Dillinger, I guess. But Ty Dillinger is, again, I was never that hyped for Ty, only because I knew that that would be the level of reaction, the level of ante. And there was no expectation for what happens next.

Ty Dillinger is not going to be shotgun to the title picture. Listen, if you have questions you want us to answer, you can tweet us with the hashtag Ringer Rumble or go to just our Facebook page, Facebook.com slash Ringer and hit us up with questions there on the post. I think to Kofi Kingston's spot was the entire Royal Rumble of 2017 and a little metaphorical nutshell. They were just like, hey, we got these cool new ring posts,

let's do something with that. and they kind of thought the fact that the ringposts were cool would be enough to carry a crappy spot, and it wasn't that at all. It was like it was just sort of a letdown. I don't want to get too deep in the hate because, you know, four hours ago, it's a lifetime ago, but I was sort of intrigued by this Randy Orton winning the Rumble situation, you know? I guess it's a different look. And listen, I'm on the record saying that Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho is where the universal belt should be.

that should be part of that feud. I really like the idea of the WWE title being part of the Orton feud just to kind of give some credence to those feuds. But I mean, I'm almost reluctant to say it. I feel like I was just wrong. We were all shitting on the idea of Sina

and Raines going into the WrestleMania's champs. But is that preferable to where we are now? I don't even know, Dan. Well, you know, I will give them to me credit. If you're going to get a pop out of Randy Orton winning, The Royal Rumble, the only way to do that would be having him eliminate Roman Reigns. That was the only way.

The crowd was like, yeah! And they're like, oh, no. I don't, you know, like, again, the Sina A.J. match was terrific. The Roman Rains, Kevin Owens match was great. Very good. So I have no complaints on the undercard. It's just a really weird wrestle. I still think the mania is going to be way better than last year,

but I think they're setting up a weird card where, where right now conventional wisdom would be that, you know, Wyatt, because they're not going to do Sina Orton, right? So it's going to, I mean, Jesus Christ. I mean, if they headline with Sina Orton. That would be the most insane mood. Like, that would be Vince is really going crazy. But I think it's going to probably be what Wyatt, Orton,

and Jericho Owens right now, or maybe, maybe Raines and Taker. It seems like it was setting up for Reins Stroman, right, after the end of the Raines-Owens match. And then you would just sort of, by default, you would say, after the Rainey Orton rumors, okay, it's going to be Seen Undertaker, right? Because those are the two big names that are left. But then after the Rumble, didn't it really look like that we're headed towards Reins Undertaker? I mean, where do you think we're going? We're definitely headed towards that.

At this point, you do think there must be a blow off for Stroman Reins because it was a huge deal. It was pivotal to the finish of the match. But Reins and Undertaker also feels like a WrestleMania match. I would rather have Raines Wrestling Undertaker, keep that as a special attraction, and let Stroman continue to build. Don't just put Raines over Stroman clean at WrestleMania and destroy Stroman. Yeah. I mean, Undertaker needs to be in there with somebody who's younger.

And you look at Undertaker Range and you're like, well, this sort of looks right, It looks like a son fighting his father almost, you know? Like, you know, like on Christmas Eve. Right. Like, they get drunk. It kind of looks correct. But again, I think the most fascinating thing about this mania is going to be we, Goldberg and Wesner is a higher, is a more important match, right?

Undertaker and, uh, every fight. And probably Roman Rains is going to be a more important match. Seth Rallens, Triple H is probably going to be a more important match. Shaq and Biggs should probably be a more match. Sina by default, whatever matches, he's in. Shane McMahon. If that's what they do, yeah. Like literally, like literally as there was going to be a figuratively,

but they're like Kevin Owens and Jericho, if that's a title match and Wyatt and Orton are almost like, like underneath all those matches. But that's why you put the belts on those two matches to elevate them to the level of WrestleMania. Right. And so that all of us, Marks who were saying that those feuds don't need the belts

can now move directly into saying quit like undermining the belts by putting them on mid-card feuds. We're never happy. I'm going to take this, I'm going to take this belt off right now in celebration of that, and we're going to go to some viewer questions. Let me see what we got right here. Okay. Time Mac 32 asks, what do you think about saving the big names to the end of the match

and how rough did the Undertaker look? I thought that the saving big names in the match thing, My only problem was that, I mean, maybe they were saying this on their audio was a little bit weird, but like, I wasn't quite sure how many wildcards were left, and so it runs up to the end. And that's always rough. Like, I feel like 30 should always be a surprise. Even if it's an obvious surprise, even if it's, you know, Ray Mysterio coming out instead of Daniel Bryan or whatever. Like, it should always be a surprise. But I thought they booked it pretty well.

