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Rumble results, Rousey debuts

By Bill Hughes for The 5 min read
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There are plenty of newsworthy items that fans emailed about this week, so letĢƵ take a look at them.

Rumble results

WWE delivered one of the better Royal Rumble cards last Sunday and several fans chimed in with thoughts.

Tom Smith of Uniontown asked why the WWE championship match opened the show, and it was simply because with only six matches on the card, it was obvious that one of the two Rumble matches would close the show.

The womenĢƵ match was given the main event spot after it was confirmed that Ronda Rousey would appear at the show.

WWE wasn’t going to put the menĢƵ Rumble right before the womenĢƵ version because doing back to back RumbleĢƵ would have been overkill and would have bored the fans.

Brock Lesnar defending the Universal title was a bigger deal than Styles defensing the WWE title, so Lesnar was given the co-main event spot.

It wasn’t the first time WWE has put a heavyweight title match first, and it won’t be the last.

Bentleyville native Ronnie Wilson asked if I liked the results.

WWE did a solid job with all of the matches and I was happy to see them go with Shinsuke Nakamura in the well-written menĢƵ Rumble.

He has been misused since debuting on Smackdown, and his match with A.J. Styles at Mania, if it remains, should be nothing less that phenomenal, no pun intended.

Styles against Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens was what I expected and a good way to start the show.

The Bar had to win the Raw tag title back because Jason Jordan is legitimately injured and having Seth Rollins in the menĢƵ Rumble for so long right before the match gave a built-in excuse for him being pinned.

I was surprised that The UsoĢƵ retained the Smackdown titles in two falls, but letĢƵ see how it plays out before judging.

Asuka was a logical move for the womenĢƵ Rumble, and I liked how the womenĢƵ Rumble balanced out todayĢƵ stars with the stars of yesterday.

The only thing I was not a fan of was how AsukaĢƵ win, in possibly the most important womenĢƵ match in WWE history, was overshadowed by the post-match debut of Rousey.

Rousey debut

Almost 25 fans reached out sharing their thoughts, which were mixed.

While we shouldn’t rush judgment on her debut either, several WWE womenĢƵ wrestlers took to social media after the match sharing their unhappiness of when Rousey debuted as it totally overshadowed the finish of the actual womenĢƵ Rumble match.

In the long run, the womenĢƵ division will garner much more attention because of Rousey, but at the Rumble, the segment took away from a historical landmark moment for the womenĢƵ division.

RYSE back to Lemont Furnace

On Saturday, RYSE returns The Stronghold Arena for a new event.

In what is being referred to as a dream match for the Pittsburgh area, “The Apex of Combat” Lee Moriarty is facing “The Next Trending Topic” Jack Pollock.

Both are tremendous in the ring and the match should be nothing less than stellar.

Two other top matches include Ganon Jones taking on Tony Johnson and Jackson Stone facing Lewis.

Several other matches will take place and for more information on the show and on RYSE, go to www.rysewrestling.com for more information.

The address is 1952 University Drive in Lemont Furnace.

WWE announces Cruiserweight title tourney

WWE said it will begin a Cruiserweight title tournament to crown a new champion with the title match taking place at WrestleMania.

Mixed Tag Team Challenge continues Tuesday

Week 4 of the WWE Mixed Tag Team Challenge takes place Tuesday with Goldust and Mandy Rose taking on Jimmy Uso and Naomi.

This past Tuesday, Braun Strowman and Alexa Bliss defeated Zayn and Becky Lynch to advance to the quarterfinals where they will take on the winner of TuesdayĢƵ match.

Airing immediately after Smackdown, the Challenge can be found on Facebook Live.

XFL look

Ryan from Smithfield asked if WWE wrestlers will appear at XFL games.

While some may make appearances, Vince McMahon stated that WWE and XFL will be kept as separate entities.

WWE signs announcer

Jeremy Borash, an announcer who had been with TNA/Impact since its inception, signed with WWE this week and will announce in NXT.

Borash began his career in WCW before heading to TNA after WCW was bought out by McMahon.

Lashley signs?

Earlier this week, it was announced that Bobby Lashley assigned with WWE instead of New Japan Pro Wrestling.

WWE has not announced the signing as of yet, but a logical feud for Lashley if he does return to WWE, would be against Lesnar because of their MMA backgrounds.

Mania 35 to NYC?

As has been reported in this column several times in the last few months, WWE was looking at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, and Lincoln Financial Stadium in Philadelphia as possible locations for WrestleMania 35.

Earlier this week, it was all but made official that WWE will return to MetLife Stadium, which is literally across the Hudson river from New York City, for the show.

WWE ran Mania 29 there, which I attended.

Check back for more after the announcement is finally made official.

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Email questions/comments to Bill at powerhousehughes@gmail.com or tweet them to @BillHughes_III

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