The Background
WWE's Greatest Royal Rumble is set for Friday, April 27 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and I'm admittedly pumped. I've always been a sucker for Royal Rumble matches, despite quality, and WWE is stacking the deck for their first go in Saudi Arabia.
While Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has invested a huge amount of money into Vision 2030 -- a sports initiative, I was disappointed to learn that women wouldn't be featured on the program. It was only last October that the General Sports Authority announced that women could attend select stadiums.
Perhaps there was some hope. There was an all-female cycling event, and women will finally be able to drive in Saudi Arabia. The latter of which looks to help the country's economic growth.
WWE have went all-in on this show. A 50-man Royal Rumble Match. Chris Jericho. The Undertaker. Triple H vs. John Cena. Seven Championship matches. On paper, it's huge. Also a huge in-ring sausagefest that will likely result in the rare all-male conga line when No Way Jose makes his appearance. I'll watch the show, and based on what is advertised, I'll make an estimate that I'll also enjoy it.
This leaves the rest of the WWE roster with an open weekend. The aforementioned deck stacking has eliminated the possibility of running additional events that weekend -- or has it? I don't think so. As an answer to the exclusions of Saudi Arabia, WWE should run an all-female show that weekend. Live event, televised, special event, whatever. The opportunity, albeit a somewhat negative one
The Idea
Mother Goose Stephanie loves to trot to the ring and announce historic "firsts," so why not another one? Smackdown was originally pitched as an all-women's show, the Mae Young Classic met success, so it seems a great counter to offer up the women an opportunity that a foreign nation won't provide them.
I'm in before I get "LOL y RU so Political CORRECT u snowtard cuckyflake," because I think valuable members of the roster should be presented this opportunity. I know it's coming, I don't care. You're either on the right side of history or you're not. I rarely get political in my stories, instead opting to go the "common human decency" route. It seems pretty simple.
If you want to run Full Sail, that would be neat. Given the short notice, perhaps that would be possible. If not, the answer could come weeks or months after The Greatest Royal Rumble, running a normal venue if it permits.
The roster is there. You also have a bona-fide attraction in Ronda Rousey you can throw in there, too. Let's take a look:
The Card
Bayley vs. Sasha Banks- A natural, this should have been given a stage at WrestleMania. Instead, the feud continued in their
Charlotte vs. Becky Lynch: Best friends and they've worked together a ton in the past. On a show like this, the two could do something special.
Riott Squad vs. Absolution: I mean, you kind of have to. Creative was so lazy that they brought up carbon copies of one another without any explanation, so there should be some sort of finality to the situation before they're split up.
Asuka vs. Nia Jax (Championship Match): Since Asuka's streak is no longer a hurdle, a women's championship match against another Raw women's headliner could help add to the gravity of the card.
Bella Twins vs. IIconics: This is a natural matchup, and the two will draw comparisons to one another throughout their careers.
Shayna Baszler vs. Carmella (Non-title Champion vs. Champion): This would be a really great opportunity to elevate the profile of the NXT title. Carmella losing to a Shayna Baszler doesn't hurt at all. Despite being a heel, Baszler's no-nonsense style is a great contrast of what Carmella brings.
Nikki Cross vs. Ruby Riott (No DQ)- I didn't get enough of these two in NXT against one another, and this would be categorically different than everything else on the show.
Candice LeRae, Kairi Sane, Ember Moon, Naomi & Dakota Kai vs. Alexa Bliss, Mickie James, Bianca Belair, Zelina & Natalya (Elimination Match) - With a lack of specialty matches on the event, this would add something different, faster paced and provide a nice blend of NXT and Smackdown and Raw talent. The survivors would have bragging rights, especially if some were NXT talent who beat main roster competitors. The same could be said the other way around, as it could be a point of embarrassment for a Raw star to be pinned by a "rookie," and used in storyline. It would be great to have someone like Andrade Cien Almas seconding Zelina for a change.
The Sell
Eight matches that couldn't do any harm to current storylines, and only help advance characters. Some high-level wrestling, some returning legends, some different kinds of action. If you wanted to trot out someone to eat a flying armbar from Ronda Rousey in a few seconds, all the better. The talent pool is too deep to not take advantage of an overwhelming negative and make the best of it. It's probably not going to happen at the end of the month, but that doesn't mean a "make good" shouldn't be attempted.
WWE can't change a country's policies, but they can opt not to go there. That type of political stance seems to have been thrown by the wayside in the name of dollars -- a whole lot of them by the looks of it. They're a business and ultimately deals that seem too good to pass up will help them. I get that. Perhaps the allure of running a niche event like this can also move from being a niche to being an opportunity also too good to pass up.
In the future, I would expect events like this to be commonplace. There's a market for them, there's an audience for them, and the in-ring isn't taking a hit as a result like it would have back when WWE had different goals in mind for their women wrestlers.