I mean, considering that like. Entrance-wise? Just the sequence and the way it played out, it's not, nothing's ideal. but when you have Goldberg and Brock Lesnar and the Undertaker, all guys who were probably on like, you know, Jewel and Bede-style minute limits for the Royal Rumble, it's like there's only so much you can really do. And also keeping all that kind of canned,

keeping all that the pops, the hype, everything can. What do you think, Dave? I think it was booked as well as it could, other than the fact that I had to deal with the Roman Rains thing. Undertaker, obviously, Goldberg, obviously. As you said, not capable. of wrestling longer than, you know, five to ten minutes. And historically, the Royal Rumble always has the big names at the end.

It's very rare that you have them sprinkled out. It's usually like from 20 to 30. That's when your top stars start to come out. Yeah. So I thought it was fine in that respect. Dan, any thoughts? There was a lull. There was a huge lull in the middle where it got kind of boring.

I mean, we got a, the question that people keep asking, on Twitter, on Facebook is, I'll just read A Dangerese question. Does this mean Orton versus Sina volume infinity plus one at Mania? It's got to be Ray Wyatt. I really doubt it. I really doubt that I think that...

For those watching that aren't, I mean, that maybe like, you know, part-time viewers of the WWE product, I know all three of you exist out there and are watching this, but the idea basically being that whoever won this match wins a shot at their brand's championship

at the Royal Rumble, I mean, at WrestleMania. Sina won the Smackdown title, the W.W.E. title earlier in the night against AJ Stiles and what was honestly my favorite John Sina match of all time. So logically, this means Orton and Sina are facing off at WrestleMania. However, between now and WrestleMania, we have a Smackdown-only pay-per-view called the Elimination Chamber where the six top stars of Smackdown will be locked in a steel cage and some of them are in pods and it's all kind of dumb. And then the winner of that match is the champion. So it's possible

that Sina hands off, drops the title to, say, Bray Wyatt, so then the Bray Wyatt or Fude can have the bell at WrestleMania. Meanwhile, Sina goes on to face someone else, but the way this, like we said, the way this is all shaking out, I mean, maybe this is Sina Orton. Maybe it's Sina Orton, Bray Wyatt, and a three way. It seems like there's, it seems like we're headed towards a three way, which is a thing that I say a lot, but this is a very, but this is a really weird situation where is it like, is it a Rainstaker Stroman three way? Or is it, or is they're going to be, I don't know, it's all very strange. I think that as frustrated as Dan is about Orton winning the Rumble,

I'm equally as excited at the idea that Bray Wyatt will win the WWE title at Elimination Chamber. It's a long time coming. He spent so many years being sort of tossed around and treated poorly in his booking. And so this is a great time for him to be taking the belt off of John Sina at a big pay-per-view and going at WrestleMania. as a champion. It's fine. Yeah, I don't mind that. I'm just,

I'm, I'm, I'm just, we're confused about where we're going otherwise, but I guess that's the wonderful thing about the Royal Rumble. That confusion reigns. No pun intended. Yeah, I mean, I think that, I mean, right now it just seems like, I even think that Wembe at this point is like, no Sina Orton. That's not, I really

don't think that's going to happen. That's impossible that that's going to happen. There's no logical way. I think it'll probably be Sina Samoa Joe. I'm not, I don't know. I mean, that's a, Seena's, Sina may be pulling the John Sina. What is now just the John Sita move, right? Which is putting somebody incredible over. He's taking Jericho's mantle.

Jericho's basically moved into a Sina's main event spot on Raw, and Sina's just taking the mantle of the guy that puts other guys over at WrestleMania. Let's see. Timothy, we're going to keep coming back to Sina Orr. And a lot of people, and Bray Wyatt, too, as we keep talking. KM. 11 asks, where were Somalore? Joe or Finn Baller. You brought up, you brought up Samoa Joe.

I mean, I think that that's, I think that's a really legitimate question. I mean, I think the answer is Finn Baller wasn't ready to come back, and they already had all this booking in place before they knew whether or not. It doesn't make any sense for him to come back during the Rumble. Yeah, unless he was going to win it. Yeah. Otherwise, why waste the pop? Yeah.

