Interesting thing about the last 3/4 Rumble winners...

[CMPUNKFAN]

The past 3 out of 4 Rumble winners has all been members of Evolution... and we seem to not be able to get out of the past

[The Legend]

Evolution has stopped.

[Str8Shooter]

Evolution is a mystery.

[Everlong]

Ric Flair 2018 Rumble Winner confirmed!

[Hanley!]

The really interesting thing about the last several Royal Rumble winners is that it's been years since there's been a good one. Rarely does the match (and particularly the conclusion) live up to its potential. Even when it's not predictable as hell, it's underwhelming.

I feel like the last time the ending of the Royal Rumble created a real sense of excitement was the last time Orton won it back in 2009. It was somewhat predictable that he'd win, but it still felt like a really big step in a white hot angle. After that we had a run of fairly unmemorable Rumbles where people were relatively happy that at least Cena/Orton/Triple H didn't win (Edge, Del Rio, Sheamus) but where it never felt like the winner was going to be in the actual main event at Wrestlemania ... and none of them were.

Then we had Cena's second Rumble victory, which I feel like I didn't even watch, because I remember literally nothing about that match. And then we moved onto the real shit show of the last few years.

This year was an improvement on some years in that they created a level of excitement before the match, because it really did seem unpredictable. But I don't feel like there's any buzz coming out of the show. Orton isn't the most exciting winner and they didn't shoot an angle at the show to make his win more exciting. The lack of surprise entrants and the failure to advance some obvious feuds in the match (like seriously, why the hell wasn't Rollins on this show?) left the whole thing feeling rather flat.

Orton wasn't the worst choice ever for a winner, but it's so completely ... okay? Like it's just weird that he won. If it hadn't been rumoured all week, I would have been stunned by the outcome. But not in a good way, just in a weird way. If he had sacrificed himself to help Wyatt win, at least that would have been a cool angle to talk about after the match. Even if he had been in the final two with Wyatt and he had turned on him, that would have given us something to talk about after the match. But the way they actually shot it, I'm having trouble having any sort of response to Orton's victory.

[KaiserGlider]

Yeah, though his win seems to have been more unexpected to me than it was to everyone else, I can't really get excited by the prospect of Orton main eventing Wrestlemania at this point. He still hasn't gotten the pre-Summerslam momentum back yet. If Orton vs Bray is set in stone, then Bray Wyatt winning would have been better, but I can understand them wanting to send the fans home happy with a face winning.

Hanley, you probably remember nothing about the Rumble where Cena won because it was an afterthought to The Rock vs CM Punk, which main evented that show.