WWE’s latest Premium Live Event has received rave reviews from fans, and was said to be much easier without Vince McMahon backstage.
Last Saturday’s WWE Royal Rumble 2023 saw Cody Rhodes and Rhea Ripley punch their tickets to WrestleMania 39, winning the Men’s and Women’s Rumble matches.
In the main event, Roman Reigns retained his Undisputed WWE Universal Championship over Kevin Owens.
The post-match segment that resulted in Sami Zayn (and Jey Uso) exiting the Bloodline has been praised as one of WWE’s best stories in years.
Without McMahon
Last Saturday’s Premium Live Event was the first PLE since the return of Vince McMahon, who didn’t attend the show himself, Fightful Select reports.
One talent who spoke to Fightful said that this year’s Rumble was the easiest the annual event has been “in a long time” and cited the lack of McMahon as the reason.
That same Superstar said that you can’t really count 2021 towards that because of COVID, but that this year was a dream compared to last year’s nightmare.
Another source added that while people are not ‘afraid’ to bring up Vince’s name, generally most haven’t really asked much since Triple H, Nick Khan and Kevin Dunn held meetings.
Those meetings last month assured talent that despite McMahon’s return as Executive Chairman, he will not have influence over Creative or Talent Relations.
The only complaints that Fightful heard were about the Hardy performance cutting into the time of others, and some minor transitional things that they believe the current regime will get used to.
Looking Ahead
With the WWE Royal Rumble 2023 being a huge success to fans and those in the company, the promotion looks to keep that momentum going.
WWE’s next PLE will be the Elimination Chamber event on Saturday, February 18, which will be WWE’s first major event in Montreal in over 13 years.
A U.S. title Chamber match, as well as a Chamber match to determine Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair’s WrestleMania opponent have already been announced.
It is reported that the main event will see hometown hero Sami Zayn challenge Roman Reigns for his title.