Yeah, no, I think that's absolutely true. I mean, I think Samoa Joe would have, I mean, listen, I like Ty Dillinger as much as the next guy, but Samoa Joe in that spot would have been a more exciting move. But if they're going to have Orton win, then, you know, and you want Joe to make a big entrance than having him attack John Cena. I agree. I mean, I, I think that the logic is there. I just think that, you know, it's not hard to make a guy look good in the rumble.

I mean, of all the people that were in the rumbleville that came out looking good that didn't win, I mean, there's a handful of them, right? I mean, it's not like it's that difficult. Timothy Rendon on Facebook asked, where you surprised at how early Stroman got eliminated. I mean, he got his chance to shine and then he got his elimination at the hands of, you know, a competing young monster. I don't know, what do you think?

I thought it was totally appropriate. You can't keep him in there forever because eventually he has to start selling, he has to start getting beat up by the big names when they come in, much better to just get him out, have him do his thing, and then eliminate him. And he came out looking great. It was awesome.

Yeah, I thought he looked up. Dad James Ellsworth elimination still hurts me to think about. He's not going to think about Bronstrom, and he's not, we're talking about Brownstone. Sure. Whatever you want to talk about. He's not going to take, he's not going to take the Goldberg spot. He's not going to take the Brock Lesnar spot when they leave. He's not going to take the big show or the cane spot.

So you have an impressive shelling that ultimately through teamwork they get rid of them. Sure. You know, maybe the Yoko Zuna spot, but he's not going to be, he's not going to be, he's not. He's great. I love Braun Stroma, but he's not a once-in-a-lifetime talent. Well, no, I mean, but I think the right comparison is Kane, and that can be much more useful than a once-in-a-lifetime talent, especially, you know, with WWB's touring schedule and such.

Yeah, I mean, I think that the biggest surprise that Stroman's elimination wasn't when it happened, but that Roman Raines wasn't involved after that. I mean, I guess tomorrow night on Raw will have a lot more answers, and we always do. And that's sort of the joy and the curse of doing an after show like this. year, you're always sort of just like pressed for trying to come up with answers that you're never going to have. Right. I thought it was peculiar that it was barely mentioned the rest of the night.

And the big takeaway from Roman Reins was eliminating the Undertaker. Right. So we're thinking one thing about where we're going for WrestleMania, and they basically swerve every smart fan who thinks this is the path. Yeah. So, you know, again... But unless I mean, I guess he's been hanging out with Owens and Jericho and stuff on all on occasion. They don't seem to be good friends, but unless the answer is there.

They're just buddies. Like, I don't really, there has to be some fallout to that. I guess it doesn't take as much thought as I'm giving it. I understand that. Okay, let's, okay, at We Have a Gronk, great, great Twitter handle asks, was tonight finally the start of a Raines heel turn? I think it's fair to ask that about John Cena too.

We can look at it both ways. I mean, listen, it was shocking to me not just that Sina was clearly working heel and that Raines got booted out of the building not once, but in two different matches. But that the crowd was so anti-Rains, they seemed like, you know, that they were wrestling in a hipster bar in Brooklyn. I mean, it was the most anti-Rains crowd you could possibly imagine.

But it's very mainstream crowd. But that's just it. They were, they bought into Sina Stiles in the most WWE approved way possible. They were booing AJ who people love respectfully, but booing him. It seemed, at least that was the sound that we got here. Right, right.

And cheering for Sina. Are we going to see a Rain's heel turn? or a scenic heel turn? I think that it's going to be a reins heel turn, right? And you're going to have him, I mean, maybe the way to do it is have him end the under-taker's career at Mania and have that be the last match. Sure.

I think that's possible. You'd create the ultimate heel. There's no, this whole thing about Raines being a tweener or I'm just the guy. It's not true. He's working face and everyone in the world thinks heal. Now we know it's not just Brooklyn. It's not just L.A., it's not just Chicago.

It's San Antonio. Sure. It's Jacksonville. It's every town. Every town. There's no town that he goes to. Maybe his hometown. Right.

Maybe if he went to Florida? Probably not. He doesn't represent Florida. He still is getting booed in his hometown. That's bad. That's not good for the guy who's supposed to be the standard bearer for that company. But, again, they don't care. They're going to print money no matter what.

