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The Greatest Royal Rumble is finally behind us and phew, what a night it was. There were some truly great matches, for instance, the Ladder Match for the Intercontinental Championship and quite some surprise endings - like the Universal Championship match.
The event was filled with many noteworthy moments - Corey Greaves absolutely killed it on commentary with his frequent witty quips at Saxton and Cole; the incredible pyrotechnics for the wrestlers' entrances and many more.
At the same time there were some blink-and-miss moments that you might have missed. Here are five such subtle things you might not have caught during the Greatest Royal Rumble.
Honourable mention: Rhyno essentially eliminated himself from the Rumble match. Roderick Strong hesitated for a moment before giving Rhyno a weak push towards the ropes, so essentially Rhyno himself ran to the ropes and jumped off the top rope. Go back and watch!
#5 Michael Cole mentions the 'Sports Illustrated Cover jinx'
Longtime WWE Superstar Goldust came out to the Royal Rumble match at the #18 spot and managed to last quite a while. Cole mentioned the same and acknowledged that Goldust had been in the Rumble quite a while now and the very next second, Goldust got eliminated.
This caused Greaves to chide Cole for jinxing the Superstar, and Cole responded by mentioning the 'Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx'.
The SI Cover jinx is a long-standing myth that whoever appears on the cover will experience some sort of bad luck in their respective sports. While not too significant, it was nonetheless fun to hear Cole mention the urban legend!
#4 Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel get back their own entrance themes
Dallas and Axel were lost in the mix in the beginning of 2017. Dallas' Bo-lieve gimmick had slowly died away and Axel was part of a faction known as the Social Outcasts for some time. The duo got a fresh start when they joined The Miz as part of The Miztourage in July last year.
Both these wrestlers, as part of the Miztourage, always used The Miz's entrance theme even if their leader wasn't coming down with them to the ring. Surprisingly, even after Miz got drafted to SmackDown in the Superstar shakeup, the two used Miz's old entrance theme on Raw last week.
Hence, it was nice to hear both of them getting their old themes back at the Greatest Royal Rumble match which Dallas entered at #15 and Axel at #4.
#3 A Royal stare-off during Elias' entrance
Elias made his usual entrance down to the ring with a mic and guitar in hand and spewed out all his usual catchphrases. One thing is clear though, Jeddah clearly wanted to 'Walk with Elias'!
What you might have missed during Elias' entrance was a fight that almost broke out in the crowd as the Superstar neared the ring. There seems to have been some problem between the two men, as they both stood up, ready to go at each other, before deciding otherwise and sitting back down. Considering that only members and guests of the Royal families were seated in the special spots, the stare-off must have been a royal one!
#2 Slight miscommunication during the presentation
The Monster Among Men finally got the spotlight he truly deserved, when he won the biggest ever Royal Rumble match in history today at Jeddah. The prize was a gigantic trophy worthy of his size and a Title Belt in the country's Green colour.
Vince McMahon and another Saudi Arabian dignitary were present in the ring to crown Strowman the champion. At this point, there seems to have been a slight miscommunication of sorts, as the dignitary thought he would pick the giant trophy up and hand it over to Strowman. But Vince seemingly told him otherwise, probably due to the humongous size and weight of the trophy, scared that he would drop it on to the ground!
As a consolation of sorts, the dignitary ended up handing over the Title Belt to Strowman a few moments later.
#1 Chris Benoit isn't mentioned, unsurprisingly
Daniel Bryan and Dolph Ziggler were the first two entrants in the 50-man match and as they were entering, the commentary team were discussing how it would be almost impossible for the two competitors to go all the way in the match.
Michael Cole mentioned that there had only been four men in history who had won the Royal Rumble from the #1 and #2 spots - "among them Mysterio, Michaels and Vince McMahon...". If you are wondering why Cole failed to mention the fourth, it wasn't due to a slip of memory but because of the fact that the other person on that list is Chris Benoit.
After the controversial events surrounding Benoit's death in 2007, Vince McMahon stated that the WWE would not talk about Benoit going forward, and the company has stuck to its word 11 years on.
