WWE Fans Are Big Mad That One Favorite Wasn’t In The Royal Rumble

This isn’t 1995 where WWE is desperate to find warm bodies to fill spots in the men’s Royal Rumble. There are now way more than thirty regularly featured male characters on the roster. Even performers who are popular with the crowd aren’t guaranteed to get in. This year we missed out on a dozen or more guys who are over with the crowd, but one omission has proven particularly confusing for fans.

No, I’m not talking about Finn Bálor. Not having the future Hall of Famer in the Rumble is definitely a WTF, but WWE addressed that in recent episodes of television. He also addressed that on social media. WWE is clearly going to incorporate him not being in the Rumble into a plotline to build his character. I’m not saying that’s the right choice, but clearly, he wasn’t there in service of trying to tell a story. No, instead, I’m talking about someone whose absence was just a straight up creative choice: Kit Wilson.

When Elton Prince of Pretty Deadly went down with a serious injury, it seemed like his tag team partner Kit Wilson’s time on the main roster was probably coming to an end. Triple H and company featured him now and again as enhancement talent to put over other people, but none of it was going particularly well… until he got a banger of a new theme song and slightly altered his vibe. The new gimmick, which once again features a banger of a theme song, sees him shout “you’re toxic” at wrestlers he feels represent toxic masculinity, which includes everyone.

His recent segment on SmackDown where he walked out to entrance music, beat up Matt Cardona and then turned on his entrance music again was one of the most well-received midcard segments in the last several years. Fans could not get enough and started fantasy casting him in the Rumble. Perhaps he would strut his way to the ring and get eliminated in horrendous fashion by a monster like Brock Lesnar or Oba Femi (who should have won the whole thing) after calling them toxic? Maybe he’d slide in the ring, cheap shop someone, slide back out and turn on his music each time he did it? There seemed to be so many possibilities. And in the end, we got none of them.

Fans took to social media and were big mad about the glaring omission. Here’s an example tweet that has more than three thousand likes…

I get why Wilson wasn’t in the Rumble. No one would ever think he has a chance of winning, and there are more serious performers the writers are trying to push harder. That being said, his omission is also a pretty perfect representation of a recurring problem in the Triple H era. When wrestling is hot, the midcard is always hot too, usually with performers with goofy gimmicks that fans get behind.

Think the Miz and Damien Mizdow’s stunt double gimmick. Triple H has been able to develop that a little bit with performers like Chelsea Green and that plotline with R-Truth trying to join Judgment Day, but it hasn't been there consistently. It also hasn't always been taken advantage of as in the case of Chad Gable and Otis. The whole point of wrestling is to develop performers and angles fans want to see, and if you can get that out of your lower card guys, that's a huge bonus.

We got a moment between El Grande Americano and El Grande Americano during the Rumble. That's clearly a midcard feud WWE is going to try and develop. They clearly missed another chance with Kit Wilson. He's probably never going to be world champion, but this was a great opportunity to give him a big moment and see if he could get himself a little more over. Instead, we got some other characters like Rusev, Réy Fenix and Dragon Lee who, yes, have higher long-term upside but are not particularly over with the crowd right now.

I still believe in Kit Wilson. I think WWE is going to keep pushing him, but like many other fans, I was disappointed not to see him in the Rumble.