They're going to sell shirts. It's the same paradigm as John Cena. It only matters to us. Yeah, I remember. When Raines won that rumble, I canceled my subscription to the network, and I renewed it two months later. Sure. For Rania. Of course.

So it's like, they didn't cancel it again. It's a, you know, but they've got us. Part of the fun is booing him for a lot of people. But my question is, even the casual fan, that argument would seen it work forever. But does it, I don't think it works with Rains. I don't think the casual fan even likes Roman Rains. I think the casual, the casual pro-Rains contingent in my very limited experience is like, women who think he's very attractive and I don't think that they care whether or not he's a heel

you know like they like he's not it's not necessary for him to be I mean everybody compares him to Caldrogo and Caldrogo is the biggest heel on television for a while you know I mean it's it's okay for him to work heel it's all very confusing I don't know why I just I yeah I don't know I mean we were joking with some of the with some of the producers during the during the event but like man if he just came out in a suit next to next to triple age you know or Vince what what they really need to do is just like own the storyline that everybody knows that he's the chosen guy

and let Vince be his manager for six months just have him come out in suits with Vince McMahon and just like completely own it you know and then six months later we could all go to we'd all be cheering for Roman Raines because he will have earned our respect

by being self-aware you know that's the most important part look he's a hell of a talent I mean that match with him and Owens as far as a pure wrestling talent that was a great match you know we loved it

I don't agree with anybody who says he's not a good wrestler No, he is a good rest. Are you, this is a great question that we didn't even talk about doing the show. Kyle DeLash on Facebook asked, are you surprised that Rollins didn't appear at all? Rollins made a shocking appearance. Spoiler alert for people who haven't watched NXT takeover, San Antonio. Rollins made basically like a worksheet appearance on the NXT show last night.

I only use workshoot in the sense that, like, up until this point it's been implicit, or maybe it's been explicit, that Triple H's on-screen heel character and his management, manager of NXT character are discreet. Like, they're not the, like, it's okay for him to be a baby face on NXT and a heel on Raw. So last night, Rollins did the thing that I had been hoping that he would do for a long time, which you show up on NXT and just be like, I know you're here. This is the one place I know you are because you come out and cut a self-aggrandizing promo every time there's an NXT takeover, and Ronz did it. He didn't make an appearance tonight.

He wasn't a surprise entrance to the Rumble. There was no other place for him. Is that weird? You said it's going to be a bigger match than any of the title matches, but it wasn't even on the Rumble. Well, I'm glad it wasn't. What else were they going to do? What I thought they were going to do is that they were going to, because there was so much time, they were going to show that clip from the night and then have cut to Triple H backstage with Stephanie.

And they're talking about probably some dumb new WWE thing they're going to be doing. A new video game or new app? You know, he comes in on the ambulance or something like that. Yeah, I would have liked for them to have least said, oh, he's banned from the arena or something like that. that and extended the angle. But instead it was, they did a video package, hey, this happened, and then that was kind of it. Is there, okay, let's move on to some broad strokes questions.

The only time that somebody actually stayed at an arena after they banned them, which makes it, like, the cut is buried. Except Ron is a real baby face. He would never do such a thing. He would show up and break a bunch of stuff. Yeah. Well, you know, you don't mess around with like breaking rules in Texas. There's lots of people with guns.

Broadstrokes questions. Where does this rank in the history of Royal Rumbles? It's a very hard question to answer right now. I was scared out of my mind to just even tweet that this is my favorite scene I match of all time because sitting here watching it in a certain environment, you can't even think about it. But what do you think?

Given that we will allow you to amend your response on the Next Masked Man show or on Twitter tomorrow, go ahead. I famously am obsessed with the 1992 Royal Rumble. Yes. It is my favorite pay-per-view of all time. but watching it over, most of the undercard is bad. It's not a great undercard, that Royal Rumble,

but the match, the match itself saves the whole thing and it raises in esteem because of that one amazing match. This is the exact opposite. It's a great undercard with a five-star title match, and maybe two, depending on how you rank Raines and Owens, but a not good Royal Rumble. So I have to ask myself, does a great undercard

elevated into the canon of Great Royal Rumbles? I don't think so. I think 2000 is the best top to bottom. Love 2000? Because you've got Cactus Jack Triple H, you've got that Dudley Boys, Hardy Boys tag match. Jericho versus China versus Hardcore Holly in one of the five-star matches of our lives.

