Comparing WWE’s WrestleMania 34 & The Greatest Royal Rumble

Storylines

The big match that improved by leagues storywise from WrestleMania 34 was AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura. Nakamura’s heel turn in the moments after his loss to AJ Styles in New Orleans gave this feud new life and a new direction that was capitalized on at GRR. At the start of this feud, through the WrestleMania match there was a lackluster face vs. face build, which I brushed off, expecting that the match would make up for it. To me, it very much didn’t. A rather disappointing result from an overhyped matchup was only saved by the low blow spot after the WrestleMania match. At GRR, although the match ended in count-out, there was more of a story to invest in, making this iteration better for me than their WrestleMania bout.

Final Thoughts

Overall, GRR was able to deliver a star-studded card with decent end results. Although we may have not seen the last of Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar (groan), we did see some storyline progression in Styles vs. Nakamura, an exciting title grab for Bray Wyatt and Matt Hardy, an intense Intercontinental Championship ladder match, the Cruiserweight Championship being defended on the main card and Braun Strowman gaining another accolade.

The biggest downside to the entire event was the absence of women competitors, who I’m sure could have torn it up under those big lights. That is an issue I won’t get into, but it’s certainly unfortunate how WWE overlooked Saudi Arabia’s gender inequality and bans on women competing in order to have this show.

Overall though, WWE executed a blockbuster event with big names, big moments (some unintentional), big matchups and a 50-man Royal Rumble in less time than WrestleMania’s entire show. That is an achievement, and I can say for the most part that I enjoyed GRR even more than WrestleMania 34 this year.