40 Men, 1 Winner, A Lot More Losers Than You Would Expect

My thoughts on this Royal Rumble having 40 men? Not ecstatic about it, to say the least.

Diva matches that feature too many women are usually garbage. Scramble matches are usually a huge mess, and have not been used in years. The WWE has been pulling out these cheap matches and PPVs recently that allow for many men to be involved in a single match. Last time I checked, it has not really helped PPV buys that much. What's more, the men involved in the matches are usually not all developed properly. You can usually sense that some guys are in the match just to fill space. It ends up being a cheap way to avoid proper storyline and character development.

The 40-man Royal Rumble specifically? More than half of the 10 extra men will be newbs who are getting a rushed job of main-event credibility due to being in a stable where they are putting over one heel each, who is then being fed to Cena or has already been fed to him. Heath Slater, Justin Gabriel, Otunga, Husky Harris, Michael McGillicutty, and Batista clone are who I am talking about here. Zeke has at least been around for more than a year, although he lacks solid overness. Barrett at least has some better build to him than the other newbs. It would be disappointing if the remainder of the extra 10 are just irrelevant jobbers like The Usos and Tarver. Oh, I have no doubt there will be "surprise entrants" like Triple H. But you could have had these men without having to make space for crappy jobbers who stand no chance and will just be fodder for someone else looking good.

The rest of the card for the PPV is also not too interesting. The WWE continues to bank too much on making new main-eventers at the expense of established main-eventers. Build their characters with good midcard storylines first. Once they have the overness, credibility and movement up the card will follow easily.