We don't talk about that here. Yeah, me, am. Me, and then the Royal Rumble match itself was great. Yeah, I think that you're right. I think that honestly, if anything, this is going to be the Royal Rumble that we're talking about in two or three or five years as the one time when, like, the card was really good and the Royal Rumble itself was really bad. I mean, it's just like, I'm sure there's other examples, but that's what we're going to be talking about. Yeah, I think that, you know, like, I don't think it's as good as last year because I thought the actual Rumble match last year. was really good.

Yeah, it was a lot better than that. But, you know, like Dave said, I mean, the undercard was awesome. So I'd put it squarely in the middle of the pack. And, you know, even, you know, like I'd said before, even taking away the smart mark, like, like, I didn't like who won and they're burying this person. Like, just little stuff wasn't done well, you know?

An example of this would be the Cesaras swings. I don't know. You know, like they were real, it was really, it was like he was, like, he was, like, Like, I don't know if he blew a rib or something like that or Bruce a rib. He started getting to bigger guys that he was having to pick up. That used to be the whole gimmick. He could swing the big show or whatever.

And like Biggie Lingston. How many big people are there in WWE? I think that, you know, in a certain sense, this is what every minor, every rumble disappointment feels like. Even the ones you really loved at the time, our expectations are so high. It's an event that's built on the expectation of being shocked in an era. where nothing can be shocking, where the high water markets, AJ Styles, and nothing can even come close to that, really. I mean, there's no, there's no close runner up. You know, we, like, we, we, we, we expect a lot out of the Royal Romo. We expect, and, and listen, this was all staring

us right in the face. We got Ty Dillinger. We were, we were going goo-goo for that during the pre-show. You know, we got, Roman Raines was as much of a shot. You know, we, we kind of thought that one of the Roman Raines, Roman Raines, Kevin Owen, Sina, AJ guys would show up that we, you know, we got that. We got that. We got all the big pops of Undertaker and Goldberg and Lesnar. I mean, I guess on some level we're all hoping for, like I said, I said, the ghost of macho man in the pre-show. But I mean, honestly, unless it's Samoa Joe is going to end up challenging for the universal title, like, what is it that's going to, what did this not accomplish that we wanted it to accomplish, you know? And part of it's hard to put a finger on, you know, it's just that sort of

childlike wonderment. But this certainly didn't have that. Okay, another broad story. question, what is the biggest storyline that people are going to be talking about tomorrow? Also, what's the biggest question that people are going to be asking tomorrow if that's, if that's easier to answer? Biggest question people are going to ask, I think, is who's Roman reigns wrestling at WrestleMania? It's the thing we've been talking about the most on this show. We don't know yet.

And there's multiple candidates for his dance partner at WrestleMania. And there's no clear answer there. So I think that's going to be the big talking point for, for Raw tomorrow is, what are they setting up? You know that we're going to inch closer to it. And I guess, I mean, I'd be remiss not to say with as many sort of swerves as we got in the undercard, the setup for Russell Laney,

even the Royal Rumble itself, if we hadn't been spoiled on the Randy Orton rumors, with as many sort of booking swerves as we got, the idea that Owens Jericho is a sure thing should not be considered a sure thing. I mean, that's not, they could go a totally different direction with that, too. If they're leaving the biggest title in the company on Kevin Owens, you know, that could be any number of people taking that slot.

That could be Undertaker slot. You know what I? You just don't know. What do you think people are going to be talking about tomorrow? I think the same thing that Schelling said. I mean, I would guess that who's rum raids fighting and also the number one thing they'll be talking about is especially it will be Jesus Christ, Randy Orton, really? and oh my god Randy and Roman Reigns like those will be the major things

if they're not talking about me wearing a wig I'm kind of inclined to agree with both of you let's see what else we got here who is the biggest winner tonight oh that's a good question of everybody under card included I mean like there's so many options

but I can go through the card I mean if you actually want to go with like some advanced stat like where they started the night and where they ended the night, you can make a case for Naomi. You know, I mean, she is now that the Smackdown Women's Champion. We have new tag team champions in Anderson and Gallows, which is, you know, we had sort of predicted that, but I don't think there was any sort of, you know, confidence beyond just

kind of what made a little bit of sense. Naya Jacks defeated Sasha Banks. I think the biggest loser of the night is Sasha Banks who went from being probably like the number one, arguably the number one, but definitely the number two female wrestler in the company to having her match cut into. by an app commercial. And a commercial for the pay-per-view you were already watching. A commercial for the thing you were watching.

