I always feel like the Rumble is the best night to listen to the crowd, because it is the one night of the year that almost the entire roster performs, so you can really gauge the popularity of performers versus one another well. There were 5 big pops that stood out to me:
1. Dean Ambrose after Reigns was eliminated. That was the first time in a couple years, on the main roster anyway, where a crowd has been 100% behind a person. They should have called an audible and just had Ambrose win the Rumble. He wouldn't have had to keep it until Mania. Hell, have Reigns pull HHH off the apron at the end there. Tells just as good a story, and gives you that huge crowd celebration moment, that they are nuts if they think they will get at Mania.
2. AJ Styles, good to see how well received he was. loved how he was eliminated as well. Welcome to the WWE indeed.
3. Damien Sandow, seriously, I hope he gets back on TV regularly after that.
4. Sasha Banks, Becky-Charlotte was really good, and was basically overshadowed by Sasha finally making her presence felt in the title picture.
5. Sami Zayn, didn't see that coming at all. He and Owens should feud forever.
I thought the Ambrose/Owens match was the highlight of the night, and probably the best last man standing match in about a decade. I wasn't expecting much, because Ambrose seems to lose about 100 IQ points in gimmick matches. Who can forget him losing a title match because of a ghost lantern or losing because a TV blew up in his face? Ambrose, when he's allowed to not be a jackass, is as good as anybody, and proved it last night as basically the MVP of the show.
The Usos need a heel turn more than anyone in a long time. They are mayo on white bread, and got about 1/10th the fan reaction as an inanimate object. Not a good sign for your #1 face tag team. Also, they might be the least athletic high flyers I've ever seen. Big E is a better high flyer than either of them. Speaking of Big E, while I love New Day, Big E should really be a way bigger deal than he is. How is it he isn't getting a Reigns-like push? He's bigger, stronger, more athletic and has 100X the personality. Throws a better spear too.
I tend to root for the heels over the faces, because I see no reason why not to. The faces usually act like spoiled teenagers, and the heels tend to act like adults that are doing their jobs. So, I really like when a story is told where I actually root for a face, which is what I want to be able to do. The fix is either for the faces to be noble, likable people(like Bayley) or for the heels to actually do awful things to give us a real reason to dislike them(like that time Paige made fun of Charlotte's dead brother) last night had both in the Charlotte-Becky match. Becky has been extremely level headed and isn't cheating, despite having every right to, and Charlotte and obviously Ric Flair, are unlikable jerks. The forced kiss spot was great, as was the jacket throwing. As much as I like Sasha, and want to see her at the top, I hope Becky isn't forgotten about going forward, because she's been a highlight of the show for about 2 months now.
Del Rio-Kalisto should have been better. I don't know if Del Rio just didn't care or Kalisto was just nervous or what, but what should have been a fast paced Lucha affair, ended up being a botch heavy, slow motion match. I hope they don't try to keep this feud going. What they should really do is use the US title as a substitute for the Cruiserweight title. Build the US title going forward around having fast pace matches, with smaller guys like Kalisto, Neville, Breeze, Zayn and Styles. Throw in some slightly bigger guys like Stardust and Ziggler, maybe have Balor there when he gets called up, or even Bryan if/when he comes back. A ton of fun ideas. Of course, that likely means Del Rio wins the title back on Raw, the groundhog doesn't see its shadow, and we have 6 more weeks of this feud.
As for the Rumble itself. I still think we haven't had a great rumble since 2010. Just way too much garbage going on. Way too much attention to Reigns(like I'd feared) we missed Kofi's big thing and Reigns looked like a loser having to go to the locker room for half the match just because he got kicked a few times and put through a table. Ambrose and Owens went through more and they weren't getting to sit out out half the rumble. I just don't get the Reigns thing, and likely never will. The majority of the above 10 years old crowd hates him, and was cheering HHH, who is supposed to be the baddest bad guy there, over him.
Also, why did they even bother having Lesnar in the Rumble. He did barely anything and got eliminated relatively easily. Also, they spent the last 2 weeks playing up the Reigns-Lesnar battle in the Rumble, and they weren't even in the ring together at any point. I want the Wyatt family to matter, but in a month they've gone from struggling to beat Tommy Dreamer to toppling Brock Lesnar. With the seeming likelyhood that Lesnar(and probably Taker) will just beat all 4 of them at Mania. Seems like a waste of Lesnar, Taker and Wyatt.
I'll end on a positive note(I liked the show overall, solid B+) R-Truth coming out to win Money in the Bank was awesome. That'll probably be the thing I remember most about the Rumble, because its exactly the type of thing I like seeing. If a character isn't a real threat to win, at least have them be memorable for something.
TNA now congratulating AJ Styles on WWE Debut. 
Good luck with turning around the business with that.....Going to be waiting awhile.
