The Taz Show Recap – Royal Rumble Analysis, Rousey Steals Asuka’s Spotlight, Devaluing NXT Champions, More!

Taz is joined on today’s show by his co-host, Seth.

He thought last night’s Royal Rumble was an “okay” show. At some points the show felt unbalanced and he had issues with the way the show was laid out. He didn’t like seeing the WWE Championship defended in the first match of the night, and he thought this threw off the layout of the show right from the start.

Taz also hated seeing the NXT Champions treated as less than the main roster performers during both Royal Rumble matches. He says that getting the “rub” doesn’t help them in this case; it actually hurts them. He says if Cien Almas and Ember Moon were booked to enter their respective Rumbles, they should have been booked to win.

Ronda Rousey’s appearance at the end of the show was a big surprise to him, but he thought this resulted in the show ending on an anticlimactic note. He thought this surprise appearance took away from Asuka’s win in the first ever Women’s Royal Rumble match, and if Rousey was going to appear here, she really should have gotten physical to put a stamp on her arrival.

A listener calls into the show and says that his favourite match of the night was the Women’s Royal Rumble match. On the other hand, his least favourite match of the night was the Universal Title match because he thinks it’s time for a Title change on RAW. Taz realizes that Lesnar has held the Title for nearly a year now, but he doesn’t have an issue with Lesnar holding it a little bit longer.

Lesnar is still an attraction, and he and Strowman really brought the physicality last night. There was one exchange when Strowman kneed Lesnar in the head, and Lesnar responded by punching Strowman right in the side of the head. Taz points out that this was a legitimate work/shoot moment, but he thought WWE showed the replay of it too much.

Taz thought it was great to see a lot of the former female talents return for the Rumble match, but at some points he thought it was too much. He also thought that Stephanie McMahon was miscast as a colour commentator, because quite frankly, she doesn’t know how to do that. Regardless, he thought these surprise returnees looked great, especially Molly Holly and Trish Stratus.

A listener calls into the show and points out that nothing at WrestleMania will be able to follow Nakamura/A.J. Styles, so this match should close the show. Taz admits that if Nakamura and Styles are given free reign to have a legitimate main event quality match, they’ll definitely tear the house down. Regardless, he thinks RAW takes priority over Smackdown, which means Lesnar will be main-eventing WrestleMania yet again.

Taz welcomes Mike Johnson from PWInsider to the show.

Johnson informs that he was live at the building for the Royal Rumble last night. He thought the crowd was fine for the most part, but there’s no doubt that they were more into the two Rumble matches than the other matches on the card. Johnson liked the end of the men’s Rumble match, but Taz says he doesn’t think John Cena should have been in the final four.

Johnson understands that some people may take issue with the fact that Ronda Rousey took Asuka’s moment away at the end of the show, but he points out that this was not that much different than when someone like The Rock came back for WrestleMania, taking the spot of a full-time talent who had been on the road busting their butts all year long.

Johnson informs that Rey Mysterio is not signed to a full-time WWE contract, and this was a one-off deal for him. Johnson points out that Mysterio got a great reaction from the Philadelphia crowd, and he suspects that WWE would be interested in having Mysterio return to the company moving forward.

A listener calls into the show and says that he had a huge issue with Rousey debuting with Roddy Piper’s colours and branding. Taz says he had no issue with Rousey using Piper’s colours because she certainly did this as a tribute to Piper, given that it’s well known that she’s been a big fan of Piper her entire life.

A final caller mentions that the Women’s Rumble looked somewhat disjointed from time to time. Taz agrees and says this is because there were a lot of returning women in this match who hadn’t wrestled in years. This led to some clunky moments, but for the most part the match was fine.

That sums up today’s episode of The Taz Show. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya tomorrow for another recap!