It's like the MC Escher painting of wrestling promos. Charlotte and Bailey, Charlotte came out looking. I mean, I don't know how much higher Charlotte can climb. She's the number two or three performer in the company without any question. And that was a weird finish to that match. But man, there were like six times in that match where I, I was just like viscerally, like, surprised, you know? It was just like I was golf clapping for Charlotte Flair during tonight's paper.

Her with the blood in her mouth looked scary. Yeah. Like, that's a person you don't want to mess with. Yeah. She should cut a promo about tomorrow. With some blood, woo, in my mouth. Kevin Owens, Roman Raines. I mean, Kevin Owens, I think, of everybody on the show tonight,

my choice might be Kevin Owens because. mine. We hope, because four hours ago, we off, I mean, two hours ago, we thought there was no chance in hell he was going to show up on Rotomar with Universal Title. Well, I would say, and this is probably taking off your political opinion before the paper you started, the biggest winner be Sammy Zane because he's not stuck in a fucking airport, you fucking fascist Donald Trump. Oh, boy.

That's the number one. Here comes the tweet. Here comes Facebook cutting us down. Tepe the frog. My dick. Twitter. That would be my number one winner. And as far as we don't, if we want to take that out of the equation,

I guess Roman Reins again, right? You can't lose picking Roman Raines for something. Yeah, no, I mean, I think Roman. Can't wait for the DM's pictures. I think you can make a case for a lot of the guys, a lot of the big stars in the Royal Rumble, but it's just hard to, I mean, I think that the people who were really close, we didn't even talk about Neville and Rick Swan,

who wrestled a hell of a match. Best cruiserweight match since they created the division. I think that we're going to be talking. I mean, this is all hyperbole because we're recording this right afterwards. But we're going to be, I really think that this Neville Swan match is going to be like the Forrest Griffin, Stefan Bonner match of the WWCruiserweight division. Like this was the moment when it actualized. This was the moment when people watching it home were like, thank God. That is the cruiserweight match that I've been waiting for for so long.

That's in my head what a cruiserweight match was or is. and it was just, it was a whole lot of fun. After months of not having a person who's worthy of holding that belt, not worthy that they're not good wrestlers, but not worthy that they're not over and they're not ready to carry a division. They get Neville, they build him up as a monster, and they give him the belt, and now it's like,

okay, here's the guy who can carry the division for a while. And you said, just let him be the champion for a year, right? Yeah, I mean, I think that Rich Swan has, I mean, Rich Swan impressed me more tonight. we were talking when they were running the pre-match promo package, video package, that that was better than any of the work they'd really done on screen. I mean, Neville's been gold, but like just the interpersonal stuff. They are my winner for two most intense faces during a match.

Oh, man. Both of those guys. They did a lot of work. Anyway, I think Rich Swan is still the money for the underdog competitor to Neville. Hopefully they carry that through Mania and don't just try to put it on somebody pretty or whatever. But, like, that was a great match. lot of credit to those guys, but I think if we're talking about big winners of the night, it's Kevin Owens, it's John Sina for wrestling the match of his career, and it's A.J. Stiles,

just because A.J. Stiles is, I mean, at this point, if you're going to go top three winners of the night, he's always there, you know, he's that good at this point. The Rumble itself, you know, I don't know who, I mean, with the exception of, like, you know, some, I don't know, Chris Jericho or something like, who do you even go to in the Royal Rumble for, like, big winner of the night. I mean, besides Randy Orton, but that seems sort of... Baron Corbyn. Corbyn looked good. He looked good. Goldberg. Bronzman had a good night, but I don't think... It was a great shark cage. It was a great shark cage. One of the best shark cages. The tech crew, I mean, the tech crew here

is incredible. Thank you, everybody that works at the ringer, but the tech crew with WWE can just... Top-notch. A shark cage, they just pulled together. I mean, it's been around for a while, but that's a top-notch shark cage. Um, all right. Let's see. We got a couple more questions before we get out of here. Daniel Tate asked on Facebook, where you guys let down that no old timer made a surprise appearance, or did Goldberg and Taker take those spots tonight? When Goldberg and Taker showed down, I announced in the room, there were a bunch of the guys from the back sitting out and you're watching it with this,

and they were not all hardcore wrestling fans. I announced that there was a combined age of 101 when Goldberg and Taker were having the stare down. Undertaker, I think his tits, like one came in a 29. one came in a 30. I mean, he looks great for in his 50s. I mean, you know, I'd be lucky to have that body now. But, you know, it's... He looks bad.

