Why WWE’s 2022 Royal Rumble Was Such A Disappointing Show

Royal Rumble 2022 could’ve kicked off WWE‘s road to WrestleMania with a bang, but instead it left many fans disappointed. It’s no secret that, at least creatively, WWE has seen better days. Thankfully for them, WWE’s finances are actually in great shape at present, with billion-dollar deals with the FOX network, the Peacock streaming service, the Indian arm of Disney+, and the Saudi Arabian government, leading to record profits. Not that most would figure that, given the massive amount of wrestlers WWE has fired in the last year or two.

Story and character-wise though, WWE has been in a rut for quite some time. It hasn’t been enough to drive away their core TV viewership yet, but it’s no accident that WWE’s TV ratings and non-major live event attendance numbers are circling the drain. Many would argue that this rut is due to Vince McMahon refusing to step aside from running things after nearly 40 years in charge, and allow new creative voices to be heard. Either way, WWE often finds itself leaning on its past glories to try to get through the present.

WWE’s reliance on nostalgia and bringing back part-time stars has been a complaint of the wrestling fandom for over a decade at this point, and was famously part of CM Punk’s 2011 “pipebomb” promo. Yet, nothing has changed in that regard. Beyond the use of part-timers as main events though, WWE just can’t seem to craft exciting, satisfying programming anymore. The 2022 Royal Rumble was another example of that, as bad booking decisions earned viewer ire, and the respective winners of the men’s and women’s Royal Rumble matches left lots of WWE devotees feeling ambivalent about the WrestleMania to come.

Going into the Royal Rumble, WWE was also promoting two big world title matches: WWE champion Brock Lesnar vs Bobby Lashley, and universal champion Roman Reigns vs Seth Rollins. Two big bouts involving four main event players, and while the matches themselves were pretty good, the endings to both were huge letdowns. Rollins won by DQ when Reigns refused to release his guillotine submission hold, and Lashley beat Lesnar after Reigns interfered, costing Lesnar his title. Screwy finishes aren’t always a bad way to further stories in WWE, but having both title matches end like that left many feeling bait-and-switched. Lesnar losing in such a fashion also led many watching to immediately predict that he would be a surprise entrant in the men’s WWE Royal Rumble match and win, which is exactly what happened.

A title match loser joining the Rumble unannounced has been done before, and Lesnar was even already a surprise entrant into the 2019 Money in the Bank match, winning that too. It was an entirely predictable turn of events. Then in the women’s Rumble, Ronda Rousey returned after two years away, which did excite fans, but as soon as she entered the match, her win was obvious, as she’s been protected more than any female competitor in WWE history. To top off the general feeling of disappointment and malaise left by the 2022 Royal Rumble, having both Ronda Rousey and Brock Lesnar, former UFC champions, win sends the strange message that so-called “legitimate athletes” will always win when pitted against WWE wrestlers. Their status as part-timers also again reinforces that those who fans can actually see every week on Raw and SmackDown are a lesser class. For WWE‘s first “big four” pay-per-view of 2022, the Royal Rumble was a huge misfire.

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