Legendary Australian Wrestler Al Costello (b. Giacomo Costa), creator and original member of The Fabulous Kangaroos tag team, talks wrestling with his latest tag team, Reginald and Hartford, The Love Brothers.
We're coming up on Royal Rumble weekend. It is my favorite PPV, and back in the pre-Network days was the only one that I would routinely spring for. Getting two rumbles for the price of one with the ladies makes me doubly excited to see this. Anyone care to predict our winners?
All-lady royal rumble sounds like a cool idea. I wish they had such a thing back in the olde days when I was still watching, although back then I'm not sure they would have been able to scrape up 30 women for the same event. Lelanai Kai, Judy Martin, Velvet McIntyre, Desiree Petersen, Sherri Martel...those were the days!
Reigns & Asuka... although you could go with Nakamura and set up a Championship match with AJ Styles. Reigns v. Lesnar is happening at WM, just not sure how they are gonna get us there.
I think Reigns going over in Philly (of all places) is just asking for trouble. The Shield reunion was actually working in terms of getting some of the negativity off of him until Ambrose got hurt. I see the men's winner coming from the Smackdown side. Even though he's not even declared for it, I could see Kevin Owens. On the women's side, Asuka is almost so obvious as to be a dull pick. I can see some sort of scenario where Asuka and Nia Jax eliminate each other, and Becky Lynch wins. This meta-odds site has Nakamura as the strong favorite. WWE 30 Man Royal Rumble Match Winner Betting Odds | TV
I look more forward to the storylines that get set up during the rumble as opposed to the actual winner. I'm always routing for Rusev because whatever crap creative gives him, he spins it into gold. Hoping if EC3 shows up that he will be EC3 and not Derrick Bateman, hoping to see more of Elias & John Cena (or just Elias for that matter), and the Miz is supposed to be set for a big WM match so most likely that will be set in motion at the Rumble (I'll just keep hoping it's with the American Dragon). I could picture Becky getting a Rumble push by being that participant that comes out #1 and almost goes the distance... the iron woman.
I always enjoy a good battle royal. I don't know why, but I do. Maybe everybody does. I remember the first Royal Rumble, which was free on TV. My favorite Rumble was the one that Ric Flair won. Ric drew #3 or something and went the distance. That was right here in Albany, so it's strange that we watched it on TV rather than attending the event, but maybe it was too expensive or something. Anyway, I was rooting for Ric, so I liked the outcome. My friend liked Sid Vicious/Justice, for whatever reason. Hulk Hogan displayed poor sportsman ship when he pulled Sid out from the outside of the ring. I also remember that Rumble that started with Ax and Smash of Demoltion as #1 & #2 and they started going at it. Andre was in that one, I remember that much. That was fun. I had to look it up on Wikipedia to figure out what year it was but I remember nearly pissing myself with laughter when Dick Murdoch showed up for the Rumble. It was 1995, apparently. I don't think I was watching wrestling at this point but my friend ordered the PPV and insisted I come over, so I did. Dick Murdoch wasn't even on the WWF roster, I don't think. They were truly scraping the barrel to find 30 participants that year. Anyway, I was in hysterics over it. Dick gave Vince a solid 5 minutes and collected his paycheck. Actually, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I have the Royal Rumble Vol 1-5 DVD set around here somewhere. I need to dust it off. I don't think I ever even opened it but picked it up at FYE for $5 and knew the day would come when I would crave it.
Wow, the Royal Rumble was way better than expected. Balor got the iron man nod, the typical people didn’t win, and the big time signing of Rhonda Rousey really makes it seems like they’re trying to change things up. The overall product has been very stagnant. I’m looking forward to Styles vs Nakamura at Wrestlemania.
I thought the men's Rumble was good, but I liked the women's better. It had more of those "moments" and little transitory storylines that last 30 seconds and are gone but sustain heightened interest. I felt bad for Rollins & The Bar stuck in the "death spot" with the crowd silent nearly the entire match. The line of the night goes to Corey Graves (of course), when the now-chunkified Hurricane appeared - "Looks like he's been to Tony Luke's".
Loved the Sasha heel turn that unfolded during the course of the women's rumble. I was at the NXT event in my town on Friday night... what a blast! That takeover match between Almas & Gargano was incredible... although I watch NXT religiously, I had no idea that Almas was that damn good.
Pleasantly surprised that they're pulling the trigger on Styles vs. Nakamura at WM... that should be most excellent.
I think Graves is terrific and I give WWE credit for fast tracking him after his work in NXT made it apparent that he was better than the guys working up north. I read today that Rey Mysterio's Rumble appearance was a one-shot deal. I already had him penciled in as the new 205 Live commish ... I guess I was wrong.
Major upgrade, IMO. I loved Booker T as an in-ring performer, but he tends to talk in circles on commentary and on the panels.
Wonder if there will be on screen heat with Cole and Coach. I hate Cole as a heel. Like him better just neutral but would prefer JR.
I was a big fan in the early 2000s when The Rock and Stone Cold were the two biggest wrestling stars. Once that era was over I kind of lost interest.
I like how the dynamic switches when Elias comes out and Cole starts putting the heel over and Graves runs him down... even last night Coach was like "I gotta side with Cole"... LOL!
Interesting, Borash to WWE: https://411mania.com/wrestling/wwe-hires-jeremy-borash/ Would like to hear him on commentary.
I enjoy how Graves has "personal grudges" against some of the wrestlers, be they heel or babyface. Apparently he wasn't acting when it came to Enzo Amore.
