5 Mistakes WWE made at the 2022 Royal Rumble

WWE is now officially on the Road To WrestleMania following The Royal Rumble and it is now clear that Ronda Rousey and Brock Lesnar will be part of main event matches in April.

Last night's show saw Bobby Lashley win the WWE Championship just months after dropping it to Big E in 2021.

That was the only title change of the night since Roman Reigns was able to keep hold of his title despite losing the match to Seth Rollins, whilst Becky Lynch defeated Doudrop. The only other match on the card saw Beth Phoenix and Edge emerge victorious against The Miz and Maryse in their mixed tag match encounter.

The men and women's Royal Rumble matches were littered with surprise entrants, WWE Hall of Famers and legends, but in the end, there were two winners who will now be looking to challenge the champions at WrestleMania.

Whilst the show came together quite well in the end, there were several mistakes that the company made, which will probably now be overlooked.

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#5. Why was there no kickoff show match on the card at The Royal Rumble?

The Royal Rumble has been an annual event for more than three decades. Over the past few years, the company has unveiled a kickoff show to all of its Premium Live Events.

Last night there was a shorter one-hour kick-off show when the usual two-hour show has become custom for WWE's "big four" events.

Not only that, but there was no match when the company clearly had several superstars who could have been added to the show if needed.

Finn Balor and Cesaro were obvious misses in the Men's Rumble. NXT Superstars have been wrestling dark matches on SmackDown and RAW for weeks, so they could have easily been added to the show as well.

Instead, Balor, Cesaro and many other names missed the opportunity to be part of the show and the WWE Universe was reduced to watching buildup packages for an hour instead of being treated to a live match.

#4. Why wasn't NXT represented in either of The Royal Rumble matches?

WWE pre-announced many of the entrants of the Royal Rumble matches, which left around 10 surprises for the WWE Universe on the night.

In the women's match, these surprises ended up being many more legends and Ronda Rousey who went on to win the match and book her place in the WrestleMania main event.

Drew McIntyre, Brock Lesnar, and Bad Bunny were some of the surprises in the men's match. This means the likes of Tommaso Ciampa, Pete Dunne, LA Knight, and several other NXT Superstars missed out again.

Raquel Gonzalez was expected to be part of the Women's Rumble but there wasn't a single current NXT star representing the brand as part of last night's show and it's unclear why that is.

WWE announced a number of women and men for the two matches ahead of the show. This only left a few places but it would have made more sense to promote NXT Superstars and build a future feud than rely on legends for one-off appearances.

#3. Why wasn't Sasha Banks' WWE return left until The Royal Rumble?

Sasha Banks was the number one entrant in the Women's Royal Rumble match, but ahead of the show, there was a belief that The Boss wouldn't return until March.

Banks suffered a foot injury late last year which many believed would sideline her for several weeks and ruin her chances of being part of the Women's Royal Rumble match.

This obviously wasn't the case, but The Boss would have been a legitimate surprise in the same way that Drew McIntyre was in the Men's Rumble, if the company had kept her return under wraps.

Of course, Banks made her return on SmackDown ahead of the show and it was clear that this was done because there were much bigger surprises in the match. Ronda Rousey made her return to the company just four months after giving birth to her daughter.

The Baddest Woman on the Planet was able to win the match and the chance to exact some revenge on Becky Lynch when she looks to wrestle The Man at WrestleMania in a few months' time.

#2. Where were The Usos and why were they not even in The Royal Rumble match?

The Women's Tag Team Champions were part of the Women's Royal Rumble match and the RAW Tag Team Champions were added to the men's so why were the SmackDown Tag Team Champions missing from the show?

It was announced ahead of the show that The Usos would be banned from ringside for the match between Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns that opened the show, but that doesn't mean that they had to miss the show completely.

The Usos could have been part of the kick-off show if the company had opted against putting them in the Rumble or even defended their Championships against two other stars who were not part of the main matches. Even when Roman Reigns came back out to cost Brock Lesnar his match against Bobby Lashley, The Usos were nowhere to be seen.

Considering both men have shown over the past year that they have the ability to become main event players, they probably deserved a place in The Royal Rumble much more than a team like Chad Gable and Otis.

#1. Melina is given mere minutes in The Women's Royal Rumble upon her return to WWE

The Royal Rumble is unforgivable and it appears that former Women's Champion Melina found that out the hard way last night.

She was the surprise number two entrant alongside Sasha Banks who opened the match. After a short back and forth between the two women, Melina was quickly eliminated.

The former Champion was dumped over the top rope and then appeared to fall off the apron which meant that she was out of the match.

Melina's return to WWE has been built up for a number of years after the former star was set to re-sign before she suffered an injury. So much more was expected of her than a back-and-forth that lasted less than a minute and an elimination that occurred before the third entrant even made their way out to the ring.

It's unclear what the future holds for Melina in WWE or if this was just a one-off return for the former champion, but it's clear that she deserved so much more than she was given by the company last night.