The differences between Charlotte Flair’s and Drew McIntyre’s Royal Rumble victories

While both Royal Rumble winners were predictable, one victory merely reaffirmed a star’s dominance, while the other victory created a new star altogether.

Sunday night at the 2020 Royal Rumble, the two Royal Rumble matches each had a predictable winner. Charlotte Flair seemed to be the consensus prediction for winning the Women’s Royal Rumble before the match began, and while McIntyre might’ve been behind Roman Reigns in terms of predicted winners, he seemed a likely option to emerge victorious. I’d also argue that both winners were the correct choices, provided that WWE didn’t have any plans for Shayna Baszler or Bianca Belair to be in a main roster title match at Wrestlemania.

However, despite the predictability of both their victories, and the fact that they feel like the correct choices to win, I’m left with wildly different feelings about each win.

Charlotte Flair is a talented wrestler who deserves to be a featured member of the women’s division, and I’m sure that the likely Charlotte vs. Becky Lynch Part 153 we’ll get at Wrestlemania will be a good match. However, given Charlotte’s constant presence in the very top of whatever women’s division she’s a part of, it’s hard for myself or many others to feel much excitement for anything Charlotte would do.

While Lynch vs. Charlotte is the biggest possible women’s match if Ronda Rousey isn’t in play, a Royal Rumble win didn’t feel necessary to achieve that, and won’t really elevate Charlotte further than she already is. Overall, while Charlotte isn’t a bad choice to have a featured Mania match, it feels like whoever Bayley’s challenger is would have benefited significantly more from winning.

With Drew McIntyre, on the other hand, his victory feels like a real momentum-shifter. This victory solidifies the momentum that he’s gained from turning face, and combined with him eliminating Brock Lesnar, has made him one of the most important wrestlers in the company overnight. In stark contrast to the predictability of a Lynch/Flair match we’ve seen a hundred times already, or to use a men’s example, running back Roman Reigns/Bray Wyatt or Reigns/Lesnar, a Lesnar/McIntyre match is a fresh pairing that promises to deliver something memorable. And while he’s certainly been pushed hard since his main roster debut a couple years ago, this win did feel like a necessary step in establishing McIntyre as a legitimate world title contender, especially if that world title is held by Brock Lesnar.

Now surely, not all of this separation in terms of how we view each win can be placed on the choice of winners themselves. While the Women’s Royal Rumble started strong, it fell apart in the latter half, and any momentum remaining was eliminated by the return of “Santina Marella,” which was a tone-deaf inclusion to the match, to say the least. Meanwhile, the Men’s Royal Rumble not only started strong with Lesnar’s dominance, but kept the momentum going with an excellent second-half featuring McIntyre eliminating Lesnar, the return of Edge from what was a career-ending neck injury after almost nine years, and a giant brawl between Seth Rollins and his goons vs. Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe and Aleister Black.

But while it’s fair to say that the quality of their respective matches might’ve impacted how I feel about each winner, I still believe that Flair and McIntyre are of drastically different quality as Rumble winners because of how much the Rumble win means for them. For the former, it’s another check on an overstuffed resume that didn’t need another addition, while for the latter, it’s a crucial boost to momentum for the man seemingly set to challenge Brock Lesnar.