Eunös ✈
Dalek
Duck Feet Expert
Tolerated, just not practically liked.
Posts: 59,201
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Post by Eunös ✈ on Jan 25, 2022 18:52:29 GMT -5
For me AJ Styles. This is a guy who for the longest time seemed destined to never be in WWE,(Not including his early Sunday night heat appearances etc.), at the time seeing him in a WWE ring was very surreal. Obviously we are use to it now but at the time, was crazy.
Only way you could top this for me is if Kenny Omega one day ended up as a surprise Rumble entrant.
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Post by Jindrak Mark on Jan 25, 2022 19:28:49 GMT -5
For me shock wise it's Cena in 2008 and emotion wise it's Edge in 2020. AJ Styles making his WWE debut at the Royal Rumble was pretty insane. Pretty much. Like, even going back to it every so often, there’s not much you can compare to it. You not only debut this guy, the guy everyone expected to be at the crowd at NXT Takeover, at the Rumble and in the Rumble match (a Rumble match for the WWE Championship), you debut him to face Roman Reigns?! It’s honestly hard to beat. I don't remember it being THAT shocking. WWE announced on their website in early January that Styles had signed and Meltzer reported later that he was coming straight to the main roster unlike Balor and others and was likely to debut at the Rumble. It was always going to be either the Rumble or on the post-Mania Raw and there's honestly no point paying him a considerable amount to sit at home for 3 months so the Rumble made the most sense, especially considering they had a bit of an injury crisis at the time with Cena/Rollins/Orton/Cesaro all getting hurt and missing RR/WM. Styles had one of his last indie dates a few days before the PPV and after the match everyone was chanting "Royal Rumble" at him so a lot of people were expecting it. Here's a thread a few weeks before that and the Meltzer report and even then more people than not expected him to go to the main roster and many thought he would debut at the Rumble. officialfan.proboards.com/thread/536537/njpw-invadersCompare that to like Cena in 2008. No one even speculated about him being in the Rumble it was that unthinkable. He wasn't expected to make it back for Wrestlemania, let alone RR. officialfan.proboards.com/thread/142347/royal-rumble-2008-predictions
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Post by eJm on Jan 25, 2022 19:34:30 GMT -5
Long quote so snipping it for time I mean for the record, I didn’t believe that. WWE didn’t give me a reason to believe that considering their signing track record (If Drew McIntyre was going to NXT to start, freaking AJ Styles wasn’t going to jump him to the main roster, don’t be silly /2016 me) and yes, I mentioned the Rev Pro thing but as I said, of course he’d tease an appearence in the Rumble match if people were going to chant it at him. You would do the same thing. The cameo itself might have been teased or promoted but it actually happening is an entirely different thing.
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Post by dablueboy on Jan 25, 2022 19:47:09 GMT -5
The only one that actually made me jump out of my seat was Nash returning as Diesel. I'll never understand why they gave him a new entrance theme, though. It was essentially a new mix of the ‘Diesel Power’ theme, same as the slower version he had briefly in 2003. What was more baffling was him using the NWO theme later that year for his feuds with Punk and Trips and his Rumble appearance the following year(?), when he could have kept that one or gone back to the Wolfpac theme
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Post by ChitownKnight on Jan 25, 2022 20:05:56 GMT -5
Funny thing about Edge’s 2020 return is that a decade earlier he also returned from injury unannounced and won but 2020 overshadowed it for obvious reason. Still, even though it was kind of obvious he’d return and win, I think his 2010 return was dope too
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