Big Bad Blog Video Theater-Asuka wins the Women's Royal Rumble

Here's the match video of last night's Women's Royal Rumble. As you probably already know, Asuka won the match as expected and Ronda Rousey appeared after the match was over. It was a typical Royal Rumble. It was a mix of good things and not so good things. The WWE's attempt to sell this match as historic gives new meaning to the term "pretentious overkill". Part of that overkill was an abundance of retired "legends". I understand why they all wanted to be there. And I also understand the WWE's insistence on hammering home that they were making history. But keeping that to a minimum would have made the appearances more significant. So I would have cut those participants in half and bring in more NXT talents that could have used the rub. With the exception of The Bella Twins, all of those "legends" were one shot appearances. I just thought it was too much nostalgia pandering. The first two participants were Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch because they can go for a long time. Then they started filling the ring. It was great to see Mae Young Classic winner Kairi Sane. She wasn't in for very long but she got to do two elbow drops and Sasha sold hers like she got killed. One of the weirdest stats from this match was that Michelle McCool eliminated the most women. How did that happen? I thought the turning point of this match would be when Nia Jax entered. But instead they had her disappear for a couple of long periods and then they all ganged up on her and got rid of her. A taped up Ember Moon showed up. It's a phony injury. If she was really injured, she wouldn't have been allowed to participate. That made less sense than not having Shayna Baszler in this match. Most of the "legends" got in signature moves and then were tossed out. Except for The Bella Twins. So first Sasha throws her best friend Bayley out. Could you please turn Sasha heel already? That leaves The Bella Twins, Sasha and Asuka who entered 25th and hadn't done much to that point. I thought we might get an Asuka vs Sasha showdown. But instead they had the Bellas outsmart Sasha and eliminate her. And then Nikki Bella eliminated her sister. So that left Asuka and Nikki. And though Asuka choreographed the finish very well, I thought it was anticlimactic because Asuka vs Sasha would have meant more. Maybe they wanted a quick finish. Then after Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss entered the ring so Asuka could choose who she would wrestle at Wrestlemania, that's when Ronda Rousey came out. Mike Johnson of PW Insider was at the show and he said Ronda's entrance worked very well live. But it didn't work as well on the broadcast. I don't think it was well directed. They seemed to miss some key shots. The one thing I did like was Asuka slapping away Ronda's handshake. "I'll show you who the real badass is." The WWE says Ronda was never supposed to be in the Rumble. They want her in ring debut at Wrestlemania. They are trying to get The Rock to team with Ronda vs HHH and Stephanie. But if Ronda had been in the Rumble, that would have given the post match spotlight to Asuka where it belonged. So it was a little messed up. It's been known for a while that Ronda was coming to the WWE but the WWE tried a bit too hard to swerve fans and I think some of us were getting annoyed with them. Ronda has been wrestling training with Brian Kendrick in Los Angeles. She'll get them plenty of mainstream attention regardless. I just thought it could have been handled better. Enjoy the video!