WWE Royal Rumble 2018 Results: Biggest Missed Opportunities with Show's Booking

By and large, the 2018 Royal Rumble pay-per-view was a crowd-pleasing one in which fan-favorites won the two enormous Battle Royals and Ronda Rousey's debut served as a history-making capper.

For all it did correctly, from Asuka and Shinsuke Nakamura's monumental victories to AJ Styles' successful WWE Championship defense, there were still a few booking decisions that lacked sense or forethought.

What were they, and why do they represent missed opportunities on the part of the WWE Creative team?

Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin Fail to Win Gold

Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin spent the weeks ahead of the Royal Rumble building momentum for themselves as top contenders to the SmackDown Tag Team Championships. All of it was for naught Sunday night, as they were beaten, convincingly, in two straight falls during what was billed as a Best 2-out-of-3 Falls match.

Though Gable and Benjamin turned in the typically solid performance fans have come to expect out of the duo, they were never portrayed as a team with a shot at dethroning The Usos.

And therein lies the issue.

WWE Creative on SmackDown has done so much to present Jimmy and Jey as an elite tag team that no other tandem outside of New Day is credible enough to dethrone them.

Gable and Benjamin could have bucked that trend and become the breakout team of the division. Instead, they were dismissed in a match that did nothing to help elevate them whatsoever.

Kane in the Universal Championship Match

In hindsight, Kane served no purpose in the Universal Championship match other than to take the pinfall.

By eating an F-5 and taking the pin, Strowman's credibility was protected while Lesnar was able to score a quality pay-per-view victory. Of course, if WWE Creative wanted to protect Strowman, maybe it should not have booked him against Lesnar again.

Especially after he was beaten in under 10 minutes the last time they faced off.

The match was no better or worse with Kane involved than it would have been with just Strowman and Lesnar, nor did The Big Red Monster provide anything of substance to the bout. He was just a guy, in a mask, there to take the pinfall.

Everyone knew it, and it severely hurt the heat, or lack thereof, of the bout.

The Raw Tag Team Championship Match Placement

Like him or not, the Jason Jordan character has been one of the better elements of the Raw brand in recent months, thanks to a slow burn to a big heel turn. Sunday night, he got an ouchie on the head and essentially left partner Seth Rollins to defend the Raw Tag Team Championships all by himself, ultimately losing them to Sheamus and Cesaro.

The placement of the match was curious, to say the least.

Going on right after the Royal Rumble, it was greeted with apathy and silence by an exhausted crowd.

No one cared about any of it, no matter how hard the Superstars worked. By the time The Celtic Warrior and The Swiss Superman regained the titles, fans had returned from the restroom, had their popcorn in-hand and picked up a shirt from WWE Shop.

The layout of the show and the placement of this match, in particular, did the competitors involved a major disservice, to the point that Rollins nor Jordan appeared on Raw Monday night.

Ronda Rousey Eclipses Asuka's Moment

Asuka won the inaugural women's Royal Rumble match Sunday night, but her victory and celebration was eclipsed in short order by the arrival of Ronda Rousey moments later.

Rather than The Empress of Tomorrow standing tall to close out the program, she was shoved aside in favor of the mainstream media icon and UFC great.

Yes, WWE made the right decision from a strategic standpoint in that Rousey generated tremendous buzz for the event. At the same time, WWE's latest attempt at an attention grab overshadowed the entire historic Rumble match.

Kudos to Rousey for signing a full-time contract with the intentions of becoming a wrestler, but one cannot help but think Asuka should have been given at least a few minutes to savor the win and bask in the glory of such a moment.