Bit late on this, but I thought the Rumble was a really solid event. I'll freely admit they worked me with Lesnar. For a while there, I honestly thought they were going to have him destroy the entire roster and kill the whole division in the process. I'm still not thrilled at some of the guys who were sacrificed in the first half of the Rumble - I might've liked it more if I wasn't utterly bored of the Final Boss Lesnar Destroys Everyone story, now in its sixth season with copy and paste scripts - but it did make it a "moment" when McIntyre literally booted him out of there. So credit to that for getting me invested in an odd meta way, but yeah, I'm tired of Brock and want him out of the title picture for the foreseeable future. I'm not counting on it, though surely Drew goes over at Wrestlemania.
As for other angles, Reigns vs Corbin needs to end. It's about as appetising as a can of dog food. The Rusev/Lana/Lashley angle ultimately went nowhere. Rusev got humiliated week after week, kind of got his own back at the wedding, and has lost every match he's had with Lashley. Miserable and depressing. They're doing a much better job with Otis/Mandy/Ziggler, though I'm sure that one's going to culminate on a miserable note as well. Balancing catharsis and pathos isn't WWE's strong suit these days. Liv Morgan's reboot amounts to going back to being blonde and not having a blue tongue. People wanted her to join up with Bray Wyatt and be Sister Abigail, which I don't think they needed to do, but they could've done something more interesting than this.
Charlotte challenging for the NXT title is something different, and promotes the idea that NXT is a third brand, not just developmental. I can see that one going both ways. Obviously Charlotte has been pegged to win a lot of titles and garner other accomplishments, so it wouldn't surprise me if she wins and makes history in the process. At the same time, they're clearly high on Rhea Ripley, and a win over Charlotte at Wrestlemania would be huge. I think Rhea should go over, but all things considered, my gut feeling is that Charlotte will.
There's talk of AJ Styles vs Undertaker at Wrestlemania. That could've been a great match, once. In his interview with Stone Cold, Taker mentioned wanting to have that good finale, that one last great match he feels good about leaving on. Aside from the money, that does explain why he's still wrestling when it's fair to say that it's time to hang up the boots. I get wanting to leave on a high note though, and if anyone can squeeze one last watchable match out of Taker, AJ would be one of the few. If it happens, I hope it's a solid match, and one that Taker feels comfortable with calling his last. Then he can finally go into the Hall of Fame next year. At least, that's what I'd prefer. Again, it's not something I'm counting on.
Can't imagine they're not going with Becky/Shayna at Wrestlemania. People were freaking out about her main roster debut, saying they were portraying her as a vampire. Jerry Lawler's line probably didn't help, but that was never my thought. I mean, it's an obvious thing to say when someone bites someone else's neck, but I think it was pretty clear the intention was to portray her as violent, dangerous, and unhinged, not an actual vampire (or even someone who just
thinks she's a vampire). The amount of blood was a bit over the top, but it was a memorable segment and made her look even more dangerous. Considering how we're often wringing our hands at PG content in WWE and want to see more of an edge to the programming, I think it's welcome.
Speaking of Edge, what a huge reaction at the Rumble! Awesome to see. Apparently he's got a Lesnar-like deal and will be wrestling here and there, with an eye to being around for a little while. Hopefully everything does go OK, but he looks to be in great shape and health, and it'll be enjoyable to see him end his career on his own terms.
Finally, if Asuka is going to be a singles competitor more than the tag titles are defended, put the belts back on The IIconics and give them a proper run. Apparently they're going to be repackaged, which seems like a dumb idea as their character work is great, and there are solid in the ring when they actually get a chance to work (again, their matches on the indies demonstrate this). It remains to be seen what happens there.
Oh, and I'm going to another Newy Pro show tonight. It's the finals of the Invictus tournament and the card is stacked with local talent, so it should be awesome.