Let's just cut to the chase. They need to retire him at this point. You know, like... Is putting Roman Reigns over the best way he can possibly go out? Is there someone else you would rather see him put over? If they want to create an Uber heel, sure. But if they want to treat it, like, Roman Raines the face after that, then it gets... Oh, yeah, that maybe a number.

Maybe they just let him be, maybe, maybe they realize that Roman Reins is miscast in the situation that he's in and just like, yeah, just let him be an undertaker instead of being a John Cena or something. No, I'm pretty sure they think that this is the right move. Huh. I think, you know, here's the thing, though, if I'm booking this a mania, I'm not going to have a moment or Reigns and, like, Take or Shake at the end of it that's touching like Michaels. You're going to be disappointed then, because that's definitely what's happening. What I would want to happen is Raines beats him, and then Taker gets up and he does the thing. thank you, Lecra. And the reins comes in and keeps spearing him until he's, like, unconscious.

And that's the end you see The Undertaker. That's nice. Like, just ruin, well, if you want to make a super heel, just ruin that moment for the audience. Yep. Wow. It's kind of weird that we're at this stage now, and it's not just in wrestling. You know, all of our, all of our, like, you know, male celebrities are sort of ageless, too. You know what I mean?

Like, who knows how old George Clooney and Brad Pitt are? I mean, they're all just, like, shy Tom Cruise. Everybody's shockingly old compared to, like, how they were a half-generation. ago. But it is, you do sort of feel bad for the old timers that were making surprise appearances in the Royal Rumble five or six years ago. Then now they just, they're like the same age as the undertaker and, uh, and Goldberg, but they just look like old men. They're like, after five years older. Um, it would have been nice to see a Duke to Dumpster Drosie. It would have been nice to see just a little, a little, a little, a little bit, a little bit, a little bit of, I mean,

in, in, in, in, in, in, in little spells. And I think that we're at a spot now, I think we talked about this on the Masked Man show where, we're a little bit, 2017 is not the year for for comedy spots in the row. We had a couple. We had James Ellsworth and his deal. We had Jack Gallowher's Mary Poppins' impression. As I tweeted earlier tonight, not good luck to open an umbrella inside,

and he did it anyway. The guy just has no fear. Well, you know, I mean, that's the deal with gimmicks. You know, it's bad luck, but it's like gave him the best chance that he possibly could have, you know? He's going to be the guy working the umbrella gimmick on like the indie scene

in a year and a half from now, but at least he'll have a W. pay track and he'll have a WWB gimmick that he can carry around you know that shoemaker he's such a calming presence that like we're just used to the wig now and the robe I love the wig I can't believe that normal people more people aren't talking about this road it's kind of suits you the wig is over I am wearing this wig from now on it's just a you may be a wig guy which is one of the worst things I could say this my girlfriend's been saying this forever I don't know a wig than a Merkin okay okay um like listen we got one more

question are there any more thoughts you want to get in before we go to the last question No. Okay, good, because we're going to it. This is from Randy Lau on Facebook. Why do we keep giving WWE the benefit of the doubt? Because I love wrestling. Oh, that's good. What a silly question.

I mean, thank you for watching, but it's one of my favorite things. Why did Rihanna take Chris Brown back? That's not that terrible, a comparison, I guess. It's really offensive, but it's not. It's not. It's not an exactly. Listen, we can't cut this out. It's live.

I know. We're going to cut out with it. This is going to be maybe a podcast on the channel 33. Take me off the air, Simmons. Take me off. The Mask Man Show is on Channel 33. Go on iTunes. Look for Channel 33.

