The Royal Rumble used to really mean something to me.  It was so exciting to see all of the wrestlers in the ring at the same time and wonder what Macho Man was going to do when he got his hands on Jake Roberts.  It was exciting to watch Ric Flair in for so long and listen to Bobby Heenan have a heart attack as Gorilla Monsoon quipped, "Kiss your meal ticket goodbye!".

Now, the Royal Rumble is 59 minutes of boring content that we've seen on Raw or SmackDown before and one minute of excitement when we can see who actually won.

What used to make the Royal Rumble more appealing to me is exactly what's wrong with today's product.  There used to be heel stables who would work with each other under the tutelage of managers like Bobby Heenan or Mr. Fuji.  If one of Bobby's family came out, he would immediately go help his stablemate and create an advantage for themselves.  They didn't randomly turn on each other unless it actually meant something.

I believe that since the angles these days have to move so fast because of the amount of pay-per-view events each year, all the storylines get dried up.  I remember the slow turn with the Rockers and wondering if they were going to work together or not.  Even back in the 90's there were enough legitimate tag teams that it was fun seeing the Hardys in the ring together and wondering who the "tougher" of the Hardys were.  With the tag division in disarray, that part is gone.

Although the WWE would never do it, the solution to the problem—if they are intent on keeping the Royal Rumble—is to eliminate other PPVs.  Allowing the feuds more time to build and actually planning them out many months in advance—and sticking to them—would make the PPVs seem like more than just a good edition of Raw.

This year we got Sheamus as the victor.  Ignoring my own feelings about Sheamus as a character, I don't really understand it.  Is he marketable to the masses?  Not really.  Is he great in the ring?  Not really.  Is he a tremendous worker on the mic?  Not really.  So why has the WWE decided to get behind the Great White?  Perhaps because they've run out of other options.  Now we can look forward to a Sheamus/Daniel Bryan main event at WrestleMania?  No thanks.