I think I would rather have the AEW wrestlers wait for a guy to jump on them than have a battle royale.
The thing about this is that it feels as if all the sequences are nothing more than sequences without the right pacing and the proper drama. Maybe it's just me but John Silver randomly posing is just dumb. He didn't do anything and a mere seconds ago, Lance Archer is still on his feet and before posing, he just saw RUSH moving towards him.
And then RUSH just sat on the corner after eliminating Silver. While it's logical for a person to just rest and let the others duke it out, it just feels wrong to see a virtual cruiserweight standing head-to-toe with an AEW giant as three men just rest in the corners.
Prior to that, why the hell would Matt Hardy and the Private Party hug it out in the middle of the ring? Unlike the Silver move, the competitors at this point are more than double.
And Butcher just tossed Evil Uno with a clothesline. I don't know if he has the JBL moveset but it would have been cooler if the clothesline is devastating. It feels like a normal Irish whip en route to the move.
Again, not trying to be critical but it feels as if the drama is lacking here.
Hangman Page versus RUSH is the best part of this match - as it should. But man, they could have just had qualifying matches than this. Can you imagine Hangman botching this or RUSH or Jay Lethal to all of a sudden set up one of the Private Party folks or one of The Butcher and The Blade players accidentally winning the match?
WWE has flaws but in most Royal Rumble matches, their biggest mistakes are basically putting the wrong men over. Execution-wise, they are most definitely better - especially when the underdogs and first-time main eventers pull an upset over their big names.
Maybe RUSH is still green for everyone's liking but again, this is why it's better to have subpar weekly episodics than subpar PPV or premium live events. AEW's storylines are too fast-paced that while this sets up Hangman versus Jon Moxley, that match has zero build-ups. Hangman is one of the unscathed players in the All Out Media Scrum melee while Moxley is the one who has been rallying the troops.
This is a storyline that they can build up.
But while yeah, it's logical for Hangman to win a battle royal for a championship shot, they could have done this at a later date.
With that said, if they are going to feature Hangman like this, then they need to fine-tune the way their matches are structured.