The Mask Man show is on there every week. Dave's on a lot. Dan is too busy writing for CBS sitcoms to be on that much anymore. But he calls in on occasion and, you know, we'll keep having it back. It's basically my show now. It's basically my show. I know. All that is to say that if this becomes a podcast tomorrow morning, we can cut out all of Dan,

like most everything that Dan says. And it'll just be like a regular episode of the Mass. Man Show at D.S. Germain on Twitter. I think that we keep giving WWE the benefit of the doubt because I mean, it didn't in the exact way they would have fantasy booked it. I always come back to the same point. If you give every mark on Reddit the opportunity to fantasy book

the Royal Rumble, every mark on Reddit will have a different answer for how they wanted booked. And I don't, I'm not making fun of Reddit. I'm on Reddit all the time. I comment on there and I'm on the same boat. I just wrote a Royal Rumble preview column that was all fantasy booking. But, you know, the idea that we can agree on everything as fans is not as cut and dried as we assume that it is. But honestly, we were, if tonight didn't end the exact way that we wanted it to end,

I mean, part of it said the rumble wasn't great. The rumble match itself wasn't great. And if it had been a great Royal Rumble with just sort of a dodgy fetish, I think we would have forgiven a lot. But the reason why we keep giving the benefit of the doubt is because, I mean, honestly, we were surprised, you know? every year we come into this and even if we're disappointed

that doesn't, you know, the disappointment inherent in that is a surprise, you know, like we wouldn't be sad that Randy Orton won or the Roman Raines came out 30 if we didn't on some level hope that that wasn't what was going to happen and that's sort of the magic of it. Trauma disappoints sometimes, sports definitely

disappoints most of the time, especially if you're a New York Giants fan. So, so why do we feel like wrestling always needs to go exactly the way we expect it to or that we demand it. You know, it's just, it's a thing that gives us joy. I mean, listen. I had a great time today.

We are headed towards a WrestleMania in which Kevin Owens is the universal champion. And who knows if he'll keep it for the next month or two, however long it is. But, I mean, that is a world that none of us would have predicted four hours ago, let alone 24 hours ago or two weeks ago. And that's a better version of the world than the other way, right? I mean, Kevin Owens is, Kevin Owens, two years ago, you would have never thought he'd be on raw, you know, or three years ago, whatever. But, like, he is the greatest thing in pro, or one of the best things in pro wrestling right now.

We got two months left. He can still lose the belt. He probably will lose the belt. But this is what I'm talking about. For tonight, we have this hope. You know, why do we keep giving him the benefit of the doubt? Because they might have screwed us over in the Rumble, but they gave us Kevin Owens as champion. Yeah.

Listen, guys, thank you both for coming by. Thank you to all of the dudes back there who are working on the show. Thank you for Bill Simmons For building this set by hand It was really impressive if you were there to see it Oh yeah I was here the whole time And he was nailing stuff Sure was with jean shorts

Yeah that's it It was a John Cena look for him in Dave do you want to do any shoutouts Before we take off Shout out to my Twitter At Dave underscore shilling Bleacher Report.com Is where I work

Check that out if you can If you have the internet You must you're watching this And it'd be hard otherwise Mass me answer show. Watch it or listen to it. We'll be back.

We'll definitely be back on the Match Man show this weekend. I'm Matt David Chewaker as usual. Dan, Davey's Jermaine. Donate to ACLU and Plan Barrett.

You weren't like trying really hard to work Babyface tonight. That's really great. It depends on what part of the country. Do you want to put over your new television show? Well, I mean, I'm writing on Superior Donuts.

That debuts. Is it coming out this week? The big bang theory. So check that out. It's been renewed for 12 seasons. It's been around 13 seasons already. I'm a billionaire. That's really nice you to hang out with us.

And I mean, I have my tickets to Orlando, so I'll be there. So I'll see you all at WrestleMania. We'll be a rib. We're going to have a very special mass man show event at WrestleMania where we're all going to be like hanging out on a street corner, playing like a violin made out of a shoebox and asking for your change. Come by and say hi. Listen, guys, thank you so much for watching the Royal Rumble.

The Ringer Royal Rumble after show. Is that what we're calling? We don't even have a name. Speaking of names, what about my nickname? Oh, we don't even know. Are we going to, are you going to, definitely intellectual chocolate? All right, there we go. We're done.

You have to come up with a stable name. Yeah, the next thing we need is a name for the three of us. Yeah. Well, it's Kazi in it too? Because he can be a peripheral member. Is Kizzi like Rick Rood, like he comes in and then he waves? I don't know that's a reference. I think he's more.

Yes, okay. Rigrud DX. So we need a China. He's like the Los Berreferich. You're a China. I'm not the China? You're the China. This is really.

This is getting out of hand, guys. Thank you so much for watching. We'll be on the Masked Mancha on Channel 33 this week. Check us out with a tear in my eye. And Apology, CD in Ambrose. We'll see you soon, humanoid. Woo!